Study 2 (Empathy and utilitarian choices in sacrificial dilemmas)

Article title: Turning off the empathy switch:
Lower empathic concern for the victim leads to utilitarian choices of action

Participants
N = 170

Measures
1) Utilitarian choices of action in 6 dilemmas (Footbridge, Crying Baby, Vaccine, Raftboat, Modified Safari, and Sophie’s Choice)
- Responses were recorded on a 4-point scale from 0 (definitely no) to 3 (definitely yes).
2) Empathic concern for each target
- Participants were asked to report the extent to which they felt empathic for the victim and the saved in sacrificial dilemmas
- Responses were recorded on a 5-point scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (to a great extent)
3) Justifications for utilitarian choices of action
- Five types of justification items were used to probe into how people reason about their choices in sacrificial dilemmas
- The five justifications items were: 1) deontological ethics; 2) descriptive norm; 3) emotional reactivity; 4) selfish concern; and 5) confidence
4) LSRP-1 (primary psychopathy)
- Responses were recorded on a 4-point scale from 0 (disagree strongly) to 3 (agree strongly)
5) Empathic concern (dispositional)
- A subscale of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), Empathic Concern (EC), was used
- Responses were recorded on a 5-point scale from 1 (not at all characteristic of me) to 5 (extremely characteristic of me).