Empathy Avoidance:Phenomenon,Mechanisms And Influencing Factors

Previous research on empathy has focused on individual differences in empathy,its cognitive neural basis,influencing factors,and effects on pro-social behavior.In recent years,clinical psychologists’ research on empathy has gradually transformed empathy from an outcome variable(e.g.,viewing empathy as a mediating mechanism of prosocial behavior)to a process variable(e.g.,empathic accuracy,avoidance of empathy,etc.).The familiar term empathy has been studied by scholars in different fields from various perspectives,including neurophysiology,sociology,and psychology.Although empathy can help people better understand others’ feelings and facilitate interpersonal interactions,most people in real life are still reluctant to choose empathy,and are more likely to encourage others or offer suggestions.Cameron et al.explain this phenomenon based on the oponion that empathy consumes more cognitive resources,and Zaki et al.show that empathy is influenced by different motivations,which can be expressed as either tendency to empathize or avoidance of empathy.Based on previous research,this paper provides a preliminary discussion of three issues,including the phenomenon,mechanisms,and intervention strategies of empathy avoidance,to localize and test the results of Western empirical studies.To achieve this goal,we will design three studies as follows.In Study 1,the empathic choice task paradigm was used to explore whether empathic avoidance exists and whether empathic choice is influenced by emotional valance.The results of the study found that empathic avoidance did exist,i.e.,there was indeed a significant difference between subjects’ choice of empathic task and choice of descriptive task in the context of a choice task.Furthermore,empathic choice was not related to emotional validity,i.e.,empathic choice was not related to picture material validity,so that empathic avoidance was not avoidance of negative emotions,but avoidance of empathy itself.In Study 2,we conducted the dual-task paradigm to explore the mechanisms of the empathic avoidance phenomenon based on Study 1,and test whether there were differences in effort and efficacy scores between the empathic task group and the description task group,as well as differences in performance on the subsequent stroop task.The results of the study showed that the empathic task effort scores were indeed significantly higher than the effort scores of the description task,while the empathic also showed a lower sense of efficacy,i.e.,the empathic efficacy scores were significantly lower than those of the description group,but there was no significant effect on the performance on the subsequent stroop task.In study 3,we are going to explore whether different feedback had an effect on novice counselors with different professional identity(high/low identity group)in terms of empathic choice was examined by giving different types of empathic feedback(positive feedback/negative feedback).The results of the study revealed that both positive feedback and high professional identification facilitated novice counselors’empathic choice,however,for novice counselors with low professional identification,neither feedback facilitated their empathic choice.Notably,for novice counselors with high professional identity,negative feedback significantly frustrated their willingness to empathize.Finally,we reflect on the shortcomings of this study from the perspective of research methodology and design,propose suggestions for future research,and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this study.