Comprehension and behavior enhanced by empathic text in the perspective of the dual-process theory

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26590144
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Educational psychology
• Research Institution: Shinshu University
• Principal Investigator: SHIMADA Hideaki 信州大学, 学術研究院教育学系, 准教授 (20467195)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 二重過程理論 / 並行的共感 / 応答的共感 / 説明文 / 文章 / 理解

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study developed an experimental paradigm in which empathic text affected comprehension, commitment, and other aspects. Participants answered some questions after reading text which explained how to write an educational practice report with or without some empathic episodes and illustrations related to the text. As a result, it showed that the empathic text enhanced both the participants’ parallel and reactive empathy to the text author but decreased their comprehension test scores and subjective comprehension. Structural equation modeling revealed that both parallel and reactive empathy enhanced by the empathic text increased subjective comprehension, and that reactive empathy and subjective comprehension led to higher commitment to the advice. In addition, we carried out basic studies on the dual-process theory on empathy.

Free Research Field

認知心理学、教育心理学、教育工学