‘She Had No Say’: Moral Disengagement and Empathy Explored Through Shared Reading

Various experimental studies have shown that moral disengagement is connected to the empathic enjoyment of immoral or morally questionable characters in narratives. However, experimental research does not offer insight into how moral evaluations are formed by readers. Therefore, the current study will explore the layers of moral disengagement and its interplay with empathic responses in depth with the use of qualitative methods in a Shared Reading-setting. Three Shared Reading-groups in Belgium read the short story ‘A Fine Business’ by the Danish author Tove Ditlevsen and participated in a focus-group interview afterward (N = 22). Deductive content analysis of the focus-group transcripts shows that moral disengagement from immoral actions and empathy for morally questionable characters are strongly derived from personal perspective and experience, including not only one’s own perspective on the story but also one’s life experiences. Results also show that moral disengagement and empathy are strongly connected.