• Burnard, M., Bruk‐Lee, V., Snihur, A., & Allen, J. (2021). Is all conflict the same? The role of perceived intensity in understanding its effects. Stress and Health, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3022

Abstract

While interpersonal conflict at work continues to draw attention, researchers have rarely considered the role that conflict intensity plays in amplifying individuals’ affective reactions to it. Hence, this study examines conflict intensity as a moderator of the relationship between interpersonal conflict and perceived stress, physical symptoms, and job satisfaction, through negative affect. A total of 306 employees from various industries participated in this cross‐sectional study. Supporting and expanding an emotion‐centered model of conflict, results indicated that the indirect effects of conflict on the study’s outcomes were higher when participants perceived the conflict to be of medium and high‐level intensity.

  • McAuliffe, W. H. B., Carter, E. C., Berhane, J., Snihur, A. C., & McCullough, M. E. (2020). Is Empathy the Default Response to Suffering? A Meta-Analytic Evaluation of Perspective Taking’s Effect on Empathic Concern. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 24(2), 141-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868319887599

Abstract

We conducted a series of meta-analytic tests on experiments in which participants read perspective-taking instructions—that is, written instructions to imagine a distressed persons’ point of view (“imagine-self” and “imagine-other” instructions), or to inhibit such actions (“remain-objective” instructions)—and afterwards reported how much empathic concern they experienced upon learning about the distressed person. If people spontaneously empathize with others, then participants who receive remain-objective instructions should report less empathic concern than do participants in a “no-instructions” control condition; if people can deliberately increase how much empathic concern they experience, then imagine-self and imagine-other instructions should increase empathic concern relative to not receiving any instructions. Random-effects models revealed that remain-objective instructions reduced empathic concern, but “imagine” instructions did not significantly increase it. The results were robust to most corrections for bias. Our conclusions were not qualified by the study characteristics we examined, but most relevant moderators have not yet been thoroughly studied.