An Experimental Analysis of Empathy: Comparing Animal and Human Responses to Emotional Distress
This study seeks to elaborate on the emotional response of humans towards other humans and animals. In these circumstances, a video presentation has been utilized as the source of the specific details that will be used in an assessment to be answered by the participants. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the study, 20 college students were carefully selected. These participants were screened to exclude individuals with a history of traumatic experiences involving animals or humans, minimizing potential biases that could influence their emotional responses. A paired sample t-test was utilized since the researchers used a within-subject design. The p-value of 0.001 is below the threshold of 0.05. This signifies a statistically significant difference in empathy scores between the two groups, with participants exhibiting greater empathy towards animals than humans, as indicated by the positive t-statistic. Based on these findings, the null hypothesis was rejected, stating no difference in empathy scores between humans and animals.
Authors
- Claire Lynn B. Culajara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0084-5997)
- Hanah Bianca B. Dacillo
- Samantha A. Camacho
- Danzel Dave V. Tamara
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (PH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- American Journal of Human Psychology
- Published
- 2025-02-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.54536/ajhp.v3i1.4391
- Primary Topic
- Emotional Intelligence and Performance
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00