Empati kaynağı olarak otobiyografik bellek paylaşımı: Suçluluk ve utanç duyguları

The present study explored the effect of autobiographical memory sharing on empathy elicitation using autobiographical memory transcripts of a person who is experiencing emotions of guilt or shame in comparison to the same story narrated without the features that qualify it as an autobiographical event. Empathy levels were assessed while controlling for general empathic tendencies after participants (N = 109) were assigned to one of the three conditions: (1) shared event in the form of autobiographical memory narrative with emotions of guilt or shame, (2) shared event in the form of autobiographical memory narrative without the emotion indicating terms, (3) shared event in the form of descriptive third person narrative. Analyses of covariance showed that participants in the first condition displayed higher empathic response than other conditions, but this difference was more emphasized in males than females. Empathy in males was significantly influenced by emotional autobiographical narratives. Moreover, different dimensions of empathy were compared for the guilt and shame narratives. Empathic concern was significantly higher after reading guilt than shame containing narratives. Correlational analyses demonstrated that similarity of the shared event with the listener's past experiences was positively associated with personal distress in the reader, especially after reading shame narratives. Results are discussed in terms of gender differences and empathy elicitation function of autobiographical memory.