Premium
Empathy's Relation to Appraisal of the Emotional Child Witness
Author(s) -
BederianGardner Daniel,
Goldfarb Deborah,
Goodman Gail S.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.3345
Subject(s) - psychology , empathy , witness , relation (database) , social psychology , cognitive appraisal , developmental psychology , cognition , psychiatry , computer science , programming language , database
Summary When observing others, we often try to determine how they ‘really feel’ deep down inside (emotional feeling) regardless of their outward expression (emotional appearance). We examined whether child victim empathy predicts appraisal of a child sexual assault victim's emotional feelings and, in turn, child and defendant believability and verdict decisions. Undergraduates ( N = 50) rated photographs of 5‐ and 13‐year‐olds' degree of sadness. Then, a new group of undergraduates ( N = 354), randomly assigned within a 2 (victim age) × 2 (victim gender) × 3 (victim sadness: low, medium, and high/teary) factorial design, read trial scenarios accompanied by one of the photographs. Participants rated the victim's emotional feeling and emotional appearance, victim and defendant believability, defendant guilt, and confidence in their verdict. A structural equation model that included a relation between empathy and emotion appraisal fit the data well: Empathy predicted appraisal of the victim's feelings, which, in turn, predicted perceived believability. Implications are discussed.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.