Consistency in civil servant decisions is paramount to upholding judicial equality for citizens and individuals seeking safety through governmental intervention. We investigated refugee status decisions made by a sample of civil servants at the Swedish Migration Agency. We hypothesized, based on the emotional demands such decisions bring with them, that participants would exhibit a compassion fade effect such that refugee status was less likely to be granted over time. To test this, we administered a questionnaire containing brief presentations of asylum seekers and asked participants to judge how likely they would be to give refugee status to the person. Crucially the first, middle, and final case presented were matched on decision relevant characteristics. Consistent with our hypothesis, we saw a significant decline in ratings. These effects were accentuated by the amount of time a participant had worked at the agency, consistent with depletion of affective resources, and attenuated in workers with greater responsibility and additional training. We conclude that active regulation of empathic and affective responses to asylum seekers may play a role in determining the outcome in refugee status decisions.

中文翻译：

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一再的难民身份决定中的矛盾之处

公务员决策的一致性对于维护通过政府干预寻求安全的公民和个人的司法平等至为重要。我们调查了瑞典移民局的一些公务员做出的难民身份决定。根据这样的决定带来的情感需求，我们假设参与者会表现出同情心淡入淡出的效果，从而使难民身份随着时间的推移不太可能获得授予。为了验证这一点，我们管理了一份问卷，其中简要介绍了寻求庇护者，并请参与者判断他们将给该人以难民身份的可能性。至关重要的是，第一，中间和最后一个案例在决策相关特征上是匹配的。与我们的假设一致，我们看到评级显着下降。参与者在代理机构工作的时间增加了这些影响，这与情感资源的消耗是一致的，而责任更大并接受了额外培训的工人则减弱了这种影响。我们得出结论，对寻求庇护者的移情和情感反应的积极调节可能在确定难民身份决定的结果方面发挥作用。