Empathic People Research Articles

Empathy strengthens the effect of emotion on beauty.

Past research shows that emotion affects beauty judgments of images and music. Because it is widely supposed that our faculty of empathy facilitates aesthetic experience, we wondered whether individual levels of empathy modulate the effect of emotion on beauty. 164 participants rated the perceived beauty, happiness, and sadness of 12 art images, 12 nature photographs, and 24 songs. The stimuli were presented in two blocks, and participants took the PANAS mood questionnaire before and after each block. Between blocks, they viewed one of three mood induction videos, intended to increase their happiness, increase their sadness, or leave their mood unchanged. We also measured (trait) empathy with the Questionnaire for Cognitive and Affective Empathy. We used structural equation modeling to analyze the effect of empathy on emotion, beauty, and the relationship between them. We assessed four emotion variables: participants' felt happiness and sadness (mood questionnaire ratings) and perceived happiness and sadness (stimulus ratings). We find that higher empathy is associated with stronger positive relationships between beauty and both felt and perceived emotions, for both images and music (β ~ 0.06 per empathy point on a 10-pt. scale, p < 0.001). We also find that perceived happiness and sadness boost beauty directly for both images and music. However, sadness affects music more than images (β = 0.51 vs. 0.12, all p < 0.001), and empathy amplifies this relationship for music but not images. Thus, felt and perceived emotions produce more beauty, more so in more empathic people, and more so with music than images.

Characterizing empathy and compassion using computational linguistic analysis.

Many scholars have proposed that feeling what we believe others are feeling-often known as "empathy"-is essential for other-regarding sentiments and plays an important role in our moral lives. Caring for and about others (without necessarily sharing their feelings)-often known as "compassion"-is also frequently discussed as a relevant force for prosocial motivation and action. Here, we explore the relationship between empathy and compassion using the methods of computational linguistics. Analyses of 2,356,916 Facebook posts suggest that individuals (N = 2,781) high in empathy use different language than those high in compassion, after accounting for shared variance between these constructs. Empathic people, controlling for compassion, often use self-focused language and write about negative feelings, social isolation, and feeling overwhelmed. Compassionate people, controlling for empathy, often use other-focused language and write about positive feelings and social connections. In addition, high empathy without compassion is related to negative health outcomes, while high compassion without empathy is related to positive health outcomes, positive lifestyle choices, and charitable giving. Such findings favor an approach to moral motivation that is grounded in compassion rather than empathy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Are Empathic People Better Adjusted? A Test of Competing Models of Empathic Accuracy and Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Facets of Adjustment Using Self- and Peer Reports

Are individuals adept at perceiving others’ emotions optimally adjusted? We extend past research by conducting a high-powered preregistered study that comprehensively tests five theoretical models of empathic accuracy (i.e., emotion-recognition ability) and self-views and intra- and interpersonal facets of adjustment in a sample of 1,126 undergraduate students from Canada and 2,205 informants. We obtained both self-reports and peer-reports of adjustment and controlled for cognitive abilities as a potential confounding variable. Empathic accuracy (but not self-views of that ability) was positively related to relationship satisfaction as rated by both participants and informants. Self-views about empathic accuracy (but not actual empathic accuracy) were positively related to life satisfaction as rated by both participants and informants. All associations held when we controlled for cognitive abilities.

The Effects of Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Moral Judgement and Relevant Factors

Empathy is described as the ability to understand and experience others' feelings and thoughts. Moral judgment is an important part of moral cognition. Previous studies found that empathy was potentially correlated with moral judgment. In those studies, the researchers noticed that empathic people tended to behave more prosocial and the people with trait alexithymia tended to behave more utilitarian when facing some moral dilemmas. Whether cognitive empathy or affective empathy influence the judgment is still hotly debated. Some researchers thought cognitive empathy promoted positive results and affective empathy introduced negative results. Some other researchers hold the opposite opinion, and they thought that affective empathy should be the dominant, as it is spontaneously generated. As the research of empathy-moral judgment deepens, more and more relevant factors were found, such as guilt, population characters, and punishment. This review systematically reviewed cognitive and emotional empathy's contribution to moral judgment with other factors, such as guilt and moral character. This review suggested that empathy should be treated as an integral predictor of moral judgments. Because cognitive and emotional empathy both have their benefits and weaknesses, when combined, maximum impact could be achieved. This review can provide a relatively comprehensive understanding for developing effective interventions.

Фрагменты мемуарного и автобиографического характера в деловых документах XIX в. на примере отчетов сибирских генерал-губернаторов

The article reflects on boundary line of ego-documents and their inherent features. The author reviews the existing notions and offers her own approach. One traditional approach identifies memoir and/or autobiographical fragments in other types of documents. Another expands the corpus of ego-documents by including sources containing memoir and/or autobiographical fragments. Adherers of the latter approach postulate that professional autobiographies, official letters, formal requests, etc. convey personal traits, providing information about their authors and their feelings and emotional state. This article proposes a compromise solution: to include such texts in the corpus of ego-documents, placing them to its periphery, if size and significance of memoir and/or autobiographical fragments is substantial; in other instances, to indicate the presence of such fragments, noting their significance for characterization of the author’s personality. The article develops a definition, according to which memoir and/or autobiographical fragment is a thematically or plot-completed textual fragment reflecting personality or memory of certain person(s), incorporated in a text that is not memoir in its origin and purpose, created at the initiative of an author and containing direct personal statements. In order to identify such fragments, the article analyzes reports of the Siberian governor-generals of the 19th century; discovers circumstances and factors, under which memoir and/or autobiographical fragments most often appear in these official documents. These are: (1) first impressions of the region; (2) highlighting issues of personal interest; (3) sharing impressions that gave rise to strong emotions. The article concludes by arguing that memoir fragments often appear in the reports of governor-generals who could be characterized as enterprising, empathic people of high intellectual level, who enjoyed the emperor's trust, but (relatively) rarely had the opportunity for personal audience. These fragments are closely related to the reports’ agenda; they reflect the personality and individuality of the authors. At the same time, fragments do not change the nature of the document, thus preventing their attribution to ego-documents. Identification of such fragments and their methodical study can expand our understanding of significance and diversity of historical sources of this type, complement and enrich information about their authors. The very idea of identifying memoir and/or autobiographical fragments in documents of different types, including official government documents, seems promising and has potential for further research.

AVALIAÇÃO DA EMPATIA EM UNIVERSITÁRIOS A PARTIR DE UMA PERSPECTIVA EVOLUCIONISTA

Empathy has gained prominence within Evolutionary Psychology. It consists of sharing emotions and understanding the other's point of view and tends to differ between men and women. However, it is still unclear what are its evolutionary advantages. Clinical and mental health factors may also influence the expression of empathy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare empathy between male and female undergraduate students, as well as the clinical and mental health profiles in individuals with low and high empathy scores. We applied online the “Escala Multidimensional de Reatividade Interpessoal” (EMRI), to measure empathy, and the "ConVid - Pesquisa de Comportamentos'' to assess the emotional states and clinical profile of 155 students from the Federal University of Goiás. In total, there were 69 male participants (23.85 ± 3.72 years) and 86 female participants (24.29 ± 5.55 years). The scores of the empathy subscales were compared between genders using Student's t-test (p&lt;0.05). Higher scores of Empathic Concern (p&lt;0.0001), Personal Distress (p=0.0051) and Global Empathy Score (p=0.0002) were found for women compared to men. Moreover, more empathic people have higher levels of self-perception of their emotional states (p=0.0026). The results confirm the findings in the literature, which indicate that women tend to be more empathic than men. The study of the subject in other contexts are still important for a more precise understanding of the evolutionary phenomenon of empathy.

Improving the effectiveness of prosocial advertising campaigns: Message strategies to increase support from less empathic individuals

AbstractIndividuals with low levels of trait empathy are hesitant when it comes to helping people in need. This makes it difficult for nonprofit organizations to gain their support for prosocial advertising campaigns. An experimental study among 214 Swiss students examines what message strategies nonprofit organizations should use to increase support from less empathic people. We investigate the effects of depicting daily life situations where people in need are happy versus sad (visual message strategies) and the effects of presenting statistical versus anecdotal evidence (verbal message strategies). The results show that less empathic individuals hold more favorable attitudes toward prosocial advertising campaigns when exposed to sad daily life images and anecdotal evidence. Moreover, attitudes mediate message effects on less empathic individuals' intentions to comply with a prosocial advocacy. Overall, the study suggests that nonprofit organizations should prefer sad over happy daily life images and anecdotal over statistical evidence in prosocial advertising campaigns.

A descrição da narrativa do óbito: último ato individual, não solitário

INTRODUÇÃO: A morte é o último ato do personagem literário, sendo um ato individual, mas que não precisa ser solitário. Utilizando as obras literárias “Uma Vela para Dario”, “Um Corpo sem Nome” e “A morte de Ivan Ilitch”, mostramos e discutimos como a morte é retratada na literatura. DESENVOLVIMENTO: Ensaiamos sobre como a morte é impossível de ser partilhada, se tornando um ato individual. Também discorremos sobre como ela é retratada de forma solitária na literatura e sobre como a negação da morte e a morte no hospital constroem uma morte solitária. Ainda, tratamos sobre a anomia (conceituada como perda de nome, identidade e conexões sociais) e como ela é denunciada na literatura, revelando o extremo da solidão no óbito do personagem. Por fim, fizemos considerações sobre a possibilidade de tornar a morte mais confortável, quando a pessoa nesse momento da vida está em contato com pessoas e comportamentos empáticos, apesar da dificuldade de se estabelecer verdadeira empatia quando se nega a própria morte. CONCLUSÃO: As obras trabalhadas mostram como a negação, a indiferença, a despersonalização e a falta de empatia tornam a morte, que já é individual, solitária. Alguns atos de empatia são demonstrados nas obras, revelando como o pensar, vivenciar e viver a morte podem ser naturalizados e empáticos, quando se recusa a negação da morte.

Empathy and expectations of others' willingness to help

Researchers have linked trait empathy to an individual's willingness to help others. We examine whether trait empathy also predicts people's expectations that others will help them. We posit that highly empathic people are more attuned to the emotional drivers of others' prosocial behavior—an intrinsic desire to help and the discomfort of refusing a help request. Such insight should make empathic people more optimistic that their own requests for help will be granted. In two studies of US-based MTurk survey respondents, we found some support for the predicted association between empathy and estimates of compliance with help requests. Study 1 (N = 207; 40.1% Female; MAge = 30.1; 77.8% White) provided initial evidence for this relationship, and Study 2 (N = 404; 44.5% Female; MAge = 38.2; 69.3% White) replicated this association in a pre-registered, higher-powered study. Mediation analyses suggest this association may result from highly empathic individuals' awareness of others' desire to help. Limitations are discussed.

Does Empathy Pay? Evidence on Empathy and Salaries of Recent College Graduates

This paper examines linkages between empathy and salaries of recent college graduates. While it has been suggested that greater empathy enhances performance because empathic individuals work well with others and are good leaders, it is also possible that they will be less productive due to lower motivation to compete for pecuniary rewards or because they are considered to be too accommodating. Also, more empathic individuals may choose occupations that are more socially oriented and less well paid. We find a large, significant negative relationship between empathy and earnings for both men and women. While we cannot pinpoint the cause for this strong correlation or reach conclusions about causation, we find that empathic individuals choose college majors and sectors of employment that pay less. However, gender, major, and sector together do not account for the full negative relationship between empathy and salaries. While it seems likely that preferences lead more empathic people to choose lower paying occupations, we cannot eliminate the possibility that greater empathy has a negative effect on productivity.

Can Empathy Explain Gender Differences in Economic Policy Views in the United States?

ABSTRACTThis paper shows that different levels of empathy of men and women explain the well-documented gender differences in interventionist government economic policy views in the United States. Using the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) to measure empathy, the study finds that more empathic people support more interventionist policies. While greater empathy leads both men and women to support more government action, there is no gender difference in the effects of empathy on policy views. When policy views are separated by area, gender differences on policies concerning poverty, inequality, and social welfare disappear once empathy is accounted for, though they persist in views on free markets.

Teresa Rosas.

Teresa Rosas.

Empathic people have more friends: Empathic abilities predict social network size and position in social network predicts empathic efforts

Living in large groups and maintaining extensive social relationships, as humans do, requires special social capabilities. Past research has shown that social cognitive abilities predict people’s social network size. To extend these findings we explored the role of a social emotional ability, and investigated how empathic abilities shape people’s social network. In line with the social brain hypothesis the findings show that dispositional empathic abilities (IRI), and empathic concern specifically, predict how many close relationships people maintain. The study also found that emphatic abilities are strategically used in people’s social network, with more empathy exercised in the support group with closer relationships. The findings further demonstrate the social function of empathy and highlight the importance of understanding empathy in terms of its strategic exercise among various social relationships.

Cannot avert the eyes: reduced attentional blink toward others' emotional expressions in empathic people.

Empathy is one of the core components of social interaction. Although current models of empathy emphasize the role of attention, few studies have directly examined the relationship between attentional processes and individual differences in empathy. This study hypothesized that empathic people would process emotional expressions more efficiently and automatically compared to less empathic people. Crucially, such a processing advantage should be present only for faces of others compared to one's own face. To test this hypothesis, 100 healthy participants varying in their self-reported empathy levels underwent an attentional blink task that tested preferential attentional processing. Results showed a diminished attentional blink effect for sad faces of others in the high-empathy group. Additionally, performance differences in the task were related to both trait empathy and daily prosocial behavior. Overall, our results show that emotional stimuli preferentially capture the attention of empathic people, leading to automatic processing.

You not me: others' emotional facial expressions capture attention automatically – but only for empathic people.

You not me: others' emotional facial expressions capture attention automatically – but only for empathic people.

Neurocomputational mechanisms of prosocial learning and links to empathy

Reinforcement learning theory powerfully characterizes how we learn to benefit ourselves. In this theory, prediction errors-the difference between a predicted and actual outcome of a choice-drive learning. However, we do not operate in a social vacuum. To behave prosocially we must learn the consequences of our actions for other people. Empathy, the ability to vicariously experience and understand the affect of others, is hypothesized to be a critical facilitator of prosocial behaviors, but the link between empathy and prosocial behavior is still unclear. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) participants chose between different stimuli that were probabilistically associated with rewards for themselves (self), another person (prosocial), or no one (control). Using computational modeling, we show that people can learn to obtain rewards for others but do so more slowly than when learning to obtain rewards for themselves. fMRI revealed that activity in a posterior portion of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex/basal forebrain (sgACC) drives learning only when we are acting in a prosocial context and signals a prosocial prediction error conforming to classical principles of reinforcement learning theory. However, there is also substantial variability in the neural and behavioral efficiency of prosocial learning, which is predicted by trait empathy. More empathic people learn more quickly when benefitting others, and their sgACC response is the most selective for prosocial learning. We thus reveal a computational mechanism driving prosocial learning in humans. This framework could provide insights into atypical prosocial behavior in those with disorders of social cognition.

Evaluación de la empatía en población infantil argentina

Se ha encontrado que la empatía predice la conducta prosocial en la niñez media y se ha observado que los individuos empáticos son menos agresivos por su sensibilidad emocional y su capacidad para comprender las consecuencias negativas potenciales para él mismo y los otros que se pueden derivar de la agresión; por tanto, la empatía aparece negativamente relacionada con la conducta agresiva y positivamente relacionada con la conducta prosocial. La empatía incluye procesos cognitivos y experiencias afectivas y significa tanto una respuesta predominantemente cognitiva de comprensión acerca de cómo se siente el otro, como una comunión afectiva. Davis (1983) define la empatía como un constructo multidimensional. Su escala incluye componentes cognitivos: Toma de perspectiva y fantasía y componentes emocionales: preocupación empática y malestar personal. Presentaremos la adaptación argentina de The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) de Davis (1980) que consta de 28 ítems, con un formato de respuesta tipo Likert con cinco opciones de respuesta, puntuables de 0 a 4. La versión española del IRI (Mestre, Frías y Samper, 2004) fue administrada a dos muestras de niños argentinos, de ambos sexos, de 9 a 12 años de edad, que concurrían a escuelas primarias de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, con N= 633 y 652, respectivamente. Si bien el IRI de Davis conserva en las muestras argentinas su estructura básica, indicando que el modelo teórico de base se conserva, presenta diferencias en algunos de sus ítems en cuanto al significado que le otorgan los sujetos. Fundamentalmente, sería interesante explorar en profundidad la hipótesis de un proceso más del tipo de la inteligencia emocional que de una toma de perspectiva racional. En lo que respecta a las demás diferencias, en general, se deben a formas culturales distintas en la interpretación de los ítems y probablemente a la influencia de la edad.

Punishing and compensating others at your own expense: The role of empathic concern on reactions to distributive injustice

AbstractWhen confronted with violations of justice, people may be motivated not only to punish the violator, but also to compensate the victim. Whereas prior research has primarily concentrated on the question of when people are willing to punish, we provide a more comprehensive picture by also studying the willingness to compensate and by assessing the moderating role of empathic concern. Study 1 introduces the altruistic compensation game and shows that especially high empathic (compared to low empathic) people are willing to give up parts of their own resources to financially compensate the victims of distributive injustice. Study 2 completes the picture by directly comparing altruistic compensation with altruistic punishment. The study showed that high empathic people decided to compensate the victim, but low empathic people decided to punish the offender. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Emotional Empathy and Facial Reactions to Facial Expressions

This study investigates whether people high in emotional empathy are more facially reactive than are people low in emotional empathy when exposed to pictures of angry and happy facial expressions. Facial electromyographic activity was measured from the corrugator and the zygomatic muscle regions. In accordance with the predictions, the high empathic group reacted with larger corrugator activity to angry as compared to happy faces and with larger zygomatic activity to happy faces. However, the low empathic group did not differentiate between the angry and happy stimuli at all. The high empathic group, as compared to the low empathic group, also rated the angry faces as expressing more anger and the happy faces as being happier. It is concluded that high empathic people are particularly sensitive in reacting with facial reactions to facial expressions and that this ability is accompanied by a higher level of empathic accuracy.

Altruism or Egoism? That Is (Still) the Question

(1991). Altruism or Egoism? That Is (Still) the Question. Psychological Inquiry: Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 124-126.