In One Well-Known Study on Empathy, Participants Were Required to Watch

Multiple Choice

In one well-known study on empathy, participants were required to watch a confederate (named Elaine) receive electric shocks. Some participants were told that they had to watch her receive 10 full trials of shocks, while others were told that they could leave after watching the first two trials. Some participants were also told that their values and interests were similar to Elaine's (similarity group) , while others were told that their values and interests were different from Elaine's (non-similarity group) . After the first two trials were completed, participants were told that Elaine was unusually upset by the shocks due to a negative childhood experience related to electricity. The participants were then asked whether they would be willing to switch places with Elaine. In this study, the 10-trial versus two-trial instruction was designed as a manipulation of ____, and the similar versus dissimilar information was designed to be a manipulation of ____.

A) shared experience; empathy
B) shared experience; identification
C) the ease of escaping the situation; empathy
D) the ease of escaping the situation; identification