The impact of narrative writing on empathy, perspective-taking, and attitude: Two randomized controlled experiments on violations of Covid-19 protection regulations

OBJECTIVE: Two randomized controlled experiments investigated if writing a narrative text about a fictional person who shows disapproved of behavior in the Covid-19 pandemic influenced empathy, perspective-taking, attitude, and attribution of causes regarding that person’s behavior. METHODS: In both studies, a fictional scenario was described, and participants answered questions regarding empathy, perspective-taking, attitude, and attribution regarding a fictional person’s disapproved of behavior (pre-post-measurement). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the experimental condition, they wrote a narrative text about the fictional person. In the control condition, they wrote about an unrelated topic. RESULTS: We found that writing a narrative text increased empathy more strongly than writing about an unrelated topic; Study 1: p = 0.004, (part.)η(2) = 0.06, Study 2: p < .001, (part.)η(2) = 0.19. This did not apply to perspective-taking; Study 1: p = 0.415; Study 2: p = 0.074. We also found that writing a narrative text about a fictional person resulted in a more positive attitude toward this person; Study 1: p = 0.005, (part.)η(2) = 0.06; Study 2: p<0.001, (part.)η(2) = 0.10. Finally, in Study 2 we found that participants who wrote a narrative text attributed the person’s behavior to internal causes to a lesser degree; p = 0.007, (part.)η(2) = 0.05. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that empathy and attitude are positively modifiable through narrative writing tasks. Empathy training could potentially prevent discrimination related to Covid-19. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The studies presented in this article were pre-registered on the pre-registration platform AsPredicted (aspredicted.org) before we began data collection; registration numbers and URL: #44754 https://aspredicted.org/vx37t.pdf (Study 1), and #44753 https://aspredicted.org/ig7kq.pdf (Study 2).