From rule application to understanding the parties: scenario-based learning and self-reported general empathy among law students

Introduction This study explores the association between scenario-based learning and self-reported general (cognitive and emotional) empathy among law students, describing participants' self-reported tendency shifting from rule-application-oriented analysis toward considering parties' real-life circumstances. Convenience sampling combined with stratified sampling was used to select undergraduate law students as subjects with individual-level random assignment to intervention and control groups to carry out classroom multi-component scenario-based learning interventions. Final analytic sample N = 196. Outcome was measured by the Chinese revised Basic Empathy Scale (BES-C). Analysis employed analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and SPSS PROCESS macro for moderated-mediation. Result The multi-component scenario-based instructional package was associated with higher post-test self-reported general empathy in legal-case contexts; the intervention group scored higher than the control group. Parallel associational mediation patterns were observed for cognitive engagement and situational attention between scenario-based learning intervention and general empathy. Legal-learning beliefs moderated specific associational mediation pathways for cognitive engagement and situational attention respectively: students holding stronger reality-oriented learning beliefs showed larger correlational gains. Descriptively varying effect-size magnitudes were seen across high-, medium-, and low-academic-ability subgroups; the interaction term reached p = 0.053, which does not constitute conventional statistical evidence for subgroup difference. Scenario-based learning is correlated with higher self-reported empathy, accompanied by elevated cognitive engagement and situational attention allocation; individual legal-learning beliefs are correlated with the magnitude of these associations. The observed patterns are exploratory and cannot establish causal psychological mechanisms or cognitive schema reconstruction because mediators and outcome were measured concurrently at post-test. Introducing structured multi-component scenario-based classroom tasks may encourage law students to attend to parties' real-world context; causal inference for cognitive transformation and preservation of legal rationality awaits further direct measurement.