Abstract
BackgroundGiven the influence that personality can have on empathy, this study explores the relationship between empathy and personality, using three different measures of empathy, and taking into account gender and specialty preference.MethodsCross-sectional study. One hundred and ten medical students completed the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Empathy Quotient, and the NEO-FFI Big Five personality model. Multivariable linear regression was performed to assess the association between personality traits and empathy.ResultsEmpathy scales showed weak and moderate correlation with personality. The strongest correlations were observed between IRI-Fantasy and Openness, and between IRI-Personal Distress and Neuroticism. Gender and specialty preference can modify this relationship. The extreme groups of Empathy Quotient had significant differences in most personality traits.ConclusionsThis study confirmed that empathy is related to personality. Using three empathy scales allows personalizing the evaluation of different empathy models and its relation with personality. These results can help to design programs to study if some personalized intervention strategies could improve the empathy in medical students.
Highlights
Given the influence that personality can have on empathy, the aim of this research is to explore the relationship between empathy and personality, using three different measures of empathy and taking into account gender and specialty preference
This study explores the relationship between three empathy scales and the Big Five personality traits in medical students, taking into account gender and specialty preference, not yet been explored in previous studies
We might teach medical students to accurately perceive and identify their emotions and those of others. They could improve the scores of Agreeableness and decrease Neuroticism scores, above all it would improve empathic behaviour and patient care
Summary
Given the influence that personality can have on empathy, this study explores the relationship between empathy and personality, using three different measures of empathy, and taking into account gender and specialty preference. Empathy is the ability to identify and understand the thoughts and feelings of others and to respond with appropriate emotions [1]. It is a complex social emotion difficult to conceptualize and measure [2, 3]. The IRI (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) is a multidimensional approach that permits discrimination between cognitive [IRI-PT (IRI-Perspective Taking) and IRI-FS (IRI-Fantasy Scale)] and affective empathy [IRI-Empathetic Concern (IRI-EC) and IRI-PD (IRI-Personal Distress)] [6, 7]. There is conflicting evidence about the relationship between empathy in medical students with gender and specialty preference. To date higher empathy scores have been observed in women in JSPE [4, 7, 9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18], in IRI-FS and IRI-PD [7], and in EQ [1]
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