Sympathy and Empathy: Emotional Responses to Advertising Dramas

This research examines differences in consumers' sympathy and empathy responses to televised drama commercials. The research framework is multidisciplinary, for construct definition from humanities disciplines (aesthetics and philosophy) grounds the empirical testing of sympathy and empathy responses to advertising. Valid and reliable measurement instruments are developed to test relationships between sympathy and empathy as responses to classical and vignette advertising dramas. Results of two experiments indicate that sympathy responses mediate the effect of a drama advertisement's form on empathy responses, with both sympathy and empathy directly enhancing positive attitudes to an advertisement. Copyright 2003 by the University of Chicago.