Empathy or Counter-Empathy? The Victims’ Empathic Response Toward Offenders Depends on Their Relationships and Transgression Severity

Figures & data

Figure 1 The sequences of events in the study.

Notes: (a) Sequence of events during a single trial in the absence of transgression (b) Sequence of events during a single trial after a transgression.

Table 1 The Effect of Transgression Severity on the Victim’s Empathy Type in Different Interpersonal Relationships

	No Transgression	Slight Transgression	Serious Transgression
Intimate	Empathy	Empathy	No empathy
Strange	Empathy	Counter-empathy	Counter-empathy
Bad	Counter-empathy	Counter-empathy	Counter-empathy

Figure 2 Results from the interaction effect of the affective and cognitive aspect of empathy/ counter-empathy.

Notes: To visually present the emotional valence, we show the mean difference ratings (ratings = 4) for each condition. Negative values indicate negative emotions, and positive values indicate positive emotions. (a) Interaction effect of the affective aspects of empathy or counter-empathy. (b) Interaction effect of the cognitive aspects of empathy or counter-empathy. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. Error bars represent SEM.