Low cognitive empathy and its relationship to relational, online, and physical aggression in young adults in Australia

Abstract

There is considerable debate in the literature about the nature and strength of the association between low empathy and aggression. This research aimed to contribute to this debate by comparing empathy as measured by the Basic Empathy Scale, a validated measure of both cognitive empathy (i.e. the ability to understand the emotions of others) and affective empathy (i.e. the ability to experience the emotions of others) to multiple forms of aggression, using a sample of 765 second-year Australian university students (mean age 21.5, SD = 4.6) enrolled in a criminology theory course. The results showed that males had significantly higher levels of physical and online aggression compared to females, but males and females did not differ in their levels of relational forms of aggression. However, females scored significantly higher on cognitive and affective empathy and also showed significantly greater self-control. For both males and females, most forms of aggression were independently predicted by low levels of self-control and low cognitive empathy, with a further suggestion that the interaction between these may be an important contributor. These findings suggest that approaches to reduce all forms of aggression may benefit from addressing the key components of low self-control (e.g. self-centredness, impulsive and risk-taking behaviour), and limitations in the ability to understand the emotions of others (i.e. cognitive empathy).