Communication Research

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for free access to the SAGE eReference platform!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lindsey, L. L. M.
Right arrow Articles by Hill, J. B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Communication Research, Vol. 34, No. 4, 468-480 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0093650207302789

Anticipated Guilt as Motivation to Help Unknown Others

An Examination of Empathy as a Moderator

Lisa L. Massi Lindsey

Michigan State University

Kimo Ah Yun

California State University, Sacramento

Jennifer B. Hill

California State University, Sacramento

Previous research finds that messages that induce substantial perceptions of (a) an unknown-other directed threat, (b) response-efficacy, and (c) self-efficacy result in feelings of anticipated guilt that subsequently motivate behavioral intent, and ultimately, behaviors to avert the threat to unknown others. It is not clear, however, if certain individual differences make people more or less likely to experience anticipatory guilt. To this end, this study asks whether empathic concern and perspective taking moderates the relationship between exposure to such a message and anticipated guilt. This question is tested by focusing on the topic of bone marrow donation. Participants are assigned randomly to 1 of 3 message conditions and complete a questionnaire designed to assess perspective taking, empathic concern, and anticipated guilt. The data indicate that the message has a substantial direct effect on guilt anticipation, and neither a direct effect for the empathy dimensions nor an interaction effect between empathy and anticipated guilt are present.

Key Words: empathy • guilt • perspective taking • empathic concern • persuasion

References

  • Anderson, J.C., Gerbing, D.W., & Hunter, J.E. (1987). On the assessment of unidimensional measurement: Internal and external consistency, and overall consistency criteria. Journal of Marketing Research, 24, 432-437.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Bakker, A.B., Buunk, B.P., & Manstead, A.S.R. (1997). The moderating role of self-efficacy beliefs in the relationship between anticipated regret and condom use. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27, 2001-2014.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Baron, R.M., & Kenny, D.A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Batson, C.D., O'Quin, K., Fultz, J., & Vanderplas, M., & Isen, A. (1983). Influence of self-reported distress and empathy on egoistic versus altruistic motivation to help. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 706-718.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Batson, C.D., & Shannon, E. (1997). Perspective taking: Imagining how another feels versus imagining how you would feel. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 751-758.[Abstract]
  • Baumann, D.J., Cialdini, R.B., & Kendrick, D.T. (1981). Altruism as hedonism: Helping and self-gratification as equivalent responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 1039-1046.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Baumeister, R.F., Stillwell, A.M., & Heatherton, T.F. (1994). Guilt: An interpersonal approach. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 243-267.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Birkimer, J.C., Johnston, P.L., & Berry, M.M. (1993). Guilt and help from friends: Variables related to healthy behavior. Journal of Social Psychology, 133, 683-692.[ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Boster, F.J., Mitchell, M.M., Lapinski, M.K., Cooper, H., Orrego, V.O., & Reinke, R. (1999). The impact of guilt and type of compliance-gaining message on compliance. Communication Monographs, 66, 167-177.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Bradac, J.J. (1986). Threats to generalization in the use of elicited, purloined, and contrived messages in human communication research. Communication Quarterly, 34, 55-65.
  • Carlsmith, J.M., & Gross, A. (1969). Some effects of guilt on compliance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 232-239.
  • Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Coke, J.S., Batson, C.D., & McDavis, K., (1978). Empathic mediation of helping: A two-stage model. The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 752-766.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Cunningham, M.R., Steinberg, J., & Grev, R. (1980). Wanting to and having to help: Motivations for positive mood and guilt-induced helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 181-192.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Davis, M.H. (1980). A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. JSAS: Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85.
  • Davis, M.H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 113-126.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Deutsch, F., & Madle, R.A. (1975). Empathy: Historic and current conceptualizations, measurement, and a cognitive theoretical perspective. Human Development, 18, 267-287.[ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Eisenberg, N. (1982). The development of reasoning about prosocial behavior. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), The development of prosocial behavior (pp. 219-249). New York: Academic Press.
  • Freedman, J.L., Wallington, S.A., & Bless, E. (1967). Compliance without pressure: The effect of guilt. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 7, 117-124.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Gladstein, G.A. (1983). Understanding empathy: Integrating counseling, developmental, and social psychology perspectives. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 30, 467-482.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Harris, N. (2003). Reassessing the dimensionality of the moral emotions. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 457-474.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Hoffman, M.L. (1982). Development of prosocial motivation: Empathy and guilt. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), The development of prosocial behavior (pp. 281-313). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
  • Hunter, J.E., & Gerbing, D.W. (1982). Unidimensional measurement, second order factor analysis, and causal models. Research in Organizational Behavior, 4, 267-320.
  • Ishikawa, T. (2001). Empathy and role-taking ability: Guilt feelings in 5-yr-old preschoolers. Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, 49, 60-68.[ISI]
  • Ishikawa, T. (2002). The relations of empathy and role-taking ability to guilt feelings in adolescence. Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13, 12-19.
  • Jones, W.H., Schratter, A.K., & Kugler, K. (2000). The guilt inventory. Psychological Reports, 87, 1039-1042.[ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Konecni, V.J. (1972). Some effects of guilt on compliance: A field replication. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 23, 30-32.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Kugler, K., & Jones, W.H. (1992). On conceptualizing and assessing guilt. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 318-327.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Lazarus, R.S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Lechner, L., de Vries, H., & Offermans, N. (1997). Participation in a breast cancer screening program: Influence of past behavior and determinants on future screening participation. Preventative Medicine, 26, 473-482.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Leith, K.P., & Baumeister, R.F. (1998). Empathy, shame, guilt, and narratives of interpersonal conflicts: Guilt-prone people are better at perspective taking. Journal of Personality, 66, 1-37.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Levine, T.R. (2005). Confirmatory factor analysis and scale validation in communication research. Communication Research Reports, 22, 335-338.[CrossRef]
  • Lindsey, L.L.M. (2005). Anticipated guilt as behavioral motivation: An examination of appeals to help unknown others through bone marrow donation. Human Communication Research, 31, 453-481.[ISI]
  • O'Keefe, D.J. (2000). Guilt and social influence. In M. E. Roloff (Ed.), Communication yearbook 23 (pp. 67-101). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • O'Keefe, D.J. (2002). Guilt as a mechanism of persuasion. In J. P. Dillard & M. Pfau (Eds.), The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice (pp. 329-344). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Oswald, P.A. (1996). The effects of cognitive and affective perspective taking on empathetic concern and altruistic helping. The Journal of Social Psychology, 136, 613-623.[ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Richard, R., van der Pligt, J., & de Vries, N. (1996a). Anticipated affect and behavioral choice. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 18, 111-129.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Richard, R., van der Pligt, J., & de Vries, N. (1996b). Anticipated regret and time perspective: Changing sexual risk-taking behavior. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 9, 185-199.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Roseman, I.J., Wiest, C., & Swartz, T.S. (1994). Phenomenology, behaviors, and goals differentiate discrete emotions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 206-221.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Stiff, J.B., Dillard, J.P., Somera, L., Kim, H., & Sleight, C. (1988). Empathy, communication and prosocial behavior. Communication Monographs, 55, 198-213.[ISI]
  • Tamborini, R., Salomonson, K., & Bahk, C. (1993). The relationship of empathy to comforting behavior following film exposure. Communication Research, 20, 723-738.[Abstract]
  • Tangney, J.P. (1991). Moral affect: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 598-607.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Tangney, J.P., Miller, R.S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D.H. (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1256-1269.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Weiner, B., Graham, S., & Chandler, C. (1982). Pity, anger, and guilt: An attributional analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 8, 226-232.[Abstract]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?



This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lindsey, L. L. M.
Right arrow Articles by Hill, J. B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?