A Randomized Controlled Study on the Effects of a Documentary on Students’ Empathy and Attitudes towards Older Adults

Abstract

Background Despite the rapid increase in the size of the geriatric population, no current published literature is available based on the effects of viewing a documentary covering medical and psychosocial issues concerning older adults influencing young people’s empathy and ageism. The aim of the current study was to test whether participants who viewed an original documentary about older adults experiencing physical pain would report lower ageism and higher empathy scores when compared to participants who watched a neutral documentary. Method Seventy-seven students (ages 18–29 years) were randomized to either the experimental (pain documentary) or the control (neutral documentary) conditions and given pre- and post-test measures of empathy and ageism. Results The results of a series of Profile Analyses (Multivariate Mixed ANOVAs) showed a significant interaction (Wilk’s λ=0.933, F(1,75)=5.389, p=0.023, partial η2=0.067) between treatment and time (pre- vs. post-viewing the film) for the empathy measure that was confirmed by follow-up t-tests. The latter showed a significant increase in empathy scores for only the experimental group, t(37)=−2.999, p=0.005. However, contrary to the original prediction, this same treatment by time effect was not observed for ageism (Wilk’s λ=0.994, F(1,75)=0.482, p=0.490, partial η2=0.006), as the experimental participants did not significantly reduce their ageism scores, t(38)=0.725, p=0.473. The results of these analyses, as well as those obtained by using the subscales of each questionnaire, have been discussed. Conclusions The findings of this preliminary study indicate that showing a pain-based, anti-bias documentary feature film has the potential to significantly improve empathy towards older adults in university students.

Impact of Films: Changes in Young People’s Attitudes after Watching a Movie

“…Various social projects can be implemented for this purpose, for example, "friendly visitor" types of programs in which young people visit the elderly [51,52], but also mass media, including films, which have a high potential for impact [53,54]. It was found that watching documentary films had a positive effect on both knowledge about aging and attitudes towards the elderly [55]; these films significantly improved empathy towards elderly people among university students [56].…”

Hemşirelerin Empatik Eğilimi ile Yaşlılara Yönelik Ayrımcılık Tutumları Arasındaki İlişkisi

“…[24,31] Because, empathictendency is a vital element in all activities of nursing and is thebasic element of human-oriented holistic and humanistic nursing care. [32,33]…”

Investigating Adult Age Differences in real-life Empathy, Prosociality, and Well-being using Experience Sampling

“…This might be surprising at first glance, in light of findings that social network size and social contacts diminish in older age [49,50] and based on prior evidence demonstrating negative attitudes towards older adults ('ageism') [51,52] . The latter has been argued to lead to reduced empathy towards older adults [53,54] . However, in line with what we observed here, previous cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have shown that older age was not associated with a decline in social connectedness per se [55,56] .…”