Rhetoric of Truthfulness in the Battle Between Social Attributions and Empathic Emotions - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 299

PURE
EMPATHY
R

2 =.47

.38

.38

.40

TRUTHFULNESS

EMOTIONAL
IMPACT

.40

.55

SOCIAL
DESIRABILITY
R

2 =.16

R

2 =.30

.48

PARALLEL
EMPATHY

2 =.23

R

Fig. 15.7 Path diagram on effects of truthfulness, emotional impact of story, and social desirability
on pure and parallel empathy in outgroup condition. Note: All paths were significant for p < 0.05.
For the endogenous variables, the estimated R -squared is given in the squares

The model that results from the analysis on the outgroup condition also shows a
good fit to the data [

2 (4, N D 33) D 5.13, p D 0.27, RMSEA D 0.09, GFI D 0.94,
AGFI D 0.77, Fig. 14]. Moreover, a new relationship was found to be significant,
accounting for a stronger interconnection between pure and parallel empathy in
the outgroup condition. Again, as displayed in the diagram, the R -squared for the
endogenous variables in the model appears to be satisfactory, although less than in
the previous case (Fig. 15.7 ).
Finally, to verify whether the two estimated models are consistent between
each other, a multisample procedure was employed. The general fit indexes for
the comparison appeared to be satisfactory:

2 (15, N D 66) D 9.97, p D 0.82,
RSMEA D 0.00, GFI D 0.92, percentage contribution

2

for the ingroup condi-

tion D 28.9 %, percentage contribution

2 for the outgroup condition D 71.1 %).
The structural relationships among the variables in the analyses are identical in
the two conditions of the victim's categorization (as an ingroup member or as
an outgroup member), except for a stronger interconnection emerging for the two
dimensions of empathy in the outgroup condition. This means that the structural
pattern of relationships among variables is equal across the two conditions of the
present design, although with a significant difference in the outcome reaction of
empathy. The present findings certainly deserve further verification; however, they
illustrate the crucial role of attributions in empathizing.

15.8 Conclusions

Taken together with the results of the ANOVAs described in the previous sections,
the present findings can also contribute to accounting for the effect of a victim's
categorization (as an ingroup or as an outgroup member) on the empathic response.