Emotional empathy and associated individual differences |
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Authors: | Albert Mehrabian Andrew L Young and Sharon Sato |
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Institution: | (1) University of California, Los Angeles;(2) Department of Psychology, 405 Hilgard Avenue, 90024 Los Angeles, CA |
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Abstract: | Emotional empathic tendency is defined as an individual’s characteristic inclination to respond with emotions similar to those
of others who are present. Within a three-dimensional framework for describing temperament, more empathic persons were found
to be more arousable, and secondarily, more pleasant. Greater skin conductance and heart-rate responses of more empathic persons
to emotional stimuli confirmed their greater arousability. Also, more empathic individuals were more emotional, evidenced
by their greater tendency to weep. Males were found consistently to be less empathic than females. Compared with parents of
low-empathy subjects, those of high-empathy subjects were found to spend more time with their children, display more affection
for them, and to be verbally more explicit about feelings. Also, more emphatic mothers were more tolerant of infant cries
and were less prone to engage in child abuse. High-empathy, compared with low-empathy, subjects engaged more in altruistic
behaviors, were less aggressive, more affiliative, rated positive social traits as more important, scored higher on measures
of moral judgment, and volunteered more to help others. A modified Emotional Empathic Tendency Scale (EETS) for children correlated
negatively with teacher ratings of child aggressiveness. |
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