Empathy or Counter-Empathy? The Victims' Empathic Response Toward Offenders Depends on Their Relationships and Transgression Severity

• Published in: Psychology research and behavior management Vol. 16; pp. 1355 - 1363
• Main Authors: Yu, Meiqi, Li, Xu, Lu, Jiamei, Wang, Shuyin, Zhang, Lihui, Ge, Qiong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Zealand Dove Medical Press Limited 01-01-2023; Dove; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: counter-empathy; empathy; Interpersonal relations; interpersonal relationship; Original Research; Social aspects; transgression severity; empathy; counter-empathy; transgression severity; interpersonal relationship
• ISSN: 1179-1578; 1179-1578
• DOI: 10.2147/PRBM.S407271

Empathy facilitates prosocial behaviors, whereas counter-empathy harms others. The question that remains unanswered is: when and for whom do people show different empathic responses? This study aimed to explore the effects of transgression severity and interpersonal relationships on victims' empathy or counter-empathy toward an offender.
Before and after experiencing a slight or serious transgression, 42 college students were asked to imagine that they had different relationships (ie, intimate, strange, or bad) with a person and then report their empathy or counter-empathy toward that person from cognitive and affective aspects.
The results showed that, in the affective aspect, the participants' empathy for the intimate friend decreased after a slight transgression and even disappeared after a serious transgression. For strangers, empathy transformed into counter-empathy after the transgression, and its intensity increased with the transgression's severity. For a person in a bad relationship, the participants felt counter-empathy before the transgression, and its intensity increased with the transgression's severity. In the cognitive aspect, participants' counter-empathy toward the stranger and the person in a bad relationship increased with transgression severity.
These results suggest that interpersonal relationships and transgression severity can change the type and degree of a victim's empathy toward the offender. Our findings not only deepen our understanding of the cognitive aspect of counter-empathy but also provide insights for handling interpersonal conflict.