Empathy supports social connection and well-being while counter-empathy can weaken relationships and promote conflict. Compassion-based interventions such as loving-kindness meditation (LKM) have been shown to increase feelings of social connectedness and reduce self-focus. However, the impact of LKM on both empathy (measured through both positive and negative empathy) and counter-empathy (measured through schadenfreude and gluckschmerz) remains unexplored. The present study explored whether a brief, 9-minute LKM could increase empathy and reduce counter-empathy compared to a neutral visualization meditation. Forty-two undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either the LKM or control condition. As an implicit measure of empathy and counter-empathy, participants rated how good or bad they felt in response to 32 everyday scenarios both before and after the meditation. These ratings captured four outcomes: positive empathy, negative empathy, schadenfreude, and gluckschmerz. Results showed the LKM group experienced significantly greater increases in both positive and negative empathy compared to the control condition. Although both groups showed reductions in counter-empathy (both schadenfreude and gluckschmerz), these changes did not differ significantly amongst the groups. Exploratory analyses suggested that greater focus and adherence during meditation may be linked to lower counter-empathy. These findings demonstrate the efficacy of a brief loving-kindness meditation on significantly increasing empathy. Future research should explore how to best tailor loving-kindness meditations to effectively reduce counter-empathy.

Keywords: empathy, counter-empathy, loving-kindness meditation, schadenfreude, gluckschmerz, compassion intervention

Public reactions to athlete misconduct, particularly involving performance-enhancing drug (PED) use, play a critical role in shaping perceptions of fairness, legitimacy, and accountability in sport. While prior research has focused largely on athletes’ internal experiences, less is known about how external observers evaluate such violations. The present study examined how punishment source (sports league vs. legal court system), punishment severity (mild vs harsh), and athlete gender (male vs. female) influe public perception of athlete misconduct. In a 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects experimental design, participants (N = 607) were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing a professional basketball player who tested positive for PEDs, with variations across the three manipulated factors. Participants then reported their perceptions of punishment fairness, institutional legitimacy, sympathy toward the athlete, and negative emotional reactions. Results indicated that punishment severity was a key driver of evaluations with harsher punishments generally associated with higher perceived fairness and legitimacy, but lower sympathy and forgiveness. Punishment source also influenced perceptions, with legal punishments often viewed as more legitimate but eliciting stronger negative emotional responses. Effects of athlete gender were more limited, though some patterns suggested a difference in moral evaluation. Additionally, individual differences in sports investment moderated responses, such as highly invested participants showed more leniency and reduced negative evaluations. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of how contextual and individual factors shape moral judgments in sport, highlighting the importance of both institutional context and personal investment in shaping public responses to ethical violations.

Weight stigma remains a pervasive form of bias, even as explicit prejudice related to race and gender has declined. Ironically, healthcare providers are among the most frequent sources of weight-based discrimination, with consequences for patient trust, healthcare utilization, and treatment outcomes. To address this issue early in professional development, the present study tested a brief, theory-driven intervention targeting implicit and explicit anti-fat bias in premedical undergraduates. Grounded in cognitive dissonance theory and integrating elements of attribution theory, social identity, and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the intervention included educational materials, a counterattitudinal essay, and a public pledge. Participants (n = 51) were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control condition and completed baseline and posttest measures of implicit bias (IAT), explicit attitudes (AFAT, BAOP), and internalized weight stigma (WBIS-M). Results revealed significant reductions in both implicit and explicit anti-fat bias in the intervention group compared to the control group, with medium-large effect sizes. These findings demonstrate that dissonance-based strategies, when supplemented with identity- and empathy-relevant content, can reduce bias even at the level of automatic associations. Keywords: cognitive dissonance, explicit attitudes, implicit bias, obesity, weight stigma

This paper explores how family-related motivational factors influence the long-term sustainability of necessity-driven entrepreneurial ventures, specifically in Ipoh, Malaysia. While entrepreneurship is often associated with innovation and opportunity, a significant number of individuals pursue this path out of necessity due to unemployment, limited job access, or financial hardship. These entrepreneurs, especially those motivated to support their families, may experience emotional and psychological dynamics that differ significantly from those of opportunity-driven entrepreneurs.

Using the frameworks of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Expectancy Theory, this study examines how family obligation shapes motivation, resilience, and perceived business sustainability. A mixed-methods design was employed, including surveys, semi-structured interviews, and in-person observations with 13 necessity-driven food entrepreneurs operating small, family-run businesses. Measures focused on family motivation, resilience, entrepreneurial identity, and perceived long-term sustainability.

The findings suggest that family-related motivation is a strong driver of persistence, with most participants reporting that financial responsibility toward family members motivates them to continue their business despite challenges. However, results also indicate that this form of motivation does not uniformly lead to long-term sustainability. Entrepreneurs who reported high family obligation but low autonomy or emotional support were more likely to rely on persistence driven by pressure rather than internal fulfillment. In contrast, those who demonstrated higher levels of autonomy, stronger entrepreneurial identity, and supportive family relationships showed greater resilience and confidence in sustaining their businesses over time.

Overall, the study highlights that while family motivation can initiate and sustain necessity-driven entrepreneurship, its long-term effectiveness depends on the extent to which it is internalized and supported by autonomy and emotional resources. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of motivation in constrained socioeconomic contexts and suggest that sustainable entrepreneurship is not solely driven by necessity, but by the quality and structure of underlying motivational forces.

This study examined the degree to which jury instructions could modulate juror perceptions of anxious nonverbal behavior. More specifically, our experiment explored the relationship between the perceived nervousness of a defendant, assessments of credibility, and trial outcomes. The results of the study revealed that instructions had no statistically significant effect on verdicts or ratings of credibility. Affect appeared to influence trial outcomes regardless of jury instruction type. In addition, the credibility of the defendant mediates the relationship between perceived nervousness of the defendant and verdicts (ACME = 0.049, p < 0.001). A nervous defendant was perceived as less credible, resulting in more guilty verdicts. Moreover, for each one-unit increase in defendant credibility, the probability of a guilty verdict decreased by approximately 6.19 percentage points, holding other factors constant (p < 0.05). Despite being instructed to not consider nonverbal behavior, jurors failed to follow the instructions or overcome their cognitive bias as it relates to nonverbal cues typically associated with deception.

Posthumous organ donation plays a crucial role in the American healthcare system, and saves numerous lives at zero cost to the deceased donor. Despite the public holding positive attitudes towards the act, donor registration rates are far lower than they should be. What is it about organ donation that prevents individuals from signing up, despite being supportive of the decision? Past research has found a number of potential factors that may contribute to this attitude-behavior gap, including feelings of disgust, religious concerns, familial concerns, norms, and willingness strength. We designed and ran a study to compare participants’ organ donation attitudes and perceptions of norms, with their donor status, willingness to donate, and likelihood of registration. This unique method gave participants the opportunity to become organ donors, in order to identify those who hold positive attitudes but refuse to sign their cards. These individuals completed a follow-up survey assessing which concerns were influential in their decision not to register. The results revealed that a large majority of participants held strong, positive attitudes towards donation, along with weaker, but still positive perceptions of norms. Critically, it appears that norms, not attitudes, are the best predictors of registration. While positive attitudes are necessary for individuals to consider becoming donors, once they are willing, it is their perception of norms which enables or prevents them from signing their donor cards. Equipped with this newfound knowledge, we propose a number of implications and interventions, such as how perceptions of norms can be improved, and how religious concerns and medical myths can be combatted to decrease hesitancy towards posthumous organ donation. Keywords: organ donation, attitude-behavior gap, perceptions of norms, ick factor