Assessing Empathy-related Interpretations in Healthcare Consultations for Chronic Symptoms: A Novel Scenario-Based Task

This interpretation bias task is a novel instrument developed to assess how individuals interpret ambiguous, empathy-related cues from healthcare professionals. The task comprises 15 brief vignettes, each describing a scenario that could plausibly occur during a medical appointment. Each vignette is followed by three possible interpretations—positive, neutral, and negative—which participants rate on a continuous scale ranging from 0 (Not at all likely) to 100 (Extremely likely). This format enables the measurement of spontaneous evaluative tendencies and cognitive-affective appraisals within patient–provider interactions. It is suitable for use in experimental, clinical, and population-based research to explore individual differences in interpretation bias, particularly in relation to perceived empathy from clinicians.