Trait Empathy Research Articles

Not Good Enough? Exploring Relationships Between Novice Designers’ Trait Empathy, Their Beliefs, Attitudes, and Intentions Toward Sustainability, and the Self-Evaluated Sustainability of Their Solutions

Abstract Designers’ empathy plays an important role in supporting socially conscious design. Although widely studied in engineering design, a majority of the research on empathy focuses on designers’ ability to empathize with primary users; little attention is given to empathizing with those affected in a secondary or tertiary capacity—an important consideration when evaluating the broader impacts of design decisions in the context of environmental sustainability. Moreover, little research has investigated the influence of designers’ internal traits (e.g., beliefs, attitudes, and intentions) on their emphasis on environmental sustainability. Such an investigation could reveal the role of developing internal and interpersonal traits in sustainable design education. In this paper, we explore this gap by introducing student designers to a hands-on sustainable design workshop. We compared changes in their trait empathy and their beliefs, attitudes, and intentions toward sustainability from before to after the workshop. We also compared the relationship between these individual differences and participants’ self-evaluated sustainability of their solutions. We see that participants reported an increase in their beliefs and intentions toward sustainability and a decrease in personal distress from before to after the workshop. Furthermore, participants who received the sustainable design lecture reported that their solutions were more sustainable in terms of disposal, salvaging, and recycling. Finally, trait empathy significantly predicted the self-evaluated sustainability of solutions on the following dimensions of sustainable design: disposal, recycling, and finding wholesome alternatives. These findings call for future work into the influence of designers’ individual differences on their approach to sustainable design.

Feeling the News? The Differential Effects of Immersive Journalism on Emotional Response

Immersive journalism (IJ) is often assumed to be inherently emotion-inducing. Through using inclusive technology, interaction possibilities and immersive narratives, the audience should ideally experience what feels like to be in a certain situation. However, for the most part we do not know to which extent and in what form IJ influences the experience of emotions. We wanted to investigate, whether, and if so, which characteristics of IJ are related to the experience of emotions, and which role the personality trait empathy tendency plays in this respect. This is important, as the evaluation of IJ often relies on the emotion-inducing assumption thereof. Four different experiments comparing one immersive journalistic characteristic (level of inclusion, interaction possibilities, immersive narratives) to the respective non-immersive counterpart were conducted. Results indicate that while the level of inclusion and interaction possibility increase the intensity of the experience, the immersive narrative influences the valence dimension of emotions. Additionally, empathy tendency is found to be a relevant moderator for these effects. Conclusions are threefold. First, the narrative form of IJ is key; second, the analysis of IJ needs to go beyond the level of inclusion; third, including emotions when assessing IJ is fundamental to understand its impact.

Pain Empathy and Its Association with the Clinical Pain in Knee Osteoarthritis Patients.

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a painful chronic disorder. Evidence has shown that a history of chronic pain plays an important role in shaping empathy. Empathy, a valuable indicator of social functioning that refers to an individual's ability to share the experiences of others, however, has been overlooked in KOA patients. This study aimed to investigate empathy and its association with clinical pain in KOA patients. KOA patients (n=47) and healthy controls (HCs, n=44) completed two empathy-for-pain tasks: a pain judgment task in which participants judged whether a person in an image felt pain or not, and a pain rating task in which they estimated pain intensity for themselves and others. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index was used to measure participants' trait empathy, and clinical severity and psychological factors were assessed using relevant instruments. Compared to HCs, KOA patients showed higher accuracy when judging pain and non-pain images and reported overall higher pain intensity when rating for themselves and others. KOA patients also showed greater personal distress than HCs in terms of their self-reported empathy. Moreover, pain catastrophizing particularly mediated the relationship between pain severity and pain ratings for others, and depression, anxiety, and pain catastrophizing all mediated the association between pain severity and empathy-induced personal distress. These findings suggest that patients with KOA have increased empathy, demonstrated by elevated sensitivity to pain-related scenes and intense emotional responses.

Criminality labelling influences reactions to others’ pain

Disparities in healthcare for underrepresented and stigmatized groups are well documented. Current understanding is that these inequalities arise, at least in part, from psychosocial factors such as stereotypes and in-group/out-group categorization. Pain management, perhaps because of the subjective nature of pain, is one area of research that has spearheaded these efforts. We investigated how observers react to the pain of individuals labelled as criminals. Face models expressing pain of different levels of intensity were portrayed as having committed a crime or not (control group). A sample of n = 327 college students were asked to estimate the intensity of the pain expressed by face models as well as their willingness to help them. Trait empathy was also measured. Data was analyzed using regression, mediation and moderation analyses. We show for the first time that observers were less willing to help individuals with a criminal history. Moreover, a moderation effect was observed whereby empathic participants were more willing to help control face models compared to less empathic participants. However, criminality history did not influence participant's pain estimation. We conclude that negative stereotypes associated with criminality can reduce willingness to help individuals in pain even when pain signals are accurately perceived.

Prosocial Behavior in Caregivers to Older Adults with Chronic Conditions

AbstractBackgroundIn the United States, 1 in 9 adults 65 years of age and older have Alzheimer’s disease. Thus, there is an urgent need for caregivers to support individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, and other chronic diseases of aging. However, due to the challenging physical and emotional nature of caregiving, caregivers are at risk for experiencing chronic stress and burnout which can negatively impact the well‐being of both the care recipient and the caregiver. The purpose of the present study is to examine the degree to which currently serving in a caregiving role affects individuals’ capacity to empathize and exhibit prosocial behavior towards others.MethodThe study included 60 caregivers (Mage = 60.6) to older adults with chronic conditions, and 104 healthy comparison participants (Mage = 62.9). The groups were not significantly different in terms of age (p = .50) or gender (p = .6). Participants played an economic game in which they decided how much money they would like to allocate out of $10 to two different players. During the study, they read a series of notes from the other players which were designed to evoke either an empathetic or neutral state. (Notes were developed by the researcher prior to the study.) Monetary offers were compared between the empathy and neutral experimental conditions. Participants also completed a measure of trait empathy (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index).ResultWe found that the caregivers gave more money in the empathy condition than the non‐caregivers (p<.05), with no statistically significant group differences found in the neutral condition. Within the caregiver group, there was a positive correlation between offer amount in the empathy condition and trait emotional empathy (p<.05).ConclusionDespite the stressors involved in caregiving, we show that caregivers exhibited greater prosocial behavior than non‐caregivers towards strangers in an empathy‐eliciting context. This suggests that in specific contexts the stressors involved in caregiving may not reduce caregivers’ capacity to show prosocial behaviors towards others. Future research may investigate whether this finding extends to empathy and prosocial behavior towards care recipients.

Jurors’ judgements of an autistic defendant are influenced by awareness of autism, knowledge of psychological conditions and trait-empathy

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether awareness of an ASD diagnostic label, knowledge of psychological conditions, and trait-empathy influence mock-jurors’ judgements of an autistic defendant. Some autistic adults have an increased risk of acting illegally and standing trial as a defendant because of their behavioural and cognitive characteristics. In court, they may display behaviours stereotypically perceived by jurors as indicators of guilt (e.g. averted gaze), potentially resulting in negative judgements. However, if autistic defendants disclose their condition, this may positively influence jurors’ judgements by offering an alternative explanation for their behaviour. This effect may be stronger in jurors who are highly knowledgeable about psychological conditions and empathic. Design/methodology/approach Non-autistic participants (N = 328; M age = 28.21) read a scenario about a defendant’s crime and courtroom behaviour before judging their character and reporting how empathic they felt towards the defendant. Participants were then informed that the defendant was autistic and provided with information about autism before re-evaluating the defendant. Participants’ empathy and knowledge of psychological conditions, including autism, were measured. Findings Participants judged the defendant to be more honest and less blameworthy post-label. Trait empathy was positively associated with honesty ratings and higher levels of self-reported empathy. Overall knowledge was negatively associated with ratings for defendant blameworthiness and likeability. Overall, the findings suggest that autistic defendants may benefit from disclosing their diagnosis as this may result in more favourable juror judgements. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to consider how jurors’ overall knowledge of psychological conditions and trait-empathy may influence judgements of an autistic defendant.

The negative impact of xenophobia on compassion with suffering out-group members is attenuated by trait empathy

Empathy enables human beings to understand and share the internal states of others. Studies show that empathy for pain is higher for in-group compared to out-group members. This might be driven by attitudes and biases towards out-groups. In a between subject design, N = 621 participants filled in questionnaires measuring xenophobia and trait empathy and were presented with photos of suffering individuals either from the in-group or an out-group, which had to be rated with respect to negative affect and the willingness to help the depicted persons. Results do not show more compassion with members of the in-group in general, but a negative effect of xenophobia on state empathy in the out-group condition. Additional moderation analyses show that this effect is less evident in presence of high trait empathy scores. Our results highlight the importance of empathy trainings to attenuate the effects of xenophobic attitudes on social cohabitation in our increasingly polarized and culturally diverse societies.

Internet altruistic motivation promotes internet altruistic behavior: a moderated mediation model.

This study proposes and tests a moderated mediation model to explore the relationship between Internet altruistic motivation (IAM) and Internet altruistic behavior (IAB), as well as its underlying and conditional mechanisms. A total of 324 Chinese college students (M age = 20.31 years, SD age = 1.38; 165 females) completed a questionnaire consisting of the IAM Questionnaire, IAB Scale, Mehrabian Trait Empathy Scale and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Results indicated that IAM was positively correlated with IAB (r = 0.44, p < 0.001), and self-esteem played a partial mediating role between IAM and IAB. In addition, empathy moderated the relationship between IAM and self-esteem as well as that between IAM and IAB. Specifically, the higher the individual's empathy, the stronger the predictive effect of IAM on IAB and self-esteem. The findings can deepen understanding of how and when IAM promotes IAB.

Beliefs about humanity, not higher power, predict extraordinary altruism

Using a rare sample of altruistic kidney donors (n = 56, each of whom had donated a kidney to a stranger) and demographically similar controls (n = 75), we investigated how beliefs about human nature correspond to extraordinary altruism. Extraordinary altruists were less likely than controls to believe that humans can be truly evil. Results persisted after controlling for trait empathy and religiosity. Belief in pure good was not associated with extraordinary altruism. We found no differences in the religiosity and spirituality of extraordinary altruists compared to controls. Findings suggest that highly altruistic individuals believe that others deserve help regardless of their potential moral shortcomings. Results provide preliminary evidence that lower levels of cynicism motivate costly, non-normative altruism toward strangers.

A review of psychological research on kando as an inclusive concept of moving experiences.

We are emotionally moved when we give birth to a child, witness the triumph of an athlete, listen to a beautiful piece of music, and so forth. Such moving experiences have been described as a form of emotion, by terms such as being moved, awe, and kama muta, each of which have been studied as a separate, but interrelated, psychological phenomenon. Japanese people use the term kando to describe these experiences collectively. In this study, we propose that kando should be treated as an umbrella term covering being moved, awe, and kama muta. To this end, we reviewed the literature on kando conducted by Japanese researchers and compared it to relevant concepts, mainly examined in Western countries. We also reviewed the literature on the generative mechanism of kando, and established that emotional and physical reactions are important to determine the degree of kando across the cases with and without storyline. Furthermore, individual characteristics such as trait empathy may generate a stronger degree of kando. Kando experiences can affect subsequent behaviors and cognition, though we still need evidence that such change can be triggered genuinely by the experience of kando. We suggest that kando may make our neuro-cognitive network tend toward more direct, unconscious, and impulsive decision making. One of the remaining questions in this domain is whether the mental construct of kando can find an equivalent to people in Western countries. For this purpose, events and reactions relevant to kando experiences should be systematically collected from a broad population.

Sex difference in trait empathy is encoded in the human anterior insula.

Females are considered the more empathic sex. This conventional view, however, has been challenged in the past few decades with mixed findings. These heterogeneous findings could be caused by the fact that empathy is a complex and multifaceted construct. To clarify whether sex differences exist in certain dimensions of empathy and whether they are associated with specific neural bases, this study measured trait empathy using the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) and collected brain structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging data in a large sample of healthy participants (206 males vs. 302 females). We found that females scored higher in the personal distress (PD) subscale than males, but they were comparable to males in other IRI subscales. Sex difference in PD was encoded by brain structural (e.g. gray matter volume in left anterior insula [AI]) and functional (e.g. resting-state functional connectivity between left AI and temporoparietal junction/inferior frontal gyrus) characteristics. Notably, the relationship between sex and PD was indirect-only and serially mediated by AI-associated structural and functional characteristics. Altogether, our results suggested that sex difference existed in self-oriented affective empathy (i.e. PD) and highlighted the importance of the AI, both structurally and functionally, in mediating the sex difference in trait empathy.

The different role of trait empathy and state social exclusion empathy on subsequent feelings about gambling outcome：Evidence from event-related potentials and time-frequency decompositions

Empathy plays an essential role in determining how we understand and respond to others' emotional experiences. Previous studies have mainly focused on the influencing factors of physical pain and monetary loss empathy, as well as on their effects on subsequent feelings. However, little is known about social pain empathy and its influence on subsequent feelings, and the role of personal trait empathy. In this study, we performed Cyberball Games and gambling tasks to explore the effect of social exclusion empathy on subsequent feelings for gambling outcomes (others' losses and gains) by analyzing the brain activity of excluded and non-excluded players at the gambling outcome feedback stage. It was found that both feedback-related negativity (FRN) and theta-band oscillatory are more negative for loss outcome than gain for the excluded players, while these effects cannot be found for the non-excluded players. Furthermore, we only observed a larger P300 amplitude in the gain outcome than that of loss, regardless of the players' role. More interestingly, we found state social pain empathy is negatively correlated with the d-FRN amplitude under non-excluded conditions, while trait empathy is positively correlated with P300 amplitude regardless of the players’ role. These results provide insight into the different roles of state social pain empathy and trait empathy on subsequent gambling outcomes. Furthermore, different from previous studies, the current results show that d-FRN could reflect the state empathy discrepancy rather than the biomarker of state empathy.

Effects of emotional valence and intensity on cognitive and affective empathy after insula lesions.

The insula plays a central role in empathy. However, the complex structure of cognitive (CE) and affective empathy (AE) deficits following insular damage is not fully understood. In the present study, patients with insular lesions (n = 20) and demographically matched healthy controls (n = 24) viewed ecologically valid videos that varied in terms of valence and emotional intensity. The videos showed a person (target) narrating a personal life event. In CE conditions, subjects continuously rated the affective state of the target, while in AE conditions, they continuously rated their own affect. Mean squared error (MSE) assessed deviations between subject and target ratings. Patients differed from controls only in negative, low-intensity AE, rating their own affective state less negative than the target. This deficit was not related to trait empathy, neuropsychological or clinical parameters, or laterality of lesion. Empathic functions may be widely spared after insular damage in a naturalistic, dynamic setting, potentially due to the intact interpretation of social context by residual networks outside the lesion. The particular role of the insula in AE for negative states may evolve specifically in situations that bear higher uncertainty pointing to a threshold role of the insula in online ratings of AE.

Resisting repeated exposure: Characteristics of pain empathy for experienced physicians

Using event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study tested whether state empathy for pain of experienced physicians could resist the influences of repeated exposure to depictions of people experiencing pain. We employed a three-phase paradigm which integrated a classical pain empathy measurement procedure and a multi-block free-view habituation procedure. In this paradigm, 18 experienced physicians with reduced empathy traits (clinical experience > 5 years) and 18 non-physician controls completed a pre-test phase of pain empathy, followed by a phase of repeated emotional exposure, and a post-test phase of pain empathy. Behavioral pain intensity rating and critical ERP components associated with pain empathy (i.e., N1, N2, and LPP) were measured and compared across participant groups, stimulus types, and experimental phases. Experienced physicians differed from controls in neural processes related to pain empathy, but their pain intensity ratings did not. Specifically, for early ERP components related to empathic arousal such as N1 and N2, we replicated and extended previous findings that physicians can inhibit these bottom-up processes of empathic arousal. In contrast, the P3 didn’t reflect a distinctive empathy process for the physicians. For the later reappraisal-related LPP component, however, we found a significant three-way interaction among participant groups, stimulus types, and experimental phases. This interaction provided the first evidence that pain empathy of experienced physicians with low empathic traits can resist repeated exposure to pain. Based on this evidence, the characteristics of pain empathy for experienced physicians and the relative adaptability of pain empathy for human beings are discussed.

Feeling the heat: investigating the influence of novice designers’ trait empathy, and their beliefs, attitudes, and intentions towards sustainability on their identification of problem requirements

Feeling the heat: investigating the influence of novice designers’ trait empathy, and their beliefs, attitudes, and intentions towards sustainability on their identification of problem requirements

The association between ballroom dance training and empathic concern: Behavioral and brain evidence.

Dance is unique in that it is a sport and an art simultaneously. Beyond improving sensorimotor functions, dance training could benefit high-level emotional and cognitive functions. Duo dances also confer the possibility for dancers to develop the abilities to recognize, understand, and share the thoughts and feelings of their dance partners during the long-term dance training. To test this possibility, we collected high-resolution structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 43 expert-level ballroom dancers (a model of long-term exposure to duo dance training) and 40 age-matched and sex-matched nondancers, and measured their empathic ability using a self-report trait empathy scale. We found that ballroom dancers showed higher scores of empathic concern (EC) than controls. The EC scores were positively correlated with years with dance partners but negatively correlated with the number of dance partners for ballroom dancers. These behavioral results were supported by the structural and functional MRI data. Structurally, we observed that the gray matter volumes in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and EC scores were positively correlated. Functionally, the connectivity between ACC and occipital gyrus was positively correlated with both EC scores and years with dance partners. In addition, the relationship between years with dance partners and EC scores was indirect-only mediated by the ACC-occipital gyrus functional connectivity. Therefore, our findings provided solid evidence for the close link between long-term ballroom dance training and empathy, which deepens our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying this phenomenon.

Does empathy induce higher corporate prosocial behavior? Evidence from corporate giving

This study examines whether and how cross-country differences in trait empathy can explain differences in corporate social performance. Using an international sample of 18,433 firm-year observations across 46 countries, we find that corporate giving is positively related to the degree of empathy at the country level. Our results are robust to a battery of sensitivity analyses.

Sensory processing sensitivity and somatosensory brain activation when feeling touch

Sensory processing sensitivity is described as a personality trait associated with a high sensitivity to environmental and social stimuli. It has been assumed that about 15–20% of the total population can be described as highly sensitive. The concept states that those individuals represent a higher sensitivity to subtle stimuli, thereby exhibiting a different somatic sensation. Here we aim to test the assumption that the brain’s sensory perception is different in individuals with high sensory processing sensitivity. We used a German version of the Highly Sensitive Person scale to measure sensory processing sensitivity. Furthermore, we assessed the Big Five personality dimensions and trait empathy (using IRI). To test the hypothesis that the brain’s handling of sensory information is different in individuals with high sensory-processing sensitivity, we scanned participant’s brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they were touched by an experimenter’s hand. Results showed positive correlations of sensory processing sensitivity with neuroticism, openness, and empathy. Introversion was not a significant predictor. Neuroimaging data demonstrated that sensory processing sensitivity (controlled for associated personality dimensions) was not related to primary or secondary somatosensory BOLD responses, but positively associated with BOLD activity in left posterior insular cortex. Based on these results we conclude that sensory processing sensitivity seems to represent insula-mediated affective touch. We discuss these results with previous studies reporting an engagement of the insula in individuals with high sensory processing sensitivity.

Genotype-genotype interactions of the OXTR gene polymorphisms are associated with self-reported daytime dysfunction, sleep latency and personal distress.

The oxytocin receptors located in the corticotropin-releasing factor neurons of the paraventricular nucleus are stimulated by oxytocin. Oxytocin functions as the regulator of the corticotropin-releasing factor system and in turn promotes sleep quality. The objective of this study was to examine the main and genotype-genotype interactive effects of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms on sleep quality. A total of 324 participants were randomly recruited from a university in Beijing, China. Sleep quality was measured with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The OXTR single-nucleotide polymorphisms (rs2254298, rs2268498, rs13316193, rs2268490 and rs2268491) were genotyped. The results showed that gender and age were associated with various empathy traits (all p < 0.001). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was positively correlated with the Personal Distress subscale of empathy (p < 0.001). Both rs2254298 and rs2268491 interacted with rs13316193 to influence daytime dysfunction and Personal Distress (all p < 0.05), indicating that in individuals with rs13316193 CC/CT genotype, those with rs2254298 AA/AG or rs2268491 TT/TC genotypes displayed higher daytime dysfunction and Personal Distress scores than those with rs2254298 GG or rs2268491 CC genotypes. Conversely, among the individuals with rs2254298 GG or rs2268491 CC genotypes, the rs13316193 C allele carriers had lower daytime dysfunction and Personal Distress scores than rs13316193 TT homozygotes. There was also a significant interaction between rs2268490 and rs2268498 on the sleep latency dimension of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Our findings reveal for the first time the genotype-genotype interactions of the OXTR gene on sleep quality, which may open new research avenues for studying psychopathology involving sleep problems.

Eyes on you: Ensuring empathic accuracy or signalling empathy?

The eye region is thought to play an important role in the ability to accurately infer others' feelings, or empathic accuracy (EA), which is an important skill for social interaction. However, most past studies used static pictures, including only visual information, and knowledge about the contribution of the eye region to EA when visual information is presented together with verbal content is lacking. We therefore examined whether eye gazing contributes to EA during videos of emotional autobiographical stories including both visual and verbal content. One hundred seven perceivers watched videos of targets talking about positive and negative life events and continuously rated the targets' feelings during the videos. Simultaneously, perceivers' eyes were tracked. After each video, perceivers reported on their feelings and the extent to which they empathized with and took the perspective of the targets. In contrast to studies using static pictures, we found that gazing to the eyes of targets during the videos did not significantly contribute to EA. At the same time, results on the association between the amount of gaze towards the eye region of targets and perceivers' state and trait empathy ratings suggest that eye gazing might signal empathy and social engagement to others.