How to Foster Empathy in Anti-discrimination Initiatives? Implication for Social Interventions-A Qualitative Approach

The purpose of this study was to explore antecedents of empathic responding in the context of anti-discrimination public service announcement (PSA) reception. We sought to qualitatively examine which contextual antecedents are likely to play a role in facilitating the perspective taking and emotion sharing processes. Recruitment through the local university's mailing list and an online classified advertising service yielded 61 participants: 18 men and 43 women. Semi-structured focus group interviews lasted from 40 minutes to two hours. The recordings were transcribed and analyzed using NVivo. We used a mixed approach to coding and analyzed the interviews using the process of thematic analysis. The analyses revealed that certain facial expressions of emotion, two types of perceived similarity and a focus on common humanity play an important role in triggering empathic responses in this type of context. While it is necessary to promote diversity, these findings indicate that future interventions should focus on emphasizing a common humanity between the groups and that the accentuation of differences should also be accompanied by a focus on similarities. The results of the current study can be used to build more appropriate and efficient intervention strategies that aim to foster empathy for discriminated and marginalized groups.