Individual Differences In Empathy Research Articles

Exploring the key drivers of responsive parenting in mothers and fathers - observed and self-reported responsiveness.

This article explores parental responsiveness - the ability of a parent to react to a child's needs adequately, promptly, and with tenderness and synchrony. Parental responsiveness can be measured using observational and self-report scales. The purpose of this study was to explore whether individual differences in empathy and attachment in mothers and fathers and their satisfaction with their relationship are predictors of parental responsiveness toward infants. Moreover, self-report and observational measures of parental responsiveness were compared. A total of 110 triads (mother, father, and child aged 6-10 months) took part in the free play procedure and parents' behaviors towards their children were assessed using the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale. Moreover, they filled out a set of questionnaires measuring parental self-reported responsiveness, empathy, experiences in close relationships and romantic relationship satisfaction. Higher empathic concern was connected with higher responsiveness and this was seen in both individual and partner measures. At the individual level, measures of responsiveness (self-report and observational) were not congruent and probably depended on other variables. In couples, there were positive correlations in three aspects of their family functioning: observed and self-reported parental responsiveness as well as relationship satisfaction. This study revealed differences between self-reported and observational measures of parental responsiveness, indicating that their results may not always be congruent and could depend on other variables.

Fluctuations and individual differences in empathy interact with stress to predict mental health, parenting, and relationship outcomes.

Empathy is a complex, multifaceted ability allowing for the most basic forms of social communication and plays a prominent role in multiple aspects of everyday lives. In this intensive longitudinal study, we assessed how empathy interacts with stress to predict central domains of psychosocial functioning: mental health, romantic relationships, and parenting. Fluctuations and individual differences in empathy were assessed across eight time points, where participants from the general population (N = 566) self-reported their empathy, stress, depressive symptoms, romantic satisfaction, and parental functioning. Both trait and state aspects of empathy were associated with all psychosocial outcomes, with state empathy showing a stronger effect. Additionally, empathy components interacted with stress-emotional empathy better-predicted outcomes under high stress, while cognitive empathy under low stress. Our findings advance the theoretical understanding of empathy, emphasizing the effects of state-dependent empathy fluctuations on our everyday mental and social lives.

Individual differences in empathy in Danish university students: A cross-sectional study.

Empathy is widely recognized as a multi-dimensional construct, involving emotional and cognitive components. These may cause distinct experiences and behaviors that can be both beneficial and deleterious to individuals' well-being and mental health. We wished to examine the association between emotional and cognitive empathy of Danish university students as measured by the multidimensional Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and study major, sex, age, and parental status. Additionally, we aimed to gauge the validity of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Student version (JSE-S) as a measure of primarily cognitive empathy in the context of medical majors by comparing JSE-S scores with IRI cognitive scores. In our national, cross-sectional study, conducted in October 2020, we used survey data from students in their first, third, and final study year. All students from University of Southern Denmark were invited to fill out IRI, and all medical students at Denmark's four medical educations were additionally invited to fill out the JSE-S. Associations were estimated by linear regression models. Of 14,072 invited, 2,595 students completed the questionnaire. Health majors scored statistically significantly higher on cognitive empathy than students from other study majors. The JSE-S correlated significantly with the cognitive empathy subscales of the IRI. Furthermore, the effects found in relation to sex, age-, and parental status were significant. Our study results show that large differences in empathy exist between university students and study majors. Overall, our results highlight (1) the relevance of investigating empathy as a multidimensional versus a global construct in young adult populations (including university students) and (2) the importance of focusing on differences in empathy across different student characteristics.

Protective roles of empathy and compassion against loneliness early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

ImportanceThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has caused concern of an impending “second wave” of loneliness and mental health problems following social disruption that included mandates to physically and socially distance from others. Research is needed to identify factors that can mitigate loneliness, which results from perceptions that one's social connections are less than desirable. ObjectiveWe examined whether individual differences in empathy and compassion would predict loneliness in a large sample of adults surveyed early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic controlling for social desirability and loneliness risk factors. DesignUsing a cross-sequential design, a baseline survey was fielded at seven time points (every two weeks) to seven different cohorts from March 22 to June 15, 2020. For each cohort, a follow-up survey was fielded one month after each baseline survey. ParticipantsParticipants who comprised the seven cohorts were recruited from two U.S. convenience samples, Amazon Mechanical Turk and Qualtrics Online Panels. The response rate across the follow-up surveys was 59% (total N = 3262). Main outcomes and measuresWe hypothesized that dispositional empathy and compassion at baseline would be associated with lower levels of loneliness at one-month follow-up. ResultsHigher empathy at baseline (Beta = -0.03; 95% CI -0.05 to -0.02; P < .001) was associated with lower loneliness at follow-up, even after controlling for social desirability and other loneliness risk factors. Higher compassion at baseline (Beta = -0.03; 95% CI -0.05 to -0.01; P < .001) was also associated with lower loneliness at follow-up. Conclusion and relevanceWe found that early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, higher levels of empathy and compassion predicted lower levels of loneliness one month later. Future research, including experimental designs, should examine whether increasing empathy, or the tendency to share others’ positive and negative feelings, can confer a protective effect against perceived social isolation during collective trauma characterized by physical and social distancing.

ERP indicators of situational empathy pain

This study aimed to validate a recent conceptualization proposed by Coll and colleagues (2017a) that defines empathic response as a situational, cognitively complex process requiring emotion identification and affective sharing. Sixty right-handed women university students (18–29 years) voluntarily participated in the study. We measured ratings for empathy pain to assess the individual differences in empathy. At the same time, we collected peak amplitudes of the event-related potentials (ERPs) components to empathic stimulations of painful faces or hand stimuli and neutral images. Electrophysiological results proved that the P2, N170, N2, and P3 ERP components were associated with the modulation of empathic responses. Participants with low empathic responses (p < 0.05) disclosed a larger frontal central N2 for the painful hands than for painful faces (p < .05) and a reduced temporoparietal N170 for painful hands compared to neutral ones. Furthermore, our results highlighted higher frontal central P3a and P3b to painful stimuli than controls (p ≤ 0.01). We explained these findings assuming that in identifying the emotional value of a stimulus, the emotional content can modulate the reorientation of attention and the in-memory updating process associated with the empathic response. Results are in line with Coll and colleagues' conceptualization of the empathic response that includes two cognitive processes, the identification of emotions, and affective sharing, related to the recognition of the emotional state of the other in the self.

Trait Empathy Modulates Patterns of Personal and Social Emotions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused profound consequences on people’s personal and social feelings worldwide. However, little is known about whether individual differences in empathy, a prosocial trait, may affect the emotional feelings under such threat. To address this, we measured 345 Chinese participants’ personal emotions (e.g., active, nervous), social emotions (i.e., fearful and empathetic feelings about various social groups), and their empathy traits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the representational similarity analysis (RSA), we calculated the pattern similarity of personal emotions and found the similarity between the positive and negative emotions was less in the high vs. low empathy groups. In addition, people with high (vs. low) empathy traits were more likely to have fearful and sympathetic feelings about the disease-related people (i.e., depression patients, suspected COVID-19 patients, COVID-19 patients, flu patients, SARS patients, AIDS patients, schizophrenic patients) and showed more pattern dissimilarity in the two social feelings toward the disease-related people. These findings suggest a prominent role of trait empathy in modulating emotions across different domains, strengthening the polarization of personal emotions as well as enlarging social feelings toward a set of stigmatized groups when facing a pandemic threat.

Regulating negative emotions of others reduces own stress: Neurobiological correlates and the role of individual differences in empathy

BackgroundWhile witnessing the suffering of other people results in personal distress, it is not clear whether regulating others’ emotions in such situations also comes at an emotional cost for the observer. MethodsThis study included 62 subjects and used a newly developed functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) paradigm to investigate mechanisms of self and other emotion regulation via reappraisal while the subject and an interaction partner outside the scanner were facing the same distressing situation simultaneously. The relationship between distress levels and individual differences in emotional and cognitive empathy were also assessed. ResultsWe found that individuals exhibited especially high levels of personal distress when relating with a partner while both being exposed to aversive photographs and that especially highly empathetic individuals were prone to such personal distress. Moreover, when engaging in social emotion regulation, personal distress was reduced in the observer at a similar rate as in self emotion regulation. FMRI analyses revealed increased activation for other vs. self emotion regulation in the precuneus and the left temporo-parietal junction, which are commonly engaged in social cognition. Furthermore, this activation was associated with lower self-reported stress and decreased sympathetic autonomic activity. While regulating others, precuneus activation exhibited a distinctive functional connectivity profile with parietal emotion regulation regions. ConclusionsThis study demonstrates benefits of actively regulating another person's emotions for reducing one's own distress and identifies the precuneus as an important node for social emotion regulation. Given the novelty of the study design, the results are of exploratory and preliminary nature.

Empathy as a predictor of peripersonal space: Evidence from the crossmodal congruency task

To investigate whether individual differences in Empathy predict the characteristics of Peripersonal Space (PPS) representations, we asked participants to complete the IRI questionnaire and a visuo-tactile crossmodal congruency task (CCT) as an index of PPS. In the CCT, they responded to the elevation of a tactile target while ignoring a visual distractor presented at the same (i.e. congruent) or different (i.e. incongruent) elevation. The target-distractor distance was also manipulated in depth, with visual distractors randomly presented at near, middle or far locations (0 cm, 25 cm or 50 cm). The near and middle crossmodal congruency effects (CCE) were inversely related to participants’ scores on the Empathic Concern sub-scale (EC). Furthermore, the slope of participants’ CCE across locations was related to EC scores, with flatter slopes for higher EC individuals. Thus, higher EC individuals showed reduced visuo-tactile integration responses within PPS and a reduced differentiation between PPS and extra-personal space (EPS).

Individual Differences in Decisions on Physical Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic decisions on physical distancing including decisions on wearing face masks in public may depend on a number of individual characteristics, representations of threats and the degree of personal responsibility for complying with the imposed requirements.. This study on a Russian sample (N = 308) took placeduring April-May 2020. We used verbal tasks on social distancing to test the hypotheses that individual differences in empathy, implicit theories of emotions, the Dark Triad traits, rationality, and risk readiness predict decisions on whether or not to wear a mask. We developed five verbal tasks – situations where decisions on whether to wear a mask or not were made by choosing from several given reasons. Among the reasons for wearing a mask, Care for Self was chosen by 46% of participants who received this as a reason, the Law-abidingness reason was chosen by 44%, and 31% selected Care for Others. Regarding the reasons for not wearing a mask, 16% of participants chose Autonomy for Oneself, 11% – Risk Underestimation and 5% – Autonomy for Others. Logistic regressions identified that empathy, rationality, and narcissism were significant predictors of a decision to wear a face mask, while risk readiness and psychopathy were predictors of a decision not to wear a mask. Implicit theories of emotions and problem-solving self-efficacy were significant predictors only for choices between the reasons for wearing a mask. Personality variables of empathy, rationality, risk readiness, and the Dark Triad traits influence decisions on adhering to physical distancing.

No, No One Had Fun. Individual Differences in Nonliteral Language Perception.

Nonliteral language represents a complex form of communication that can be interpreted in numerous different ways. Our study explored how individual differences in personality and communication styles affect the evaluation of literal and nonliteral language in the context of assumptions made by the Tinge Hypothesis (Dews & Winner, 1995). Participants watched videos of social interactions focusing on positive, negative, sarcastic, and jocular statements. They evaluated speaker intentions and social impressions and completed several personality and communication style questionnaires. Individual differences in empathy, defense style, and sarcasm use correlated with the accuracy of identifying speaker intent. Additionally, positive statements were rated as friendlier when compared to jocular statements, thereby supporting the Tinge Hypothesis. However, literal negative statements were rated as more friendly than sarcastic statements, which is inconsistent with the Tinge Hypothesis. The current results provide novel evidence for the Tinge Hypothesis using multimodal, dynamic stimuli and highlight the role of the individual personality of the recipient in evaluating sarcasm and jocularity.

The Affiliative Role of Empathy in Everyday Interpersonal Interactions.

Empathy theoretically serves an affiliative interpersonal function by satisfying motives for intimacy and union with others. Accordingly, empathy is expected to vary depending on the situation. Inconsistent empirical support for empathy's affiliative role may be because of methodology focused on individual differences in empathy or differences between controlled experimental conditions, which fail to capture its dynamic and interpersonal nature. To address these shortcomings, we used ecological momentary assessment to establish typical patterns of empathy across everyday interactions. Associations among empathy, affect, and interpersonal behaviour of self and interaction partner were examined in a student sample (N = 330), then replicated in a preregistered community sample (N = 279). Multilevel structural equation modelling was used to distinguish individual differences in empathy from interaction-level effects. Results show that people are more empathetic during positively valenced interactions with others perceived as warm and when expressing warmth. By confirming the typically affiliative role of empathy, existing research to the contrary can be best understood as exceptions to the norm.

Predicting externalizing behavior in toddlerhood from early individual differences in empathy.

From middle childhood onward, there is often a negative link between empathy and externalizing behavior problems. Patterns at younger ages are still unclear, with mixed findings of no association, negative associations, and positive associations. This study examines links between empathy and externalizing problems, beginning in infancy. A community sample of infants (N=165) was assessed for empathy at 3, 6, 12, 18, and 36months, using behavioral observations. Externalizing problems were reported at 18 months (by mothers) and 36 months (by mothers and daycare teachers). Boys showed more externalizing problems than girls. For boys, negative associations between empathy and externalizing appeared, particularly with teacher reports. For girls, there were positive associations between empathy and externalizing, which weakened with age. For both genders, empathy at ages 3, 6, and 18 months appeared to protect against increases in externalizing from 18 to 36 months. The role of empathy in the development of early externalizing depends on both gender and age; toddler boys' externalizing may more typically stem from low empathy, whereasgirls' early externalizing appears to be underlain by heightened sensitivity and unregulated or assertive approach attempts.

Children's reactions to inequality: Associations with empathy and parental teaching

While children generally prefer equal distributions of resources, we know little about the contextual and individual variability in these preferences. The present work examined experimental manipulations and associations between individual differences in empathy and parental teaching of “just world beliefs”, and children's perceptions of, and reactions to, unequal distributions. Children (aged 5–8, N = 96) watched videos of two puppets receiving unequal resources in varying contexts: distribution by one or multiple individuals, crossed with taking the perspective of the advantaged or disadvantaged puppet. Age was positively associated with perceived unfairness. Behavioural reactions to distributions were associated with individual and contextual factors: Greater cognitive empathy and lower teaching of just world beliefs were associated with increased rectification, and children with greater affective empathy favoured the disadvantaged puppet, but these relations only emerged in certain contexts. Findings provide guidance for interventions aimed at promoting morality, suggesting emphasis on behavioural responses to inequality and empathy-training.

PROFESSIONALLY IMPORTANT QUALITIES OF A PSYCHOLOGIST IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PROBLEM OF EMOTIONAL BURNOUT

The article presents the results of an empirical study of the relationship between indicators of emotional burnout and indicators of empathy and sociability as professionally significant qualities of the personality of a psychologist.As a result of a theoretical study of the problem, it turned out that representatives of socionomic professions, which include the profession of a psychologist, are subjected to significant psycho-emotional stress. Such professional activities potentially contain a danger of traumatic situations and the likelihood of occupational stress. Given the specifics of the profession, psychologists use their own personality and its resources in professional activities. Therefore, there exist rather stringent requirements for the personal and professional qualities of specialists in this profile. The development of professionally significant qualities of the personality of a psychologist during vocational training can ensure the effectiveness of his future professional activity and create a certain resource for self-perception and self-regulation.The empirical part of this research was to study the relationship between indicators of emotional burnout, empathy, and sociability as professionally significant qualities for the personality of a psychologist. For these are the qualities that researchers identify as important for a professional psychologist.An empirical study using valid and reliable diagnostic techniques reveals that there are individual differences in empathy and sociability in people with different levels of emotional burnout. It has been empirically proved that people with a high level of emotional burnout are characterized by a low level of empathy and sociability. Those ones with a low level of emotional burnout are characterized by a high value of general empathy and sociability. It is proved that the development of such professionally important qualities as empathy and sociability have an impact on the level of psychologist’s burnout.

연령과 성별에 따른 공감의 차이

연령과 성별에 따른 공감의 차이

A bidimensional measure of empathy: Empathic Experience Scale.

Empathy is a key notion in the study of sociality. A phenomenological perspective on empathy as intersubjective understanding offers a common ground for multiple dimensions. Corresponding to the dichotomy between perceptual and cognitive levels, two constructs can be distinguished: vicariously experiencing and intuitively understanding others’ emotions. We developed and validated a new questionnaire for the assessment of individual differences in empathy. In a first study (N = 921), we created a questionnaire measuring empathy consisting of a pool of 75 items. Exploratory factor analysis suggested to retain two factors (“Intuitive Understanding” and “Vicarious Experience”), whereas a 30-item version of the questionnaire had satisfactory psychometric properties. In a second study (N = 504), we administered the 30-items questionnaire and several concurrent/divergent measures. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a two-factor structure best represented its latent factor structure. The results show that our questionnaire could be considered a reliable and valid measure of empathy with internal consistencies of 0.93 and 0.95 for Vicarious Experience and Intuitive Intuitive Understanding, respectively. Whereas our questionnaire mostly showed the expected convergence with existing scales of empathy, the correlations also suggest that it adds valuable new information to the assessment of empathy. The two-factor structure suggests that the perceptual (vicarious) experience and the basic (non-effortful) cognitive awareness of others’ emotions can be assessed as distinct constructs. This bidimensional structure that distinguishes between the perceptual experience and the basic cognitive awareness of others’ emotional states connects theoretical, empirical, and clinical data from psychology and neuroscience.

Detachment from Work: A Diary Study on Telepressure, Smartphone Use and Empathy.

Technology has drastically reshaped the workplace over the past decades. While it provides organizations and their employees a variety of benefits, there is also a growing perception that technological advancements (e.g., the evolution from telephone to smartphone) in the workplace may have a negative impact on employees’ mental health. Using a diary approach, we examined the direct effect of workplace telepressure during off-job hours on psychological detachment from work and the potential mediating role of work-related smartphone use during off-job hours in this relation. In addition, employees’ individual differences in empathy was proposed to act as a cross-level moderator of the relation between workplace telepressure and work-related smartphone use. A sample of 80 employees, representing a wide range of occupations and organizations, completed a daily survey on five successive workdays (N = 337–400 day-level observations). Results of multilevel analyses yielded no direct effect of workplace telepressure on psychological detachment on a day-to-day basis. Yet, the results supported a negative indirect effect of daily workplace telepressure during off-job hours on daily psychological detachment, mediated via daily work-related smartphone use during off-job hours. Additionally, the relation between workplace telepressure and work-related smartphone use was not strengthened by the affective component nor the cognitive component of other-oriented empathy. Our study highlights the importance of a clear organizational policy regarding work-related smartphone use during off-job hours and provides valuable input for strategies aiming to ameliorate employees’ psychological detachment and proper smartphone use.

Early life predictors of callous-unemotional and psychopathic traits.

Psychopathy is a disorder that occurs primarily in males. Offenders with psychopathic traits are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in society, particularly violent crime. Early childhood is a time when individual differences in empathy and guilt-key indicators of the construct of psychopathy-are first evident. A growing number of longitudinal studies have begun to investigate how factors in infancy and early childhood predict psychopathic-like traits in later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. These studies have suggested that parenting styles during infancy (parental sensitivity, maternal harsh intrusion, commenting on the emotional state of the child) as well as attachment styles are predictive of later psychopathic-like traits. In addition, child characteristics such as temperament and the functioning of biological systems such as the autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis are predictive. Overall, studies have suggested that at least some of the origins of psychopathic traits are present in infancy and early childhood, which is consistent with the perspective of psychopathy as a neurodevelopmental disorder. A recent evolutionary-developmental model provides hypotheses regarding how psychopathy may develop and why it is more common in males than females. This model, and its implications for intervention, is discussed in the context of the longitudinal studies that have been conducted on psychopathy.

Developmental Changes and Individual Differences in Trust and Reciprocity in Adolescence.

A Trust Game was used to examine trust and reciprocity development in 12–18‐year‐old‐adolescents (N = 496), as findings have been conflicting and transitions in adolescence remain elusive. Furthermore, this study tested the roles of gender, risk, and individual differences in empathy, impulsivity, and antisocial tendencies in trust and reciprocity. Results indicate stability in trust and a decrease in reciprocity across adolescence, but also show that trust and reciprocity choices were influenced by risk, and that empathy mediated the age‐related decrease in reciprocity. Males trusted more than females, but there were no gender differences in reciprocity. These findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences and adolescents’ sensitivities to varying contexts in explaining trust and reciprocity development in adolescence.

The Role of Empathy and Life Satisfaction in Internet and Smartphone Use Disorder.

Recent studies have yielded initial evidence for an association between Internet Use Disorder (IUD), empathy, and life satisfaction. In the present study we sought to replicate these previous findings, and then to extend this research by also examining the relationship between empathy, life satisfaction, and the related phenomenon of Smartphone Use Disorder (SUD). The present study included independent samples from China (N = 612, 162 females) and Germany (N = 304, 207 females), with the same set of questionnaires administered to both samples. IUD was measured with Pawlikowski's s-IAT and SUD was assessed with the short version of Kwon's Smartphone Addiction Scale. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was used to assess individual differences in empathy. Please note that for the German sample data on the empathy quotient (EQ) are also available. Life satisfaction data were collected using items from the SOEP-Questionnaire (Socio-Economic Panel, Germany). In both of our samples we replicated previous findings showing the association between higher IUD, lower empathy, and lower life satisfaction scores. In addition, individuals with higher SUD showed higher scores on the IRI Personal Distress scale in China and Germany, while further associations between IRI dimensions and SUD were only found in the Chinese sample. Personal Distress is known to be highly correlated with the personality trait of Neuroticism, hence higher stress/negative emotionality in tense social situations is related to SUD. In the present study we confirm earlier findings showing the relationship between empathy, life satisfaction, and IUD, and extend some of these findings to SUD. We also emphasize the importance of cross-cultural studies when investigating IUD/SUD in the context of empathy and life satisfaction.