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New Rochelle, NY, March 7, 2002 - Dr. Patricia A. Oswald, of Iona's Psychology Department, has had her article "The Interactive Effects of Affective Demeanor, Cognitive Processes, and Perspective-taking Focus on Helping Behavior" published in The Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 142 (1), February 2002. The interaction results of the study indicated that when participants focused on a target person's feelings, they felt more empathy and volunteered more time to help others than when they focused on a target person's thought processes, especially when the target person displayed positive emotions.

Dr. Oswald also presented her paper "Subtle Sex Bias in Empathy and Helping Behavior" at the 41st Annual Meeting of the New England Psychological Association on October 20, 2001 at Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT. It appears that a subtle form of bias may be operating; results indicated that male respondents reported feeling more empathy for a confused, unfocused, illogical woman target, whereas female respondents reported feeling more empathy for a focused, clear, logical woman target.

For questions or more information please contact:
Meghan Finn
Public Relations Office
Iona College, 715 North Avenue, New Rochelle, N.Y. 10801
tel: 914 633-2005 fax: 914 637-2711

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