Author(s):
Tselenti, Danai ; Cardoso, Daniel ; Carvalho, Joana
Date: 2025
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/182776
Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Project/scholarship:
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/3599-PPCDT/PTDC%2FPSI-GER%2F28097%2F2017/PT;
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB%2F04647%2F2020/PT;
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDP%2F04647%2F2020/PT;
Subject(s): Audience responses; Emotions-as-frames; Empathy; Framing analysis; Sentiment analysis; Sexual violence against men; Cultural Studies; Gender Studies; SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; SDG 5 - Gender Equality
Description
PTDC/PSI-GER/28097/2017 UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020
The purpose of this secondary study was to investigate readers’ empathic framings in response to a female-on-male rape literary story, as articulated in online reviews on Goodreads. Drawing upon Nabi’s “emotions-as-frames” approach, we conducted a qualitative framing analysis by using a combination of deductive and inductive strategies. Two overarching empathy frames already present in the literature (bright, and dark empathy) served as interpretive anchors for categorizing empathic responses. Additionally, sentiment analysis was used to assess responses’ emotional valences. Qualitative findings yielded five main framings: (1) female-centered empathy and (2) sadistic empathy (aligning with the dark empathy frame); (3) empathic distress and (4) empathic anger (demonstrating overlaps between the bright and dark empathy frame), and (5) compassion (characteristic of the bright empathy frame). Sentiment analysis results showed a notable presence of mixed sentiments. Our findings highlight how empathy operates across a spectrum, encompassing various combinations of self-oriented and other-oriented framings with diverse emotional valences (positive, negative and mixed). These nuanced responses shape distinct paths of feeling through, with/as, for, or even showing concern for the fictional male victims. They further point to the significance of “feeling rules” that socially distribute empathy and establish hierarchies of “deserving” and “non-deserving” recipients. Departing from previous research that approaches empathic reactions to rape themes within a unidimensional perspective, our findings point to the importance of addressing the interrelations between audience responses and multi-dimensional, multivalent emotional flows. We further discuss the implications of the “darker” sides of empathic engagement for sexual violence prevention and efforts to challenge male rape myths.
