Table 1. Dimensions of the picture rating.

Experienced empathic concern as the mean rating of six items (e.g., moved, sympathetic) of Batson et al. (1997)	1 (not at all) to 8 (very much)
Experienced personal distress as the mean rating of eight items (e.g., worried, upset) of Batson et al. (1997)	1 (not at all) to 8 (very much)
Arousal while watching the picture	1 (not at all) to 8 (very much)
State of the person depicted in the picture	1 (fine) to 8 (extremely bad)
Realism of the picture	1 (absolutely unrealistic) to 8 (absolutely realistic)
Fit between description of the situation and picture	1 (not at all) to 5 (very good)
Facilitation of imagining the situation by the description	1 (not at all) to 5 (very good)

In a pretest, pictures were rated on the seven dimensions presented on the left, with the response options at the right.