Other-oriented Empathy Research Articles

Playfulness in Chinese preschoolers: the role of self- and other-oriented empathy and gender

ABSTRACT The self-oriented and other-oriented empathy dimensions may have different relationships with playfulness. However, a scarcity of research exists on the association between empathy and playfulness. The present research contained two studies. Parents of 386 preschoolers (M age = 4.89, SD age = 0.79) attended Study 1, and teachers of 369 preschoolers (M age = 4.16, SD age = 0.83) attended Study 2. The parents and teachers completed the Chinese versions of the Children's Playfulness Scale (CPS-C) and the Chinese Empathy Questionnaire (EmQue-C). The results of these two studies revealed the pattern of associations between empathy and playfulness: while the self-oriented empathy dimension (i.e. emotion contagion) negatively predicted preschoolers’ playfulness, the two other-oriented empathy dimensions (attention to others’ distress and prosocial behaviour) positively predicted playfulness. Moreover, gender moderated the association between empathy and playfulness. These findings enhanced our understanding of the social and emotional traits of playful children.

Parental Burnout and Prosocial Behavior among Chinese Adolescents: The Role of Empathy.

Parental burnout refers to exhaustion caused by the parenting role. This devastating negative emotion can have repercussions for adolescent social development. Nevertheless, much remains unclear about the association between parental burnout and adolescent prosocial behavior and the potential mechanisms underlying this relationship. Based on theoretical and empirical evidence, the current study examined the relationship between parental burnout and adolescent prosocial behavior by using a sequential mediation model that included both parental empathy and adolescent empathy as potential mediators. A total of 488 parent-adolescent dyads (for adolescents: 45.7% men, 54.3% women, Mage = 15.28 ± 1.67 years; for parents: 36.5% fathers, 63.5% mothers, Mage = 41.30 ± 3.79 years) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, social desirability, parental burnout, parental empathy, adolescent empathy, and adolescent prosocial behavior. After controlling for demographic covariates and social desirability, the results showed that parental burnout had a negative effect on adolescent-reported prosocial behavior through parental cognitive empathy and adolescent other-oriented empathy (adolescent cognitive empathy and empathic concern) sequentially. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of parental burnout as a family environmental factor detrimental to the positive functioning of adolescents through parental reactions to their children's emotions and children's own social competence.

Predicting Prosocial Personality, Other-Oriented Empathy, Helpfulness, and Social Exchange Styles Based on Value System

A deeper understanding and promotion of moral personality is achieved by understanding egoism better. To this end, this study investigates the associations between prosocial personality and social exchange styles based on a range of egoistic and altruistic values. The study has a descriptive-correlational design. Sampling was conducted using multi-stage cluster sampling. Data were collected using the Protocol Personality Battery, Social Exchange Styles Questionnaire, and Portrait Values Questionnaire and analysed using stepwise multiple linear regression and multi-dimensional scaling. Our findings show that conflicting predictive values in some exchange styles, which are close to the prosocial personality, could represent an egoistic-altruistic spectrum in those styles that supported the research hypothesis.

“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”? The relationship of self-care with empathy and altruistic behavior

Aim The aim of the study was to investigate whether self-care, understood as a set of functions ensuring one’s own safety and personal development, promotes a tendency toward empathy and altruism. Method The study was conducted online on a group of 331 people, using the Self-Care Questionnaire, the Empathic Sensitiveness Scale, the Altruism Questionnaire, and the Social Desirability Questionnaire. The data was analyzed using both a variable-centered and a person-centered approach. Results Results obtained through path analysis revealed that the association between self-care capacity and engaging in altruistic behavior was mediated by tendencies toward empathic concern and perspective-taking. Self-care contributed to willingness to behave for the benefit of others, as it fostered other-oriented empathy. Cluster analysis results confirmed that properly developed abilities to protect and care for oneself were accompanied by empathic sensitivity to the welfare of others and willingness to engage in altruistic behavior. Notwithstanding, the results also indicated that self-care deficits do not preclude engaging in helping activities when they allow one to reduce one’s own empathic suffering. Conclusions Results obtained through correlation-regression and cluster analyses demonstrated that self‑care promotes mature empathizing – associated with empathic concern and perspective-taking – and engaging in selfless actions for the benefit of others.

The relationship between maternal and infant empathy: The mediating role of responsive parenting.

Individual empathy emerges during infancy, and its development is influenced by family environmental factors such as parental characteristics and parenting style. In this study, we examined how maternal empathy was related to infant empathy and the mediating role of responsive parenting in this relationship using situational observation and scale measurement data. Thirty-three infants aged 11-30 months (M = 20.18, SD = 5.18) and their mothers (all from middle-income Chinese families) participated in simulated distress scenarios and structured mother-infant interaction sessions. These paradigms are widely used to study infant empathy and responsive parenting. The maternal empathy levels were measured using the Adult Empathy Scale (E-scale). The results indicate that (1) by their second year, infants largely acquire the capacity for other-oriented empathy and display significantly greater levels of empathy toward their mothers than toward strangers; (2) maternal empathy is significantly and positively correlated with responsive parenting and infant empathy, responsive parenting is significantly and positively correlated with infant empathy; and (3) responsive parenting fully mediates the effect of maternal empathy on infant empathy. These findings indicate that maternal empathy level can be enhanced to improve the quality of parent-child interaction, thereby promoting infant empathy development.

Prosocial Personality as a Predictor of Burnout in Spanish Social Workers

Abstract The aim of this study is to establish the link between burnout and prosocial personality and discover how prosocial personality influences burnout. A single-group ex post facto prospective descriptive design questionnaire was created incorporating socio-demographic data, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Penner’s Prosocial Personality Battery. The study involved 442 members of professional social workers’ associations in Spain, comprising 91.1 per cent women and 8.9 per cent men, with ages ranging from twenty-four to sixty-three years. The results showed that social responsibility is significantly lower and personal distress is higher in emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, whilst the personal accomplishment variable correlates positively with the positive variables of prosociality and negatively with personal distress. Social responsibility, perspective-taking, self-reported altruism, prosociality factor 1 (other-oriented empathy) and prosociality factor 2 (helpfulness) were found to be significantly higher amongst professionals without burnout, while personal distress predominates in professionals with burnout. The study also found that personal distress and mutual concerns moral reasoning are risk factors for burnout, whilst perspective-taking is a protective factor. It was concluded that prosociality acts as a protective factor against burnout—a novel idea of great importance when developing prevention programmes to alleviate this problem amongst professionals.

Do empathy and oxytocin predict responsiveness to a crying infant simulator in expecting and non-expecting couples? A multilevel study

ABSTRACT Infant crying is a strong emotional stimulus that elicits caregiving responses in adults. Here we examine the role of empathy (measured with the Polish version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and salivary oxytocin in modulating sensitive responsiveness to a crying infant simulator in two groups of heterosexual couples: 111 expecting or 110 not expecting a baby. Sensitive responsiveness was observed during a standardized procedure using the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale while participants took care of the infant simulator, both individually and as a couple. Other-oriented empathy predicted elevated levels of individual but not couple sensitive responsiveness. More OT reactivity to crying predicted less responsiveness in non-expecting couples, which might be explained by their stronger focus on task performance. This study uniquely combined hormonal, observational and self-report measures in couples, and showed that personality and hormonal correlates of sensitive responsiveness might be studied before the child’s birth with the use of infant simulators.

Promoting Factors of Learning Other-oriented Empathy and Effects on Nursing Care:In the Course of Perioperative Training of Nursing Students

Promoting Factors of Learning Other-oriented Empathy and Effects on Nursing Care:In the Course of Perioperative Training of Nursing Students

Voices that Care Differently: Understanding the Effectiveness of a Conversational Agent with an Alternative Empathy Orientation and Emotional Expressivity in Mitigating Verbal Abuse

ABSTRACT Conversational agents (CAs) offer new functionality and convenience. While their sales have been soaring, they have also rapidly become victims of verbal abuse by their users. Without proper handling of abusive usage, abusers’ actions can be reinforced and transferred to real life. This study investigates whether alternative response styles of empathy orientation and emotional expressivity of voice-activated virtual assistants influence users’ moral emotions found to reduce verbal aggression as well as whether they affect user perceptions of the agent’s capability. Ninety-eight participants were assigned to one of the three emotional expressivity conditions (no-facial expression, fixed-facial expression, varied-facial expression) and interacted with two alternative empathy orientation conditions (other-oriented, self-oriented) of agents. The experimental results show that, regardless of the emotional expressivity types, the agent’s empathy orientation has a significant effect on the moral emotions and agent capability perceptions. Overall, an agent that employed other-oriented empathy style elicited most positive responses from the users. However, the preference was not across the board, as about one-third of the participants showed preference to the self-oriented CA. Users valued agents’ verbal contents and vocal characteristics above their facial expressions. Based on the study findings, we draw several design guidelines and suggest avenues for future research.

Non-subsumptive memory and narrative empathy

This article shows the relevance of a model of non-subsumptive understanding for theorising memory as a mode of sense-making that can contribute to understanding the other in ethically sustainable ways. It develops a theory of non-subsumptive memory and narrative empathy. While understanding is often seen as a form of appropriation, assimilation, and subsumption of the singular under the general, a hermeneutic approach suggests that there are also non-subsumptive, non-appropriative, dialogical forms of understanding. In dialogue with Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Gehen, ging, gegangen ( Go, Went, Gone), the article argues that cultural memorial forms, as (narrative) models of sense-making, tend to be productive when they adapt and change as they are applied to new situations and harmful when they subsume new experiences under fixed meaning templates. The article envisages memory as a resource for learning and other-oriented empathy in processes of dialogical understanding.

When the killing has been done: Exploring associations of personality with third-party judgment and punishment of homicides in moral dilemma scenarios.

Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish perpetrators. Here, we explored how observers’ personality is associated with their cognitive, emotional, and punishing reactions towards perpetrators using data from 1,004 participants who responded to a set of fifteen third-party perspective moral dilemmas. Among those, four scenarios (architect, life boat, footbridge, smother for dollars) describing deliberate killings were compared to investigate the role of the content features “motive for killing” (selfish vs. utilitarian) and “evitability of victims’ death”. Participants’ moral appropriateness ratings, emotions towards perpetrators, and assigned punishments revealed complex scenario-personality interactions. Trait psychopathy was associated with harsher punishments in all scenarios but also with less concern about killing in general, an increased moral appreciation of utilitarian motives for killing, and a reduced concern about the killing of avoidable victims. Need for cognition was associated with considering a utilitarian motive for killing as a mitigating factor, while intuitive/authority-obedient thinking was linked to a strong focus on avoidability of harm as an aggravating factor when assigning punishments. Other-oriented empathy, trait anxiety, and justice sensitivity did not account for differences in third-party punishments. Our explorative findings highlight the importance of inter-individual differences for moral decision making and sense of justice.

An investigation of empathy in male and female fans of aggressive music

Concerns have been raised that persistent exposure to violent media can lead to negative outcomes such as reduced empathy for the plight of others. The present study investigated whether fans of aggressive heavy or death metal music show reduced empathic reactions to aggression, relative to fans of non-aggressive music. 108 participants who self-identified as fans of heavy or death metal, classical or jazz music ( n=36 per group) were presented with vignettes that described a primary character’s reaction (the ‘aggressor’) in response to a secondary character’s irritating action (the ‘instigator’). The aggressor’s reaction was either non-aggressive, mildly aggressive or strongly aggressive. After each vignette, participants provided ratings of state empathic concern (other-oriented empathy) and personal distress (self-oriented distress). They also completed measures of trait empathy, passion for music and its psychosocial functions. Fans of heavy or death metal exhibited lower trait empathic concern compared with classical and jazz fans. However, only male heavy or death metal fans exhibited lower state empathic concern than male classical and jazz fans. Finally, social bonding was a stronger motivation for heavy or death metal fans to listen to music than for classical fans. Results are discussed in light of research and public concern regarding the effects of long-term exposure to media violence.

Testimony through culture: towards a theoretical framework

ABSTRACTThis article brings together approaches from a range of disciplines to explore how we might approach testimony as it is produced through culture. It examines how we can define and understand the diverse forms of witnessing that are produced in artistic works and everyday practices such as education and law. With a focus on the witness to atrocity, the article develops a theoretical framework for the study of testimony through culture. It highlights the importance of focusing on the ‘witnessing text’ and the relationship between text and audience. Authenticity is thus understood as a process based on trust and acknowledgement, which can explain our reluctance to accept perpetrator testimony. Nonetheless, allowing perpetrators to speak and engaging with perpetrator texts through ‘other-oriented empathy’ is essential if we are to fully understand and prevent mass violence. Authenticity and empathy are also key terms in our engagement with secondary witnesses. Reflection on what it means to ‘know’ violence can help us unpick the relationship between ethical approaches to the mediation of testimony and the response elicited by ‘fake’ testimonies. Ultimately, I conclude that fictionalisation of testimony is legitimate, but that it gives rise to ethical questions relating to the purpose of that mediation.

Siblings caring for siblings with Intellectual Disabilities: Naming and negotiating emotional tensions

Extended longevity among adults with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and increasing rates of diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) mean that parents are unlikely to remain primary carers throughout the lifecourse of adults with ID and ASD. In the context of decreased funding for disability services and policy moves toward de-congregated living, non-disabled (ND) siblings of people with ID/ASD are increasingly likely to be drawn into support and care roles for their siblings. Drawing on literature on moral emotions and the ethics of care, and on narratives collected from 25 ND siblings in Ireland in 2015/6, this paper explores the emotional dynamics entwined in the care and support roles ND siblings engage in. Findings indicate that relationships forged in childhood underpinned the moral ethic to care exhibited by many participants and that their caregiving was experienced as moral practice and emotional engagement, shaped by and constitutive of biography and moral identity. When making care choices, siblings undertook evaluative judgement of their own behaviours, which was informed by perceptions about obligations to care and about what constitutes good care. Decisions about care had emotional resonance, with guilt, other-oriented empathy and righteous-anger emerging as the key emotions in the narratives. Dilemmas between autonomy and relatedness caused siblings to grapple with feelings of resentment and guilt, and many struggled to exercise self-compassion in the face of perceived moral failings. Others experienced conflict characterised by a struggle to reconcile competing care and nurturing expectations within their intimate relationships. Through ongoing self-evaluation of their care behaviours siblings’ moral identities were continually reconstituted. It is imperative that service providers and professionals understand and acknowledge such moral and emotional dynamics when working with people with ID/ASD and their families.

The empathic family and the development of mature personal identity in emerging adults

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to examine the associations between the dimensions of self-assessed empathy and perceptions of parental empathy and identity processes, and to identify the most mature identity statuses of emerging adults in educational and best friend domains. A total of 676 emerging adults (44.5% males) aged 19–29 completed self-assessment measures. Path analyses in the structural equation modeling approach revealed that self-assessed other-oriented empathy was a partial mediator in the relationship between perceived maternal other-oriented empathy and mature identity development in the friendship domain. In the educational domain, only higher perceived maternal empathy was linked with achievement status. Thus, the perception of maternal empathy was the strongest predictor of mature identity in both studied identity domains. Finally, gender differences affected the association between empathy (both self-assessed and perceived in parents) and identity processes. The implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The role of prosocial and proactive personality in customer citizenship behaviors

PurposeThis study aims to explore customer personality-related antecedents of customer citizenship behaviors (CCBs) that benefit service providers. It also investigates two-step consequences of CCBs: customer satisfaction and intention to continue the relationship.Design/methodology/approachUS consumers (n = 665) participated in online surveys regarding three types of service businesses with different levels of customization and customer contact. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsResults show a significant, positive impact of the two dimensions of prosocial personality (i.e. other-oriented empathy and helpfulness) and proactive personality on CCBs. Additionally, CCBs increase customer satisfaction and, in turn, intention to continue the relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThis study suggests the importance of customer prosocial and proactive personality as antecedents of CCBs. Beyond intention to participate in CCBs, the present study shows that customers perceived satisfaction from CCBs, resulting in intention to continue the relationship with their service provider. Further research should investigate other types of customer personalities such as conscientiousness and agreeableness.Practical implicationsService providers should understand customer personalities that lead to voluntary behaviors that benefit their organizations. This understanding allows the service providers to better communicate with their customers and to receive more assists from customers.Originality/valuePrevious research has shown that customers’ attitudinal perceptions impact CCBs. In contrast, this study highlights the strong and positive impact of customer personalities, prosocial and proactive personality, on CCBs. Another significant contribution of this study is that it incorporates the potential consequences of CCBs.

Empathy and social closeness toward refugees from Syria: The mediating role of cultural intelligence.

The predictors of social closeness toward refugees are rarely examined. In this study (N = 337), higher cultural intelligence (CQ) and higher empathy were defined as predictors of higher social closeness (lower social distance [the Social Distance Scale] and warmer feelings [the Feeling Thermometer]) toward refugees from Syria. This is the target group of prejudice and intensive coverage in the European mass media. The obtained results indicated that other-oriented empathy (empathic concern and perspective taking) and the motivational CQ predicted higher social closeness and warmer feelings toward refugees from Syria. Empathic personal distress predicted lower social closeness and colder feelings toward this group. Motivational CQ consistently served as the mediator of the relationship between empathy dimensions and social closeness toward Syrian refugees. Our findings reveal the previously unexplored correlations between empathy dimensions and cultural intelligence factors, including the mediational effects in predicting social closeness toward Syrian refugees.

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.

Turning off the empathy switch: Lower empathic concern for the victim leads to utilitarian choices of action

Empathy enables people to vicariously experience the other’s pain. At the same time, the focus of empathy can be narrow and reserved for a limited number of people. In sacrificial dilemmas, non-empathic people are more likely to sacrifice one person for greater good. However, no study has investigated the role of diminished empathic concern for the victim in utilitarian choices of action. In two studies, we investigated how empathy actually experienced in sacrificial dilemmas affects a decision to perform a harmful action onto the victim. In Study 1 (N = 275), participants were asked to rate the extent to which they were feeling two divergent tropes of affective empathy: other-oriented empathy (empathic concern) and self-oriented empathy (personal distress). Results showed that lower levels of other-focused empathy for the victim predicted utilitarian choices of action. In Study 2 (N = 170), participants were asked to rate the extent to which they empathized with the victim and the saved. We also assessed dispositional empathy and psychopathy to test a hypothesis that psychopathy mediates the relationship between lower empathy for the victim and utilitarian choices of action. Results supported this hypothesis, whereas dispositional empathy was not significantly correlated with utilitarian choices of action. Overall, lower empathy experienced in the dilemma situation was associated with utilitarian choices of action, and this was specific to reduced empathic concern for the victim. People choose to pursue the utilitarian end that accompanies harm onto the other as a mean when the victim is out of their empathic focus.

Development of free will and determinism scale in Japanese

We developed a free will and determinism scale in Japanese (FAD-J) to assess lay beliefs in free will, scientific determinism, fatalistic determinism, and unpredictability. In Study 1, we translated a free will and determinism scale (FAD-Plus) into Japanese and verified its reliability and validity. In Study 2, we examined the relationship between the FAD-J and eight other scales. Results suggested that lay beliefs in free will and determinism were related to self-regulation, critical thinking, other-oriented empathy, self-esteem, and regret and maximization in decision makings. We discuss the usefulness of the FAD-J for studying the psychological functions of lay beliefs in free will and determinism.