As a typical social pain, empathic embarrassment can promote positive social interaction among people and has a major impact on individuals’ physical and mental health. With further research, psychologists are paying attention to the study of empathic embarrassment (vicarious embarrassment). But they have not clarify its mental mechanism. The present study suppose that empathic response serve to mediate the association between perspective taking and empathic embarrassment, and the mediating effect of empathic response is moderated by embarrassing situation.
Four specific embarrassing situations were used to represent the four typical models of embarrassment, which included the self-esteem model, the transgression of others’ expectations model, the dramaturgic model and the unwanted exposure mode. The four embarrassing situations were presented by recording along with noises to induce participants’ perspective taking, empathic response and empathic embarrassment. Every embarrassing situation was recorded into a male version and a female version, and male participants listened to male version of recordings, while female participants listened to female version. This study also used four questionnaires, which consisted of Interpersonal Reaction Index Scale (IRI), Empathic Response Scale, Perspective Taking Checklist, and Emotion Adjective Embarrassment Scale. Participant form the perspective taking (PT) group and the non-perspective taking (non-PT) group should finish the IRI sale before listening to the recordings to ensure their ability of empathy at the corporate level. The procedure of the Experiment were as follows: Before participants finished listening to one recording, they were informed the instruction of PT or non-PT (41 participants were given the instruction of non-PT, and other 117 participants PT, the way by which the instruction of PT was examined that whether it really induced PT or not), and then written other three questionnaires in turn. There is 15s interval between two trials. Data were analyzed by variance analysis, correlation analysis，and mediating effects regression analysis.
The results indicated that (1) there weren’t significant differences on the ability to empathize to others between PT group and non-PT group, and main effects of PT, empathic response and empathic embarrassment among four models of embarrassment were significant; (2) there were significant and positive correlations among perspective taking and empathic response, empathic embarrassment in four models of embarrassment. Regression analysis showed: in four models of embarrassment and in presumptive models, the regression coefficient of the dependent variable(empathic embarrassment) on the independent variable(perspective taking) (the self-esteem model:β=0.24, t=2.38, p<0.05; the dramaturgic model: β=0.27, t=2.97, p<0.01; the transgression of others’ expectations model: β=0.25, t=2.75, p<0.01; the unwanted exposure model: β=0.38, t=24.44, p<0.01), the supposed mediator on the independent variable(M1: β=0.22, t=2.14, p<0.05; M2:β=0.19, t=2.04, p<0.05; M3:β=0.30, t=3.37, p<0.001; M4: β=0.46, t=5.54, p<0.001), and the dependent variable on the supposed mediator(M1:β=0.32, t=3.27, p<0.01; M2:β=0.29, t=3.26, p<0.001; M3:β=0.50, t=6.11, p<0.001; M4: β=0.29, t=3.07, p<0.01) were all significant. Meanwhile, when the mediator(empathic response) went into the regression equation, the regression coefficient of the dependent variable on the independent variable were still significant in both the dramaturgic model(β=0.21, t=2.43, p<0.05) and the unwanted exposure model(β=0.25, t=2.68, p<0.01), but not in both the self-esteem model(β=0.17, t=1.77, p>0.05) and the transgression of others’ expectations model(β=0.10, t=1.18, p>0.05). So the mediating effect was significant; and empathic response mediate partially in both the dramaturgic model(mediator effect=0.06, the 20% of total effect) and the unwanted exposure model(mediator effect=0.13, the 35% of total effect), and mediate fully in both the self-esteem model(mediator effect=0.07, the 29% of total effect) and the transgression of others’ expectations model(mediator effect=0.15, the 60% of total effect) the relationship between PT and empathic embarrassment. (3) Mediating effect of empathic response was moderated by embarrassing situation.
These findings above confirm the hypothesis of this study and suggests that when individuals in different embarrassing situation, the strategies used to enhance the ability to perceive the feelings of embarrassment of others who are in embarrassing situation is different. In the situation of negative valuation being emphasized (M1 and M3), empathic response and exception of perspective taking must be enhanced in order to enhance the level of empathic embarrassment. However, in the accidental situation (M2 and M4), the greater perspective taking can improve individual’s ability to feel other people’s feelings directly or through empathic response, when others people are in embarrassment without empathic response.
Key words
perspective taking, empathic embarrassment, empathic response, embarrassment type
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