Date created: | Last Updated:

Category: Project

Description: We have conducted two studies (not preregistered) exploring the relationship between episodic simulation, emotional empathy, and helping. In study 1, we investigated the effect of an episodic simulation induction on emotional empathy and willingness to help. Participants were asked to simulate a hypothetical others' distressing circumstances (or randomized to a math control condition). In Study two, we compared the effects of two episodic simulation inductions to one another - comparing episodic simulation of another's distressing circumstances to simulation of an interaction in which the participant provided help to someone in distress. In this study, we will compare all three conditions, replacing the math control condition with a control in which participants proceed directly from reading the vignette to the empathy ratings. We will increase statistical power, anticipating smaller effects, and try to replicate the patterns observed in the prior two studies within one sample.