Left-behind Or Not And The Effect Of Self-other Overlap On The Trust Repair: The Role Of State Empathy

Trust is a prerequisite for forming good interpersonal relationships,and when behaviors that affect trust are present,they often have a negative impact on an individual’s physical and mental health.In order to better repair damaged interpersonal relationships,effective repair strategies are needed to repair them.At present,the research on trust repair strategies mainly focuses on verbal strategies(apology/denial/commitment)and behavioral strategies(financial compensation),and there is less research on moral-emotional repair strategies.However,as the research progresses,the repairing effect of moral emotions on trust breach has started to receive extensive attention from researchers.According to the moral-emotional repair model,empathy plays a very important role in trust repair,but it is not known whether state empathy as an emotional repair strategy can effectively repair damaged interpersonal relationships.Previous studies on trust repair have mainly focused on adults,and the effect of trust repair after trust breach between left-behind and non-left-behind children is not clear yet.Therefore,this study will investigate whether state empathy repair strategies can effectively repair interpersonal trust between left-behind and nonleft-behind children and whether there are differences between groups and whether there is an interaction between state empathy repair strategies and self-other overlap through two studies.Study 1 used a 2-(left behind or not: left behind/non left behind)*2(emotional repair strategy: state empathy/neutral emotion)two-factor between-subjects design,with Left Behind or Not and Emotional Repair Strategy as between-subjects variables and Trust Repair Level using the amount invested after breach in the Trust Game as the dependent variable.Using 140 elementary school students in grades 5-6 as subjects to complete a simple trust game task,the results showed that(1)state empathy emotions had a role in trust repair,and state empathy had better trust repair effects than neutral emotion conditions;(2)there was no group difference in the effect of state empathy on post-violation trust repair,i.e.,there was no significant difference in trust repair effects between children who stayed and those who did not;((3)there was no gender difference in the effect of state empathy repair strategy on trust repair.Study 2 used a three-factor mixed experimental design of self-other overlap3(high/medium/low)*2 left-behind or not(left-behind/non-left-behind)*2 emotion repair strategy(state empathy/neutral emotion),in which left-behind or not and emotion repair strategy were between-subjects design,self-other overlap was within-subjects design,and trust repair level used the amount of investment after breach in the trust game as the dependent variable,and the results showed that(1))the effect of state empathic emotions on trust repair was constrained by the fiduciary’s target cues and did not differ between retained and nonretained children.At high and moderate levels of self-other overlap,the effect of state empathy as an emotional repair strategy on interpersonal trust repair was not significantly different from that in the neutral emotion condition;at low levels of self-other overlap,the effect of state empathy on interpersonal trust repair was better than that in the neutral emotion condition;(2)the effect of state empathy on trust repair was constrained by the fiduciary’s target cues and the effect of state empathy on trust repair was not significantly different from that in the neutral emotion condition;(3)the effect of state empathy on trust repair was not significantly different from that in the neutral emotion condition.(2)The effect of state empathy on trust repair was constrained by the target cues of the trustee and did not differ between genders.In summary,it is clear that state empathy as an emotional repair strategy has a beneficial effect on repairing interpersonal trust in both left-behind and non-left-behind children;at the same time,the effect of state empathy as an emotional strategy on repairing trust varies with different degrees of self-other overlap.Therefore,regardless of whether they are left-behind or non-left-behind children,when individuals have a trust crisis,we can repair interpersonal relationships by using state empathic emotions;at the same time,we should focus on cultivating the quality of parent-child and peer relationships among children and enhancing the level of self-other overlap between individuals and them,so that when a trust crisis occurs,the negative effects on inter-individuals can be effectively reduced.This study enriches the research on trust repair at the adolescent stage,while using state empathy as a repair strategy,providing a new perspective on mental health interventions for adolescents.