The Protégé Effect in Action: Can Teaching Promote Empathy and Compassion for Prisoners?

Dolan, Ashleigh

The Protégé Effect in Action: Can Teaching Promote Empathy and Compassion for Prisoners?

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10456/57691

Author(s)

Dolan, Ashleigh

Date Issued

April 3, 2024

Abstract

There are almost 2 million people held within the criminal justice system in the United States and so thinking about how we are treating and interacting with this population is very important (Wagner et al., 2023). Empathy is a big part of this and is known as being the experience of feeling what you think others are feeling while (Batson 2009). The overall purpose of this study was to take a deeper look into empathy and compassion, and specifically the methods of increasing someone’s empathy and compassion towards people who have gone to prison. It was hypothesized that if someone taught a small lesson about empathy and compassion they would have higher levels of empathy and compassion, higher levels of negative emotions, and would be more willing to donate their time. The results of the study were not in line with these predictions, finding that there was no statistical difference between these two groups for any of the different measures.

Major

Psychology

Honors

Psychology, 2024

First Reader(s)

Eckstein, Lydia E.