“I feel your pain”: The effect of displaying empathy on political candidate evaluation
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Renstrom, Randall A.
Ottati, Victor C.
Abstract / Description
Two experiments demonstrate that highly empathetic messages conveyed by a political candidate produce more favorable attitudes and increase the likelihood individuals will vote for the political candidate. Study 1 revealed this Empathetic Communication Effect is stronger among female political candidates than male. Compared to male candidates, female candidates are evaluated more positively when they engage in empathetic language but are more harshly penalized when they fail to display empathy. An analogous pattern emerged for candidate party in Study 2. Namely, the Empathetic Communication Effect is stronger among Democratic political candidates than Republican political candidates. Results also explore the impact of empathetic rhetoric on perceptions of candidates’ socio-emotionality and instrumentality.
Keyword(s)
candidate evaluation empathy candidate traits stereotypes gender party affiliationPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2020-11-03
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
8
Issue
2
Page numbers
767–787
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Renstrom, R. A., & Ottati, V. C. (2020). “I feel your pain”: The effect of displaying empathy on political candidate evaluation. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 8(2), 767-787. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1292
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jspp.v8i2.1292.pdfAdobe PDF - 948.25KBMD5: db04ad006665f7702743dffa910d38a2
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There are no other versions of this object.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Renstrom, Randall A.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Ottati, Victor C.
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2022-04-14T11:23:51Z
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Made available on2022-04-14T11:23:51Z
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Date of first publication2020-11-03
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Abstract / DescriptionTwo experiments demonstrate that highly empathetic messages conveyed by a political candidate produce more favorable attitudes and increase the likelihood individuals will vote for the political candidate. Study 1 revealed this Empathetic Communication Effect is stronger among female political candidates than male. Compared to male candidates, female candidates are evaluated more positively when they engage in empathetic language but are more harshly penalized when they fail to display empathy. An analogous pattern emerged for candidate party in Study 2. Namely, the Empathetic Communication Effect is stronger among Democratic political candidates than Republican political candidates. Results also explore the impact of empathetic rhetoric on perceptions of candidates’ socio-emotionality and instrumentality.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationRenstrom, R. A., & Ottati, V. C. (2020). “I feel your pain”: The effect of displaying empathy on political candidate evaluation. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 8(2), 767-787. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1292en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/5639
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6243
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1292
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4282
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Keyword(s)candidate evaluationen_US
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Keyword(s)empathyen_US
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Keyword(s)candidate traitsen_US
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Keyword(s)stereotypesen_US
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Keyword(s)genderen_US
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Keyword(s)party affiliationen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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Title“I feel your pain”: The effect of displaying empathy on political candidate evaluationen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue2
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers767–787
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Volume8
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Visible tag(s)Version of Recorden_US