Empathy, memory, and aging during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Autor:	Cho I; Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA., Cunningham TJ; Center for Sleep and Cognition, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA., Daley RT; Department of Psychology, Gordon College, Wenham, MA, USA.; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA., Kensinger EA; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA., Gutchess A; Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Current research in ecological and social psychology [Curr Res Ecol Soc Psychol] 2023; Vol. 4, pp. 100105. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Apr 17.
DOI:	10.1016/j.cresp.2023.100105
Abstrakt:	Recently, there has been increasing attention to the interaction between empathy and memory. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period when empathy played a key role in people's behaviors, we assessed the relationship between empathy and memory. In this pre-registered report, we used memory accuracy for the number of COVID-19 cases as a measure of recent memory and examined its relationship with trait empathy. Moreover, we investigated whether cognitive vs. affective empathy differently associate with one's memory for the number of COVID-19 cases, given evidence for distinct mechanisms for the two aspects of empathy. Finally, we assessed how age is related to empathy-memory associations. To address these questions, we used the Boston College COVID-19 Dataset, which included surveys assessing dispositional empathy and memory for the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases during the first wave of the pandemic. Empathy was not associated with memory accuracy for the confirmed cases when using an empathy measure that combined both cognitive and affective empathy. However, when using a measure that separately assessed cognitive and affective empathy, only affective empathy, specifically the personal distress subscale, was associated with greater memory accuracy. There was no age-related difference in memory accuracy despite age-related decreases in affective empathy. Results suggest that individuals with greater affective empathy (i.e., greater tendency to feel discomfort by the suffering of others) can have more accurate memory for details of an ongoing empathy-evoking situation. Findings are discussed in the context of motivation and emotional arousal. The current study provides ecological evidence to corroborate the interplay of empathy and memory. Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. (© 2023 The Author(s).)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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