ANTICIPATED VICARIOUS AFFECT AND WILLINGNESS TO BE EXPOSED TO ANOTHERS SUFFERING

This research assesses the influences of anticipated distress, sadness , and empathy on willingness to be exposed to another's suffering. Sub jects were led to expect to listen to a radio broadcast in which they would learn about a person in need. After indicating the distress, sad ness, and empathy that they anticipated feeling as a result of listeni ng to the broadcast, subjects indicated their preferences for listenin g to programs about another person's misfortune, another person's good fortune, and announcements of community events. Results suggest that greater anticipated distress led to greater willingness to be exposed to another's suffering, greater anticipated sadness led to greater pre ference to be exposed to another's good fortune, and empathy did not i nfluence program preferences. The results support the conceptual disti nctions between vicarious distress, sadness, and empathy.