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Abstract
The term "empathy" is popular, yet fuzzy. How laypeople define it has not been investigated. In Study 1, we analyzed 99 participants' free narratives describing their personal definition, and in Study 1 (N = 191) and Study 2 (N = 351), we asked participants to rate a list of specific behaviors and tendencies for how well each one matched their personal definition. Out of 10 coded components, perspective taking was mentioned most often and personal distress (anxious reactivity in emotional situations) was never mentioned. Item ratings revealed four Empathy Concept factors: Prosocial Emotional Response, Interpersonal Perceptiveness, Other Perspective, and Anxious Reactivity. Other Perspective and Prosocial Emotional Response were most highly endorsed while Anxious Reactivity showed the lowest endorsement. Individuals varied widely in their endorsements of the factors. These results demonstrate that laypeople hold a multifactorial set of definitions of empathy and differ widely from one another in which ones they endorse.
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102
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Estroff SE. On Empathy: Much Ado about Something. Psychiatry 2021; 84:256-259. [PMID: 34694968 DOI: 10.1080/00332747.2021.1958593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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103
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Herberman Mash HB. Empathy: Understanding Its Distinct Conceptual Components and Clinical Applications. Psychiatry 2021; 84:242-249. [PMID: 34694969 DOI: 10.1080/00332747.2021.1958583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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104
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How to become more grateful? The mediating role of resilience between empathy and gratitude. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-020-01178-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThe current study examined the relationship between empathy, resilience, and gratitude. Specifically, the study investigated the potential mediating role of resilience between empathy and gratitude. The study involved 214 participants who completed the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test-Revised (GRAT-R), the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE), and the Resilience Measurement Scale (SPP-25). The results showed significant positive correlations among resilience, empathy, and gratitude. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that resilience, gender, and affective empathy were direct predictors of the level of gratitude. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis supported the hypothesis that resilience played a mediating role between empathy and gratitude. Implications for research and the promotion of positive psychology programs for adults are discussed.
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105
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Altmann T, Roth M. The risk of empathy: longitudinal associations between empathy and burnout. Psychol Health 2020; 36:1441-1460. [PMID: 33100035 DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2020.1838521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Prior research on the relation between empathy and burnout in social professions appears to be inconsistent. Whereas some studies have claimed that empathy functions as a buffer against burnout, others have argued that empathy contributes to the development of burnout. One explanation for this disparity may be methodological as most studies have relied on cross-sectional single-measure designs. To examine their cross-sectional and longitudinal associations, the present study analyzed cross-lagged data of several measures of empathy and burnout. DESIGN Data from two longitudinal studies with three to twelve months between measurements were analyzed. The samples contained 172 nursing students and 186 nurses, respectively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Empathy was assessed using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire, the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test, and the Social Mindfulness Test Paradigm. Burnout was assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Irritation Scale, and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. RESULTS Results showed significant cross-sectional correlations between the questionnaire measures of empathy and burnout. However, there was insufficient support for the cross-lagged associations. CONCLUSIONS Associations between empathy and burnout may be attributed to the methodological limitations of cross-sectional designs. However, the influence of potential moderators is discussed as a promising direction of future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Altmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Marcus Roth
- Department of Psychology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
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106
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Hartmann H, Rütgen M, Riva F, Lamm C. Another's pain in my brain: No evidence that placebo analgesia affects the sensory-discriminative component in empathy for pain. Neuroimage 2020; 224:117397. [PMID: 32971262 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2020] [Revised: 08/04/2020] [Accepted: 09/15/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The shared representations account of empathy suggests that sharing other people's emotions relies on neural processes similar to those engaged when directly experiencing such emotions. Recent research corroborated this by showing that placebo analgesia induced for first-hand pain resulted in reduced pain empathy and decreased activation in shared neural networks. However, those studies did not report any placebo-related variation of somatosensory engagement during pain empathy. The experimental paradigms used in these studies did not direct attention towards a specific body part in pain, which may explain the absence of effects for somatosensation. The main objective of this preregistered study was to implement a paradigm overcoming this limitation, and to investigate whether placebo analgesia may also modulate the sensory-discriminative component of empathy for pain. We induced a localized, first-hand placebo analgesia effect in the right hand of 45 participants by means of a placebo gel and conditioning techniques, and compared this to the left hand as a control condition. Participants underwent a pain task in the MRI scanner, receiving painful or non-painful electrical stimulation on their left or right hand, or witnessing another person receiving such stimulation. In contrast to a robust localized placebo analgesia effect for self-experienced pain, the empathy condition showed no differences between the two hands, neither for behavioral nor neural responses. We thus report no evidence for somatosensory sharing in empathy, while replicating previous studies showing overlapping brain activity in the affective-motivational component for first-hand and empathy for pain. Hence, in a more rigorous test aiming to overcome limitations of previous work, we again find no causal evidence for the engagement of somatosensory sharing in empathy. Our study refines the understanding of the neural underpinnings of empathy for pain, and the use of placebo analgesia in investigating such models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helena Hartmann
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Markus Rütgen
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Federica Riva
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria.
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107
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Holland AC, O’Connell G, Dziobek I. Facial mimicry, empathy, and emotion recognition: a meta-analysis of correlations. Cogn Emot 2020; 35:150-168. [DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2020.1815655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alison C. Holland
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Garret O’Connell
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Institute of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Isabel Dziobek
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Institute of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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108
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Park J, Saha S, Han D, Jindal M, Korthuis PT, Moore R, Beach MC. Are clinicians' self-reported empathic concern and perspective-taking traits associated with their response to patient emotions?: Communication Studies. PATIENT EDUCATION AND COUNSELING 2020; 103:1745-1751. [PMID: 32362523 PMCID: PMC7423637 DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2020.04.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2020] [Revised: 04/13/2020] [Accepted: 04/15/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To understand whether clinicians' empathic concern and perspective-taking traits are associated with their response to patient emotions. METHODS We audio-recorded 41 HIV clinician interactions with 342 patients at two academic medical centers. We assessed clinicians' self-reported empathic concern and perspective-taking traits using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and coded emotional communication using the Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences. We used random effects models to assess associations between clinician traits and clinician responses to patients' negative emotions, accounting for clustering of emotions within encounters and patients within clinicians. RESULTS Clinicians with more self-reported empathic concern received fewer emotional expressions from their patients (β -0.06; 95% CI -0.10, -0.01) and had greater odds of responding to emotions by giving information/advice (OR 1.10; 95% CI 1.01, 1.20). There were no associations between empathic concern or perspective-taking and any other clinician responses. CONCLUSION Clinicians with higher levels of empathic concern respond to patient emotions by giving information and advice, a response traditionally thought of as a missed empathic opportunity, not by exploring emotions or providing empathy. Whether this is helpful to patients is unknown. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Clinicians should be aware of their tendency to give information to patients with emotional distress, and consider whether this response is helpful to patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Park
- Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Somnath Saha
- Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA; Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Dingfen Han
- Division of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Monique Jindal
- Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - P Todd Korthuis
- Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Richard Moore
- Division of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Mary Catherine Beach
- Division of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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109
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Baker-Eck B, Bull R, Walsh D. Investigative empathy: a strength scale of empathy based on European police perspectives. PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOLOGY, AND LAW : AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION OF PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOLOGY AND LAW 2020; 27:412-427. [PMID: 33071549 PMCID: PMC7534327 DOI: 10.1080/13218719.2020.1751333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
A growing body of research suggests that empathy plays a major role in establishing and maintaining rapport during police interviews. The benefits of rapport include not only increased cooperation from interviewees, but also gaining more accurate investigation-relevant information. However, there still is no universally agreed-upon definition and very little research on operationalizing empathy, especially within investigative interviewing. The present study analyzed police interviewers' self-reports regarding their (a) training and methods employed during interviews, (b) application of empathy in interviews, and (c) definitions/understanding of empathy. It was found that officers in all seven participating countries varied within each country in their use of accusatory or information-gathering interview styles. The majority of participants in each country claimed to employ empathy in their interviews with suspects, yet they varied regarding the definitions they provided. In no country was empathy defined as having aspects that may not be conducive to investigative interviewing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bianca Baker-Eck
- Department of Law and Criminology, University of Derby, Derby, UK
| | - Ray Bull
- Department of Law and Criminology, University of Derby, Derby, UK
| | - Dave Walsh
- Law School, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
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110
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Kelly M, Svrcek C, King N, Scherpbier A, Dornan T. Embodying empathy: A phenomenological study of physician touch. MEDICAL EDUCATION 2020; 54:400-407. [PMID: 31793673 DOI: 10.1111/medu.14040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2019] [Revised: 11/15/2019] [Accepted: 11/19/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
CONTEXT Empathic physician behaviour is associated with improved patient outcomes. One way to demonstrate empathy is through the use of non-verbal communication (NVC) including touch. To date, research on NVC, and specifically touch, has been relatively limited in medicine, which is surprising given the central role it plays in conveying affective and empathic messages. To inform curriculum development on NVC, this study aimed to examine physicians' experiences of communicating by touch. METHODS We conducted an interpretative phenomenological study. A total of 15 physicians (seven women and eight men) from different specialties, including both recent graduates and experienced doctors, described in detail specific instances of touch drawn from their clinical practices. Interview prompts encouraged participants to recall exact details such as the context, their relationship with the patient they touched and their physical experience of touching. Interviews (45-100 minutes) were analysed with template analysis, followed by a process of dialectic questioning, moving back and forth between the data and researchers' personal reflections on them, drawing on phenomenological literature to synthesise a final interpretation. RESULTS Participants described two dimensions of the experience of touch: 'choosing and inviting touch' and 'expressing empathy.' Touch was a personal and fragile process. Participants interpreted non-verbal patient cues in order to determine whether or not touch was appropriate. They interpreted facial expressions and body language in the present to make meaning of patients' experiences. They used touch to share emotions, and to demonstrate empathy and presence. Participants' experiences of touch framed it as a form of embodied empathic communication. CONCLUSIONS Touch is a powerful form of NVC that can establish human connection. Phenomenological accounts of empathy, which emphasise its embodied intersubjective nature, can be used to theoretically enrich pedagogical approaches to touch in medical education and to deepen our understanding of empathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Kelly
- Department of Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Clark Svrcek
- Department of Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Nigel King
- Department of Applied Psychology, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK
| | - Albert Scherpbier
- Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, School of Health Professions Education, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Tim Dornan
- Centre for Medical Education, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
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111
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Engbers RA. Students' perceptions of interventions designed to foster empathy: An integrative review. NURSE EDUCATION TODAY 2020; 86:104325. [PMID: 31926381 DOI: 10.1016/j.nedt.2019.104325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2019] [Revised: 11/13/2019] [Accepted: 12/23/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Empathy is assumed to be an important element of nursing care, and nursing educators are attempting to find ways to effectively foster empathy in their students. The purpose of this review is to gain a deeper grasp of what undergraduate nursing students are learning from interventions educators have designed to cultivate empathy by synthesizing qualitative data. REVIEW METHODS Utilizing the review methodology proposed by Whittemore and Knafl, a survey of the CINAHL, Web of Science, PubMed, and PsychINFO databases was undertaken to answer the question: What are undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of interventions designed to foster empathy? RESULTS A thematic synthesis of the students' perceptions from the 17 articles meeting inclusion criteria revealed five themes: Understanding the other's experience, embodying the other's experience, becoming aware of self, informing the role of the nurse, and learning or transforming. CONCLUSIONS Although additional conceptual work remains to create a coherent, complete, and parsimonious definition of empathy, the results indicate that the students are gaining many of the facets assumed to be part of the concept of empathy through these educational interventions. Immersive simulations that put students in the role of the "other" were particularly impactful, especially if they created a disorienting dilemma followed by guided reflection. These findings can help nursing educators tailor their interventions for their specific intended learning outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruth A Engbers
- Marquette University, College of Nursing, 530 N 16th St., Milwaukee, WI 53233, United States of America.
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112
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Fabi S, Weber LA, Leuthold H. Empathic concern and personal distress depend on situational but not dispositional factors. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0225102. [PMID: 31725812 PMCID: PMC6855434 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2019] [Accepted: 10/29/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Empathic concern and personal distress are empathic responses that may result when observing someone in discomfort. Even though these empathic responses have received much attention in past research, it is still unclear which conditions contribute to their respective experience. Hence, the main goal of this study was to examine if dispositional empathic traits or rather situational variables are more likely to evoke empathic concern and personal distress and how the two empathic responses influence motor responses. We presented pictures of persons in psychological, physical, or no pain with matched descriptions of situations that promoted an other-focused state. Approach-avoidance movements were demanded by a subsequently presented tone. While psychological pain led to more empathic concern, physical pain led to higher ratings of personal distress. Linear mixed-effects modelling analysis further revealed that situational factors, such as the type of pain but also the affect experienced by the participants before the experiment predicted the two empathic responses, whereas dispositional empathic traits had no significant influence. In addition, the more intensely the empathic responses were experienced, the faster were movements initiated, presumably reflecting an effect of arousal. Overall, the present study advances our understanding of empathic responses to people in need and provides novel methodological tools to effectively manipulate and analyze empathic concern and personal distress in future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Fabi
- Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Lydia Anna Weber
- Universitätsklinikum Tübingen, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Hartmut Leuthold
- Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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113
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Israelashvili J, Sauter D, Fischer A. How Well Can We Assess Our Ability to Understand Others' Feelings? Beliefs About Taking Others' Perspectives and Actual Understanding of Others' Emotions. Front Psychol 2019; 10:2475. [PMID: 31824365 PMCID: PMC6882378 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
People vary in their beliefs about their tendency to engage in perspective taking and to understand other's feelings. Often, however, those beliefs are suggested to be poor indicators of actual skills and thus provide an inaccurate reflection of performance. Few studies, however, have examined whether people's beliefs accurately predict their performance on emotion recognition tasks using dynamic or spontaneous emotional expressions. We report six studies (N ranges from 186 to 315; N total = 1,347) testing whether individuals' report of their engagement in perspective taking, as measured by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1983), is associated with accurate emotion recognition. In Studies 1-3, emotion recognition performance was assessed using three standard tests of nonverbal emotion recognition. To provide a more naturalistic test, we then assessed performance with a new emotion recognition test in Studies 4-6, using videos of real targets that share their emotional experiences. Participants' multi-scalar ratings of the targets' emotions were compared with the targets' own emotion ratings. Across all studies, we found a modest, yet significant positive relationship: people who believe that they take the other's perspective also perform better in tests of emotion recognition (r = 0.20, p < 0.001). Beliefs about taking others' perspective thus reflect interpersonal reality, but only partially.
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114
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Antidepressant treatment, not depression, leads to reductions in behavioral and neural responses to pain empathy. Transl Psychiatry 2019; 9:164. [PMID: 31175273 PMCID: PMC6555809 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-019-0496-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2018] [Revised: 05/03/2019] [Accepted: 05/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been hypothesized to lead to impairments in empathy. Previous cross-sectional studies did not disentangle effects of MDD itself and antidepressant treatment. In this first longitudinal neuroimaging study on empathy in depression, 29 patients with MDD participated in two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions before and after 3 months of antidepressant therapy. We compared their responses to an empathy for pain task to a group of healthy controls (N = 35). All participants provided self-report ratings targeting cognitive (perspective taking) and affective (unpleasant affect) aspects of empathy. To control for general effects on processing of negative affective states, participants additionally underwent an electrical pain task. Before treatment, we found no differences in empathic responses between controls and patients with MDD. After treatment, patients showed significant decreases in both affective empathy and activity of three a priori selected brain regions associated with empathy for pain. Decreases in affective empathy were moreover correlated with symptom improvement. Moreover, functional connectivity during the empathy task between areas associated with affective (anterior insula) and cognitive (precuneus) empathy decreased between sessions in the MDD group. Neither cognitive empathy nor responses to painful electrical shocks were changed after treatment. These findings contradict previous cross-sectional reports of empathy deficits in acute MDD. Rather, they suggest that antidepressant treatment reduces the aversive responses triggered by exposure to the suffering of others. Importantly, this cannot be explained by a general blunting of negative affect, as treatment did not change self-experienced pain.
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115
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Heym N, Firth J, Kibowski F, Sumich A, Egan V, Bloxsom CAJ. Empathy at the Heart of Darkness: Empathy Deficits That Bind the Dark Triad and Those That Mediate Indirect Relational Aggression. Front Psychiatry 2019; 10:95. [PMID: 30930800 PMCID: PMC6423894 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2018] [Accepted: 02/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The dark triad (DT) traits-psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism-have collectively been linked to reduced empathy and increased aggression; however, their association with distinct empathic subtypes remains unclear; and unique links to indirect relational aggression (IRA) have not been delineated. Moreover, whether dark traits should be conceptualized individually, as a dyad or as a triad with a dark core centered around the absence of empathy is debated. The current study examines (i) whether impaired empathy indeed represents a common "dark core" binding Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, and (ii) this core explains associations between the dark traits and IRA. Participants (N = 301, 262 F/39 M) completed measures of the DT traits, cognitive and affective empathy components and IRA (Social Exclusion, Malicious Humor and Guilt Induction). The individual traits model without links between narcissism and IRA showed the best fit, suggesting that, at least in the context of IRA, the DT traits are best viewed as three independent personality traits. Distinct cognitive and affective empathy deficits and capacities are seen in the DT. Peripheral responsivity was the only type of empathy deficit associated with all dark traits, but unrelated to IRA. Psychopathy was the strongest indicator of impaired empathy and all IRAs; however, only online simulation, an affect-related cognitive empathy facet, partially mediated the relationships of psychopathy and Machiavellianism with IRA. Whilst the unique pathways for the dark triad traits suggest stronger alignment of psychopathy and Machiavellianism in their empathic deficits and indirect aggression; the data do not support the notion that an unempathic dark core underpinning all three traits drives indirect aggression. This is the first paper delineating the specific empathic deficits involved using a facet approach and their link to indirect forms of aggression. Results therefore inform theoretical models of aggression in the DT and offer some clarity on the debates surrounding the unempathic dark core in the DT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadja Heym
- Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Jennifer Firth
- Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Fraenze Kibowski
- Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Alexander Sumich
- Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom.,Department of Psychology, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Vincent Egan
- Forensic and Family Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Claire A J Bloxsom
- Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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