Article ID: 2023-015
Helping behavior towards individuals with anxiety and worries often begins with “awareness,” which involves considering the potential from another individual’s appearance and contextual information. However, real-life support situations are not always those where information is clearly expressed. In this study, we defined early awareness as the empathic arousal that occurs when an observer detects low-intensity negative emotional expressions in others, and we examined the cognitive factors influencing this judgment. In a preliminary experiment, 18 videos expressing low-intensity negative emotions were created. In the main experiment, 52 university students were shown these videos in a sequence of 3 seconds each and were asked to identify the videos that caught their attention, providing reasons through free responses. The 583 free responses were classified into 16 items, and a generalized linear mixed model was used to analyze the presence or absence of awareness as the dependent variable. Five positive and six negative influencing factors were identified. This experiment provided insights into the characteristics of cognition and desirable attitudes for observers during the early stages of awareness, which are crucial for providing empathic support.
