Can motivational interventions promote older adults' empathic accuracy? Two experimental studies

Correctly inferring others' inner states (empathic accuracy) is considered crucial for social adjustment. Older adults' empathic accuracy differs across situations, which has been attributed to situational differences in their empathic motivation. We hypothesized that framing empathic accuracy as self-relevant would increase older adults' empathic motivation and, consequently, their empathic accuracy. To test these notions, we conducted two experimental studies. In Study 1, a total of 174 older adults participated online. We compared a control condition with two brief interventions emphasizing the importance of empathic accuracy for either life management or social relationships. Participants watched videotaped target persons reporting emotional experiences and judged their feelings. In Study 2, a total of 112 older adults engaged in videotaped dyadic conversations. This enabled testing whether boosting empathizers' motivation would also affect target-related variables. The intervention emphasized the importance of empathic accuracy for well-being and for completing subsequent study tasks. Participants watched their videotaped conversation. Targets rated their own feelings during the conversation. Empathizers rated the target's feelings. Across both studies, empathic accuracy was operationalized as the correlation between the empathizer's judgment and the target's self-rated feelings. Empathizers' empathic and targets' expressive motivation were assessed multimethodically using behavioral indicators and self- or other reports. In both studies, there were no significant effects of the interventions on empathic motivation and accuracy. Links between indicators of empathic motivation suggest a shared underlying construct, which, however, could not explain variations in empathic accuracy. We discuss the challenge of enhancing empathic accuracy through brief interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).