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To consider the power of psychological well-being, empathy and coping style in predicting staff attitudes towards young people in looked after accommodation, involved in or at risk of offending behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to understand more about staff attitudes which have a significant role in the care and rehabilitation of this client group.

Psychological well-being, empathy and coping style are discussed in terms of their impact on attitudes towards young people. The predictive power of each factor is considered using multiple regression analysis of participants’ responses on an adapted version of the Attitudes to Prisoners (ATP) scale, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Coping Styles Questionnaire (CSQ).

Multiple regression analyses showed that empathic concern (affective empathy) was the only factor predictive of attitudes towards young people. The paper discusses the applied implications for employers, including the possibility of empathy training for staff members and highlights the need for further consideration of the factors impacting on staff attitudes.

The outcome suggests that empathy may serve as a protective factor against the development of negative attitudes. This highlights the importance of fostering staff empathy and the possible use of empathy training.

The research findings question the robustness of the relationships between staff psychological well-being, empathy, coping styles and attitudes towards their client group. The outcome suggests that empathy may serve as a protective factor against the development of negative attitudes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a crisis affects public attitudes toward stigmatized service workers (SSWs) who are blamed by the media for the event.

Hypotheses grounded in two theories, crisis communication and empathic concern, are tested using two experimental design studies of 180 and 107 adult respondents.

The effects of both empathy (positive) and anger (negative) on attitudes toward the SSWs involved in crisis are mediated by controllability of attribution of crisis. Empathic concern mitigates negative public attitudes toward stigmatized workers and appears to remove the effect of anger but only when the crisis severity is not too high. In a severe crisis both empathy and anger are important predictors of public response.

Boundary conditions in terms of severity, nature and victim of crisis and media framing need to be investigated.

Proactive crisis management practice is required by professional associations of SSW. Eliciting empathy and paying attention to prior crisis history and professional reputation offers scope to quell public anger and desire for punishment.

The attrition rates of socially stigmatized workers following crisis events have profound social and financial costs to society. This study sets a foundation for substantive managerial change in crisis response, and how the perception of socially stigmatized workers, is managed.

This study is the first to examine the voracity of two theories which provide informed but different insights to public response to service workers in crisis.

This paper aims to investigate how the cognitive value perceptions and affective attitudes of Millennial consumers are related to behavioral intent in the context of collaborative consumption and how such relationships may be moderated.

Two scenario-based online studies were conducted with young consumers concerning several collaborative consumption services.

Using structural equation modeling, the authors found that specific dimensions of value perceptions (utilitarian, hedonic and symbolic) have differing effects on young consumers’ attitude and empathy toward collaborative consumption services. The analysis shows no moderating effects for perceived consumer effectiveness (Study 1 and Study 2) but a significant moderating effect for consumer innovativeness (Study 2).

This research identifies important factors for the attitudinal and behavioral outcome of young consumers, an important consumer group for the emerging trend of collaborative consumption. Also, the role of empathy and two personal traits offer insights.

Substantively, the findings guide marketers in the sharing economy in elevating their strategic tactics and effective approaches to reach this important consumer group.

Given the paucity of research on consumer groups in this context, the current research breaks new ground by investigating value perceptions and empathy as drivers of positive reactions and moderating factors within the collaborative economy.

The importance of effective public messages has been widely recognized during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In particular, the role of news items and interpersonal conversations for the acceptance of public health measures has been highlighted. The authors propose a conceptual model based on the existing literature on how to measure the degree of persuasion of news narratives in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors adopted a whole population approach, where the unit of analysis was the population of the media news about the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors selected a sample to develop and test their conceptual model. The sample size was n = 248. The questionnaire was distributed online using a non-probability convenience sampling plan. The authors used a pre-post pseudo-experimental design. Respondents answered questions about their attitude toward the COVID-19 pandemic. After watching a narrative news report on the same subject, they then answered questions designed to measure changes in their attitude. A structural equation model, the Sobel test and a paired samples t-test were used to test hypotheses.

The results showed that there is a significant relationship between narrative with transportation and empathy. There was also a positive and significant relationship between transportation and empathy with attitude and interpersonal talk. The relationship between transportation and self-referencing was also supported. Further, transportation and attitude mediated the relationships between narrative and interpersonal talk, self-referencing as well as empathy. A paired samples t-test revealed that attitudes were changed or reinforced before and after watching the narrative news report.

This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying the outcomes of narrative persuasion during public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current study explored staff attitudes towards patient‐to‐patient bullying in a forensic learning disability service housing male clients, and the potential role of empathy. One hundred staff took part (51 men and 49 women). All completed the Attitudes towards Bullying scale ‐ Secure version (AB‐S) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). It was predicted that women would report more positive attitudes towards victims of bullying than men, and that increased empathy would be associated with decreased negative attitudes. It was also anticipated that increased length of service would be related to an increase in negative attitude towards victims. The results are discussed with regard to the environment in which bullying is taking place with suggestions for interventions.

This paper aims to provide theoretical and empirical insight into the relationship between emotions and knowledge sharing.

Hypotheses concerning the influence of pride and empathy on knowledge sharing attitudes and intentions are developed, based on prior research. The hypotheses were tested by means of a survey within the Dutch branch of a global IT organization, in which respondents (n=252) were asked to evaluate one of four different scenarios, invoking either pride or empathy. Respondents were asked their attitude and intention towards knowledge sharing in the situation sketched in the scenario.

Pride and empathy were found to affect eagerness and willingness to share knowledge. Furthermore, these emotions also influenced knowledge sharing intentions, partly mediated by eagerness and willingness. Both eagerness and willingness mediate the relationship between pride and knowledge sharing intention, whereas only willingness turned out to mediate the relationship between empathy and knowledge sharing.

An important limitation is that the scenarios which were used were hypothetical. A suggestion for further research is to conduct a lab experiment (for instance, using a role play situation) in which emotions are manipulated in an interactive setting.

Emotions have not been related to knowledge sharing in a systematic way before. By connecting these two areas of research, this study provides new interdisciplinary insights.

This study aims to examine the role of hospitableness towards refugees, as embraced by local hosts, in engendering positive social outcomes, including fostering favourable attitudes and empathy towards refugees, satisfaction from hosting refugees in private dwellings and advocacy for hosting them.

Rooted in the contact theory and drawing on a hospitality social lens framework, the study uses a mixed-methods approach using a sequential quantitative-qualitative design to understand the interface between hospitableness, attitudes and empathy towards refugees, satisfaction from hosting refugees in private dwellings and advocacy for hosting them. A conceptual model is proposed and tested using 160 valid surveys collected from individuals hosting Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia. SEM-PLS is used to test the proposed model. A total of 25 in-depth interviews with Slovakian individuals hosting refugees in private dwellings were also conducted to explain and further explore the initial quantitative results.

The findings indicate that hospitableness has a positive effect on attitudes towards refugees, fosters a sense of empathy and results in satisfaction from hosting refugees. Interestingly, while hospitableness per se does not directly affect advocacy for hosting refugees, it does so indirectly via favourable attitudes towards refugees and satisfaction from the hosting experience. While qualitative findings largely support and further explain the quantitative results, interesting insights are also obtained.

The study advocates that hospitableness should be addressed through a social lens beyond its traditional commercial boundaries. Several implications for policymakers, NGOs and other stakeholders involved in hosting refugees are proposed. Overall, policies need to be oriented towards harnessing the power of refugee hosting schemes, thus increasing the role of hospitableness in addressing societal challenges such as the refugee crisis.

While not new, private hosting of refugees has recently gained momentum following the outbreak of the Ukrainian refugee crisis. In spite of some valuable research delving into hosting experiences from the refugees’ and hosts’ perspectives, this research stream is notably fragmented and largely exploratory. Specifically, there seems to be no comprehensive understanding of how hospitableness towards refugees, as embraced by hosts, can engender positive social outcomes, including fostering favourable attitudes and empathy towards refugees, satisfaction from hosting refugees and advocacy for hosting refugees in private dwellings. Overall, hospitality research is notably biased towards commercial settings, focusing on instrumental benefits rather than societal outcomes. This study focuses on the societal outcomes of hospitableness as a tool to address the refugee crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of buyers' attitudes towards the partial consensus surrounding the benefits of buyer‐supplier cooperation – the relational exchange perspective.

The extent to which buyers display an awareness of, and willingness to respond positively to, supplier needs, wants and preferences – termed supplier empathy – and how this influences their attitude towards buyer‐supplier cooperation and support of relational exchange is empirically assessed. In addition, factors that may influence levels of supplier empathy and the effect of supplier empathy on the incidence of supplier problems are examined. Finally, the extent to which social acceptability bias may mask attitudes in areas where consensus exists is considered. An empirical study utilising survey data from members of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply in the UK was completed. A total of 421 useable responses were received and analysed to evaluate hypotheses. The design also included efforts to identify the presence, and minimise the effects, of social acceptability bias.

The analysis indicates that the partial consensus surrounding the relational exchange approach is not shared by all practitioners. In addition, it is found that the level of supplier empathy exhibited by respondents is significantly influenced by supplier‐dependence aversion, innovation focus, extent of co‐design activity, existence of explicit partnership/cooperation objectives, and support for long‐term trading relationships.

The paper presents evidence that despite a significant but partial cooperation consensus in the academic literature, many large company practitioners appear unconvinced of the benefits of cooperation. Most analyses of buyer attitudes and behaviours are conducted by marketing researchers seeking to assist organisations‐as‐suppliers. This research is intended to help companies improve their performance as buyers. The paper also includes a rare attempt to identify and deal with the effects of social acceptability bias in the operations and supply management field.

Research examining attitudes towards offenders assesses the attitudes of professionals working with offenders, rather than attitudes of those without any experience with offenders. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether prejudice towards offenders would decrease after engagement with incarcerated serious offenders, and whether any improvement would be explained by increased empathic responding.

An experimental field study was conducted. A repeated measures questionnaire assessed empathy and prejudice at two time points: before and after engagement with serious offenders.

As predicted experiencing actual engagement with convicted sex offenders and murderers within a prison environment did increase empathy and decrease prejudice towards ex-offenders.

All participants were applied criminology students and (prison visited) is not representative of prisons within HM Prison Service. It could be argued that responding was influenced by previous knowledge of criminal justice and penal systems. Future research should consider examining the impact of engagement on empathy and prejudice with a larger, naïve sample and across different prisons.

As the first (to the authors knowledge) to empirically examine attitude change of individuals with no personal experience of offenders this research has value to any person considering how social exclusion may be reduced at a societal level.

The purpose of this study was to determine how storytelling blogs affect readers’ intention to adopt travel products.

The present study proposes a storytelling framework based on heuristic theory for examining the characteristics and key components of a story that can affect the reader’s potential future behavior. An empirical study involving 368 subjects was conducted to test this model.

The results indicated that the elements of storytelling blogs, “perceived aesthetics”, “narrative structure”, and “self‐reference”, can indirectly influence readers’ intention through empathy and attitude. In particular, “perceived aesthetics” had the strongest direct effect on attitude and total effect on intention. Nevertheless, the control variables, age, gender, and frequency of searching for information about travel online, did not influence the intention.

The proposed framework can be used by enterprises to develop storytelling blogs for marketing their products. Blog design needs to consider aesthetics, narrative structure, and relevance to readers.

The paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the influence of storytelling blogs from a heuristic perspective.