Feeling for the Other With Ease: Prospective Actors Show High Levels of Emotion Recognition and Report Above Average Empathic Concern, but Do Not Experience Strong Distress

Behind the mask: What the eyes can't tell: Facial emotion recognition in a sample of Italian health care students

Wearing a facemask remains a pivotal strategy to prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection even after vaccination, but one of the possible costs of this protection is that it may interfere with the ability to read emotion in facial expressions. We explored the extent to which it may be more difficult for participants to read emotions in faces when faces are covered with masks than when they are not, and whether participants' empathy, attachment style, and patient-centred orientation would affect their performance. Medical and nursing students (N = 429) were administered either a masked or unmasked set of 24 adult faces depicting anger, sadness, fear, or happiness. Participants also completed self-report measures of empathy, patient-centredness, and attachment style. As predicted, participants made more errors to the masked than the unmasked faces with the exception of the identification of fear. Of note, when participants missed happiness, they were most likely to see it as sadness, and when they missed anger, they were most likely to see it as happiness. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that more errors identifying emotions in faces was associated with faces being masked as opposed to unmasked, lower scores on the empathy fantasy scale, and higher scores on the fearful attachment style. The findings suggest that wearing facemasks is associated with a variety of negative outcomes that might interfere with the building of positive relationships between health care workers and patients. Those who teach student health care workers would benefit from bringing this finding into their curriculum and training.

Substantial Increases in Healthcare Students' State Empathy Scores Owing to Participation in a Single Improvisation Session

PURPOSE

To determine whether the 12-item state empathy scale could be modified reliably to measure empathy in healthcare professions students and to detect changes in their empathy owing to a single improvisation (improv) session.

METHODS

Three cohorts of students from two healthcare professions programs (total = 165 students) participated in an improv session. During the session, one of the researchers (BS) tasked the students with several improv activities. Participants' self-reported state empathy scores were assessed at three time points (pre-improv, post-improv, and end of semester) using revised, in-class paper versions of the State Empathy Scale.

RESULTS

The exploratory factor analysis revealed a single factor solution for the revised scale, justifying the creation of an overall state empathy score from the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha reliability values averaged 0.87. Students' mean empathy scores were higher directly after the improv session than directly prior to the session (p < 0.0001; effect size = r = 0.67, 0.55, and 0.79 for cohorts 1, 2, and 3, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings show that a single one- or two-hour improv session can foster substantial increases in healthcare professional students' state empathy for one another. Greater healthcare professional empathy and compassion foster better healthcare team cooperation and patient outcomes, so healthcare professionals and their students should engage in such empathy-enhancing activities at regular intervals throughout their training and careers.

The Key Role of Empathy in the Relationship between Age and Social Support

Aging involves several changes depending on genetic and behavioral factors, such as lifestyle and the number and quality of social relationships, which in turn can be influenced by empathy. Here, the change in the perceived social support across the lifespan as a function of empathy was investigated, considering the mediating role of empathy after controlling for gender and education. In total, 441 people (18-91 years old) filled in the Italian short version of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL-12), the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ6), as well as the Empathy Questionnaire (EQ), and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET). The mediation analyses with ISEL-12 showed that age and the EQ fully mediated the relationship between age and appraisal, belonging, and tangible scores. Further, the EQ fully mediated only the relationship between age and SSQ6-People. These results showed that empathic skills are key in the relationships between age and social support. This suggests that empathy can trigger social support and, ultimately, well-being if stimulated across the lifespan, especially from a young age; this would help to form the socio-emotional competence across the years as a sort of cushion that can be useful in the older to fulfill active aging.

Interaction in acting training and its different manifestations in novice and professional actors

This study aimed to identify the characteristics of interactions during acting training and the underlying intrapersonal changes evoked by a training process that emphasizes paying attention to a partner (the Meisner technique). This was operationalized by conducting a post-hoc analysis and categorizing the utterances made by novice and professional actors during acting training based on video and audio recordings. In Study 1, novice participants tended to change their way of communication as the course progressed, decreasing the number of utterances that simply described the partner's behavior and increasing those that speculated about the partner's inner state. We then used a different focus placed on the interaction, as implied by the different kinds of utterances used, to describe the divergences between novice and professional actors regarding their interaction characteristics. In Study 2, results showed that while professional actors devoted themselves more to the connection with their partner and demonstrated more balanced communication, novice actors relied on general inference to speculate about others' affective states. By comparing the characteristics of the utterances between novice and professional actors as they played different roles or made switches (i.e., changing from passive to active utterance in communication), this study suggests that an important impact of acting training on social abilities relates to its potential to increase the levels of involvement in on-going interactions.

Reading language of the eyes

The need for assessment of social skills in clinical and neurotypical populations has led to the widespread, and still increasing use of the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test' (RMET) developed more than two decades ago by Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues for evaluation of social cognition in autism. By analyzing most recent clinical and brain imaging data, we illuminate a set of factors decisive for using the RMET. Converging evidence indicates: (i) In neurotypical individuals, RMET scores are tightly correlated with other social skills (empathy, emotional intelligence, and body language reading); (ii) The RMET assesses recognition of facial affect, but also heavily relies on receptive language skills, semantic knowledge, and memory; (iii) RMET performance is underwritten by the large-scale ensembles of neural networks well-outside the social brain; (iv) The RMET is limited in its capacity to differentiate between neuropsychiatric conditions as well as between stages and severity of a single disorder, though it reliably distinguishes individuals with altered social cognition or elevated pathological traits from neurotypical persons; (v) Merely gender (as a social construct) rather than neurobiological sex influences performance on the RMET; (vi) RMET scores do not substantially decline in healthy aging, and they are higher with higher education level, cognitive abilities, literacy, and mental well-being; (vii) Accuracy on the RMET, and engagement of the social brain, are greater when emotions are expressed and recognized by individuals with similar cultural/ethnic background. Further research is required to better inform usage of the RMET as a tool for swift and reliable examination of social cognition. In light of comparable visual input from the RMET images and faces covered by masks due to COVID-19 regulations, the analysis is of value for keeping efficient social interaction during the current pandemic, in particular, in professional settings related to social communication.

"I'm Never Going to Be in Phantom of the Opera": Relational and Emotional Wellbeing of Parkinson's Carers and Their Partners in and Beyond Dancing

The caregiving of people who suffer from Parkinson's predominantly falls on their life partners. Living with and caring for somebody with Parkinson's can cause a range of emotional, psychological, and financial pressures. Whilst an increasing number of alternative treatments for Parkinson's is available, such as dancing, the focus is predominantly on the motor and emotional improvements of the person suffering from Parkinson's. For caregivers, however, dancing can be a double-edged sword: Although dancing can offer an opportunity to enjoy a social event with their partner; attending dance classes puts additional responsibilities on the carer. The present study thus aimed at exploring the experiences of participants with Parkinson's who attended dance classes as well as the experiences of their care-partners in and around these classes along with their view on everyday life changes experienced since dancing. Six couples were interviewed individually where one partner had Parkinson's. The interviews were also analyzed separately using inductive thematic analysis. In line with existing programmes that offer dance for people with Parkinson's, the classes used a mixture of ballroom, ballet, contemporary, and creative dance styles; supported and influenced by an instructors' extensive knowledge of the abilities and needs of those with Parkinson's. A recurring challenge for Parkinson's sufferers relates to "who is in control?" based on the many unknown changes of Parkinson's; as well as seeing/being seen. Yet frustrations were oftentimes counteracted with humour. Also, when dancing, participants with Parkinson's reported enjoying playful interactions. Caregivers' themes focussed on theirs and their partners' wellbeing regarding social contacts and openness, as well as issues surrounding their responsibilities as carers. Whilst some identified dance movements that help them in everyday tasks, they and their care-partners question the impact of dance on their motor control. Yet, participants unanimously agree that dance provides relevant opportunities for social contact and comparison. Nevertheless, the care-partners' concerns remain about the burden of increasing responsibility for the wellbeing of both partners but they also reported enjoying dancing with their partner. Experiencing their loved ones as more cheerful after starting dance classes is recognised an important positive and impactful outcome of dancing together.