Situational Empathy As a Mediator for Support of Underdog Musicians

We explore how supportive perceptions of underdog musicians are mediated by subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; personal distress, perspective-taking, emotional contagion, and fantasy). Results suggest that fantasy-seeking and perspective-taking, not personal distress or emotional contagion, at least partially account for the finding that underdogs receive greater supportive perceptions.