Department
Psychology & Family Studies
Format of Presentation
Poster
Research Category
Social Sciences
Description
My classmates and I got the opportunity to further our research experience over the course of this semester by conducting a research study. The purpose of our study was to investigate if people would choose to empathize if they were given a choice. Our study was a replication of a prior widely cited study. The replication crisis in psychology is important to understand because if studies cannot be replicated, then it undermines their credibility. Furthermore, the participants in our study were given a choice between two card decks that showed images of refugee children. One of the decks asked the participants to describe the age and gender of the child while the other deck asked to explain what the children felt in the images. After completing 40 trials, participants were asked how they felt and if they noticed a difference between the decks of cards. Our findings from this study will not only aid in the replication process in psychology but also aid in the generalizability of the findings of the research.
Recommended Citation
Springfield, Kylie R., "Empathy is Hard, Replication is Harder" (2026). Undergraduate Research Conference. 5.
https://athenacommons.muw.edu/urc/2026/social-sciences-poster-session/5
Included in
Empathy is Hard, Replication is Harder
My classmates and I got the opportunity to further our research experience over the course of this semester by conducting a research study. The purpose of our study was to investigate if people would choose to empathize if they were given a choice. Our study was a replication of a prior widely cited study. The replication crisis in psychology is important to understand because if studies cannot be replicated, then it undermines their credibility. Furthermore, the participants in our study were given a choice between two card decks that showed images of refugee children. One of the decks asked the participants to describe the age and gender of the child while the other deck asked to explain what the children felt in the images. After completing 40 trials, participants were asked how they felt and if they noticed a difference between the decks of cards. Our findings from this study will not only aid in the replication process in psychology but also aid in the generalizability of the findings of the research.