Controlled film stimuli elicit measurable state sympathy toward a specific target

Evidence

To examine the extent to which the IS and related variables can predict sympathy for a Muslim individual, we used a film clip from a 2008 documentary about a hospital in Iraq, to elicit feelings of state sympathy (Summers, 2008). The film clip shows a Muslim woman being interviewed while being treated for wounds she sustained from a bombing attack. — Sherman A. Lee, Chelsea A. Reid, Stephen D. Short, Jeffrey A. Gibbons, Ruth Yeh, and Matthew L. Campbell, Fear of Muslims, 119

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors classic social-psychology empathy manipulations using documentary footage of individuated suffering rather than abstract vignettes.