Is compassion fatigue a self‐fulfilling prophecy in health care? A preregistered experimental study of manipulated expectations in doctors and medical trainees

This study provides 'proof of principle' that perceptions of compassion are malleable lending support to the possibility that a focus on compassion fatigue may be contributing to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perceptions of compassion were readily altered following a short video intervention. While group differences in responses to hypothetical patients were not seen, the findings (particularly the large effect of patient factors) support the view that multiple factors contribute to the emergence of compassion in health care.