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Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach

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Describes the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and its relationships with measures of social functioning, self-esteem, emotionality, and sensitivity to others. 677 male and 667 female undergraduates served as Ss. Each of the 4 IRI subscales displayed a distinctive and predictable pattern of relationships with these measures, as well as with previous unidimensional empathy measures. Findings provide evidence for a multidimensional approach to empathy. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
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... Este componente puede ser incorporado al proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje cuando el claustro de profesores está formado por docentes que reciben una misma formación pedagógica, sin que la distancia geográfica pueda ser relevante. No sucede los mismo con el componente emocional, y se plantea que este componente se desarrolla fundamentalmente en todo el proceso de ontogenia de la persona (6,17,18,19,20), luego parece que los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje en la educación superior podrían dificultarse en la consecución de la actividad pedagógica de la empatía, debido a la naturaleza del componente emocional (6,17,18,19,20). ...
... Este componente puede ser incorporado al proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje cuando el claustro de profesores está formado por docentes que reciben una misma formación pedagógica, sin que la distancia geográfica pueda ser relevante. No sucede los mismo con el componente emocional, y se plantea que este componente se desarrolla fundamentalmente en todo el proceso de ontogenia de la persona (6,17,18,19,20), luego parece que los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje en la educación superior podrían dificultarse en la consecución de la actividad pedagógica de la empatía, debido a la naturaleza del componente emocional (6,17,18,19,20). ...
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Objetivo: Verificar el cumplimiento del principio de ecualización de la empatía con el paciente en los estudiantes de la Facultad Odontología de dos sedes de la Universidad Andrés Bello: República (Región Metropolitana) y Viña del Mar (Quinta Región), Chile. Materiales y métodos: Se empleó la Escala de Empatía Médica de Jefferson (versión S) adaptada por criterio de jueces para estudiantes de odontología. Se estimaron las medias, error estándar de las medias y el intervalo de confianza de los datos en torno de la media dentro y entre de los tres factores estudiados: Sedes, Curso y Sexo y sus interacciones. Se compararon las medias de los niveles mediante un análisis de varianza trifactorial. Se estimó la prueba eta cuadrada y la potencia de la prueba para determinar la magnitud de las diferencias y la potencia del modelo estadístico empleado. El nivel de significación utilizado fue de α<0,05 y β<0,20. Resultados: Se encontraron pocas diferencias significativas entre las medias. Las diferencias fundamentales afectaron principalmente a una de las dimensiones cognitivas de la empatía: “Habilidad para entender a otros”. Aunque la simetría de los niveles de los factores y sus interacciones no afectan totalmente la similaridad del comportamiento empático entre las sedes de la universidad estudiada, la presencia de diferencias muestra la necesidad de prestar más atención a la formación empática en los estudiantes de odontología. Conclusiones: Es necesario considerar estas diferencias encontradas entre las sedes para analizar las causas que las producen y realizar las intervenciones pertinentes para disminuir estas diferencias. Palabras clave: ecualización, empatía, componentes de la empatía, sedes universitarias.
... The Interpersonal Reactivity Index on Empathy (IRI) Scale (Davis 1983) measures four aspects of empathy, namely, Empathic Concern ('other-oriented' empathy), Personal Distress ('self-oriented' empathy), Perspective Taking, and Fantasy. In the present study, 16 out of the 28 items were used as a shorter form of the IRI scale; this Brief Interpersonal Reactivity Index was established and confirmed by Ingoglia et al (2016). ...
... This not only defies the first part of the second hypothesis (H2-i) but also indicates that perfectionists were more likely to show signs of more engagement (via engaging more empathically and prosocially) with the human-centred design initiative. Supporting these surprising findings, are the findings of Gilman et al. (2014) and Gilman et al. (2010) on perfectionists having higher social perspective taking (which is a form of empathy (Davis 1983)) and are perceived as more prosocial amongst their peers, respectively. However, contradicting these findings, are of Hewitt et al. (2006; and Ruiz-Esteban et al. (2021) on perfectionists' positive associations with interpersonal hostility and social disconnection, and aggression behavior, respectively. ...
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Perfectionism is a personality trait associated with a desire for flawlessness, high-standard expectations and criticism of the self and others. As engineering design seeks to address more wicked problems that move beyond technical considerations, it is possible that engineers with perfectionism may struggle to engage flexibly with complexity and more creativity-focused solutions. The present study seeks to understand perfectionism prevalence in an undergraduate cohort of civil engineers and the impact of this trait on complex design decisions and engagements that include social as well as technical considerations. 184 civil engineering students were involved in this study. We found that 74.5% of the engineers classify as perfectionists, with 68.5% of these perfectionists being maladaptive. Further, we examined how perfectionism associated with Communal Designs, a design approach that aims to meet physical community needs as well as more metaphysical, empathy-informed criteria. We found that although perfectionists were more likely to have higher scores of prosocialness and empathy, non-perfectionists were more likely to produce Communal Designs. This suggested an apparent intention-behaviour mismatch. Engineering students may have intended to but then failed to produce Communal Designs; this could also be explained via our finding that perfectionists tend to have higher social desirability scores. The results indicate that complex decision-making in engineering design cannot be separated from the mindsets and personalities of engineers. Strategies to mitigate the negative impact of perfectionism are discussed, including both supported exposure to open-ended, contextualised design, and the use of critical reflection. A regression model predictive of Communal Design production was also developed and discussed using engineering undergraduates’ personality characteristics’ scores as predictors.
... The IRI is a 28-item scale composed of statements about one's thoughts and feelings in a variety of situations, to which participants respond on a five-point scale. The IRI has four subscales: perspective-taking (the ability to adopt the psychological viewpoint of others, essential for non-egocentric behavior), fantasy (the tendency to transpose oneself imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters in books, movies, and plays), empathic concern (the experience of other-oriented feelings of sympathy and concern), and personal distress (the endorsement of personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal settings) [42]. Higher scores indicate greater empathy. ...
... Higher scores indicate greater empathy. The coefficient alpha reliabilities for these scales were 0.71 or higher, indicating satisfactory internal consistency [42]. ...
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Background: Childhood trauma may increase the risk of antisocial behavior in young adulthood. Our study examined the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the specific antisocial behavior of malevolent creativity (MC), the application of original ideas to purposely harm others, often to gain an unfair advantage through manipulation, threat, or harm. Methods: We surveyed college students (N = 524; 78% women) on demographics, ACEs, empathy, social support, coping, general creativity, and malevolent creativity. The data were analyzed via sequential linear regression models. Results: Reporting ≥ 4 ACEs was associated with increased MC, which remained significant when general creativity and demographics were controlled. The association between higher ACEs and MC was no longer significant when psychosocial control variables (social support, empathy, and coping) were included in the statistical model. Social support and empathy were negatively associated with MC, while coping and MC were positively associated. Conclusions: ACEs may increase the likelihood of malevolent creativity in young adulthood, but empathy and social support may disrupt this trajectory. Care should be taken that coping skills, while typically viewed as a positive addition to one’s behavioral repertoire, do not push individuals toward over-reliance on themselves, which may reduce prosocial behaviors and increase MC.
... To assess empathic concern, we adapted an item ("I have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me.") of the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ; Spreng et al., 2009) for EMA use by asking participants to indicate the extent to which they experienced concerned feelings for the regulatees. As the TEQ (Spreng et al., 2009) was created via the reduction of dimensions in pre-existing empathy measures, the item used in our study originates from the Empathic Concern subscale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1983). To assess personal distress, we adapted the "distressed" item by Fabi et al. (2019), who also aimed at assessing momentary personal distress. ...
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Responding to the emotions of the people around us is a phenomenon traversing human lives; however, research has only recently started exploring the predictors of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). In two ecological momentary assessment studies conducted in 2021 and 2022, we tested whether facets of empathy (i.e., mentalizing, experience sharing, empathic concern, and personal distress) are associated with other-focused IER goals and their attainment in everyday life (Ns = 125 and 204). Study 1 examined associations between mentalizing, experience sharing, and global hedonic and counter-hedonic IER goals (i.e., making others feel better or worse) using a relatively young and predominantly female student sample in Germany. Study 2 expanded these findings to empathic concern, personal distress, and specific types of hedonic and counter-hedonic IER goals (i.e., increasing, decreasing, and/or maintaining others’ positive and/or negative emotions) in a more diverse US community sample. Participants primarily endorsed hedonic IER goals, which were associated with higher mentalizing and experience sharing in both studies and higher empathic concern and lower personal distress in Study 2. Counter-hedonic IER goals were positively associated with experience sharing and personal distress in Study 2. Conversely, empathic concern and mentalizing were negatively related to counter-hedonic IER goals. We also found differential associations for empathy with IER goals on the state and trait levels. All empathy facets except personal distress were positively associated with goal attainment in Study 2. These findings address a major gap in our knowledge about everyday IER and offer a novel perspective on empathy in social emotion regulation processes.
... To measure personality, we relied on a short version of the Big Five inventory with 10 items to capture proxies of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience (Rammstedt & John, 2007). To measure empathy, we resort to 4 items of the Davis Empathy Scale used to measure empathic concern -i.e., "other-oriented" feelings of sympathy and concern for unfortunate others (Davis, 1983). Table 3 presents the results of the DiD combined with PSM for each treatment and outcome variable. ...
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Introduction While substantial shifts in political and social values typically evolve over generational timescales, exceptional disruptive events can occasionally prompt swift changes in societal attitudes. This article investigates the extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic has influenced the level of democratic support among Brazilian citizens. Materials and methods Our research employed a three-wave online longitudinal panel study (N = 1,301) to assess the attitudes of Brazilian citizens towards democracy at three distinct intervals throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Our research tool gauged various dimensions of democratic attitudes and inquired about the respondents' experiences with Covid-19 as well as of their close social circles. Utilizing a combination of propensity score matching and a difference-in-differences design, we estimated the causal effect of the Covid-19 experience on both “diffuse” and “specific” support for democracy. Findings Our analysis revealed that exposure to the virus had limited overall impact on our measures of democratic support. However, we did identify some evidence indicating that severe exposure to Covid-19 had a negative effect on one dimension of democratic support, specifically, diffuse support. Discussion Our findings underscore the resilience of deeply ingrained ideological beliefs and values. Despite being one of the most disruptive global events in recent history, the Covid-19 pandemic displayed only a modest influence on the foundations of democratic culture. While this suggests that concerns about the pandemic's impact on democratic attitudes may have been overstated, it remains crucial for social and political leaders to remain mindful of actively reinforcing and upholding democratic governance during the post-pandemic recovery phase. Keywords support for democracy; political culture; impact assessment; Covid-19; panel survey
... Empathy is a desirable capacity of humans to place themselves in another's position to show understanding of his/her experience and feelings and respond appropriately. Empathy involves both cognitive and affective aspects (Davis, 1983), including the ability to perceive the user's situation and express appropriate emotions. ...
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Objectives We examined the possibility of using shared experiences to recruit human intelligence (HUMINT) sources. The research was based on two hypotheses. (a) Shared experiences amplify interpersonal affiliation, which increases the extent to which sources will commit to an intelligence arrangement. (b) The social connection opportunity shared experiences afford is what increases such commitment. Methods Participants assumed the role of a source meeting a potential handler, a police officer, to discuss an arrangement whereby they might supply intelligence. We manipulated shared experience via the meeting's setting. Half of the participants underwent a shared experience to facilitate interpersonal affiliation with the handler, and the other half did not undergo such an experience. The handler used one of two approaches to propose the arrangement. One approach afforded a social connection opportunity, and the other constrained the possibility of a social connection in the arrangement. Results The findings indicated that shared experiences can have interpersonal influence. The shared experience operationalization positively influenced felt closeness and social connection affordance. However, there was little indication that handlers could capitalize on shared experience to bolster commitment.
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The current study examined whether the extent to which students perceived their teachers provided positive support influenced associations between teachers’ emotional intelligence and social emotional learning (SEL) beliefs and multiple dimensions of students’ other-oriented cognitions (i.e., perspective taking empathetic concern, and prosocial motivations and goals). Forty-three fifth-grade and sixth-grade teachers from 12 Greek elementary schools and 353 students (192 boys) were participants. The majority of students were White and of Greek nationality. Teachers’ emotional intelligence was associated positively with students’ empathic concern and prosocial goals. However, the association between teachers’ emotional intelligence was related negatively to students’ perspective taking skills, but only when students reported receiving less positive support from their teachers. Conversely, when students reported high levels of positive teacher support, teachers’ comfort with SEL teaching practices was related positively to students’ prosocial goals. Findings also highlighted differences in Greek teachers’ emotional intelligence and comfort with and commitment to SEL teaching practices as compared to those reported in other countries. Additionally, girls rated themselves as higher in empathetic concern than did boys. Implications for teacher training and professional development that support teachers and students’ SEL are discussed.
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This study explored how congruency between facial mimicry and observed expressions affects the stability of conscious facial expression representations. Focusing on the congruency effect between proprioceptive/sensorimotor signals and visual stimuli for happy expressions, participants underwent a binocular rivalry task displaying neutral and happy faces. Mimicry was either facilitated with a chopstick or left unrestricted. Key metrics included Initial Percept (bias indicator), Onset Resolution Time (time from onset to Initial Percept), and Cumulative Time (content stabilization measure). Results indicated that mimicry manipulation significantly impacted Cumulative Time for happy faces, highlighting the importance of congruent mimicry in stabilizing conscious awareness of facial expressions. This supports embodied cognition models, showing the integration of proprioceptive information significantly biases conscious visual perception of facial expressions.
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Past difficulties in demonstrating a link between accuracy in person perception and "empathy" are reviewed. The advantages of a forced choice accuracy assessment technique, in which observers view target subjects on video tape and then attempt to match targets with three-word self-descriptions, are discussed. Two studies designed to validate the method were performed. In both studies observers' accuracy in matching targets with self-descriptions exceeded chance. The effects on accuracy of observers' perspective-taking ability and targets' self-consciousness were also explored. Study I revealed that subjects scoring high on a measure of perspective-taking (Davis, 1980) were more accurate than low perspective-takers as predicted. Study II showed that target subjects high in private self-consciousness (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975) were more easily matched with their self-descriptions than were targets low in private self-consciousness. Study II also showed that the effects on accuracy of both observers' perspective-taking abilities and targets' selfconsciousness were related to the length of time targets were observed. The theoretical connections between perspective-taking and both stereotype and differential accuracy are discussed.
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Proposes a 2-stage model of empathic mediation of helping behavior, which holds that taking the perspective of a person in need increases empathic emotion; this in turn increases helping. Ss in 2 experiments learned of another person's need from taped radio broadcasts and were subsequently given an opportunity to offer help to that person. The experiments used different strategies for manipulating empathic emotional response to the other's plight. In Exp I, using 44 male and female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally reduced by a misattribution of arousal technique; in Exp II, using 33 female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally increased by a false feedback of arousal technique. Results of each experiment support the proposed model. Ss who experienced the most empathic emotion also offered the most help. Results of Exp I indicate that perspective taking did not directly affect helping; it affected helping only through its effect on empathic emotion. Motivational implications are discussed. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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A factor analysis of the Self-Monitoring Scale yielded 3 replicated factors: Acting, Extraversion, and Other-Directedness. Acting includes being good at and liking to speak and entertain. Other-Directedness is a willingness to change one's behavior to suit other people, and Extraversion is self-explanatory. Other-Directedness correlates positively with Shyness and Neuroticism and negatively with Self-Esteem. Extraversion correlates negatively with Shyness and positively with Self-Esteem and Sociability. Two of the scale's 3 factors, therefore, have opposite patterns of correlations with other personality dimensions. The 3 factors help to explain certain discrepancies found in previous research with the Self-Monitoring Scale. For future research, it is suggested that scores for each of the factors are more appropriate than full scale scores. It is concluded that there may be a gap between the construct of Self-Monitoring and the way it is operationalized in the scale. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)