The Longitudinal Relationship Between Media Violence and Empathy: Was it Sympathy All Along?

• In Event: Critical Discoveries About Violence and Conflict in Media

Abstract

Research with adolescents has reported a negative relation between media violence exposure and empathy. There are, however, two conceptual issues in this earlier literature that deserve attention. First, studies often treat empathy as one-dimensional while it consists of both an affective and cognitive component. Second, while aiming to measure empathy, several studies have measured sympathy instead. The present study investigates the longitudinal relationship between media violence, affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and sympathy. Using two-wave data from 943 adolescents, we tested whether media violence exposure negatively influenced empathy and sympathy (desensitization hypothesis) or whether empathy and sympathy negatively influenced media violence exposure (selection hypothesis). The results support the desensitization hypothesis and suggest that media violence exposure does not lead to a decrease in empathy, as previous studies have found, but instead to a decrease in sympathy. These findings provide important clarification to existing work and offer both methodological and practical implications.

Authors

• Helen Vossen, U of Amsterdam

• Jessica Taylor Piotrowski, U of Amsterdam

• Patti M. Valkenburg, U of Amsterdam