ArticleAuthors: Shaojing Sun; Andy J. Merolla; Mihye Seo; Shuangyue Zhang (2013)
Individuals can be personally affected, and motivated to empathize with victims, when viewing television coverage of natural disasters. This study examined how individuals’ independent and interdependent self-construals influence how they view and respond to disaster coverage. The findings demonstrated that inter-dependent and independent self-construals had significant effects on individuals’ self-reported psychological intrusion and concern for victims. Additionally, TV viewing motives (i.e., instrumental and ritualized) were found to mediate the relationship between interdependent self-construal and personal responses. 
