Testing the Role of Inspirational and Crime News Use in Self-Report Empathic Concern and Helping

Chun Yang, Masahiro Yamamoto

Abstract


The present study integrates consumption of two types of news, inspirational and crime news, into the empathy-helping framework. Data from an online survey of Japanese adults show that inspirational news use has a positive relationship with self-report helping at a later point in time. Data also indicate that inspirational news use does not have a significant link with empathic concern and personal distress reported by respondents. Rather, self-report empathic concern has a positive cross-lagged relationship with both perceived inspirational news use and crime news use. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Keywords


crime news, inspirational news, helping, empathic concern, personal distress

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