Empathy Tests and Measurements

How can we measure and test empathy?

Wikipedia.org/Empathy#Measurement
"Research into the measurement of empathy has sought to answer a number of questions: who should be carrying out the measurement? What should pass for empathy and what should be discounted? What unit of measure (UOM) should be adopted and to what degree should each occurrence precisely match that UOM are also key questions that researchers have sought to investigate.Researchers have approached the measurement of empathy from a number of perspectives."

Measuring Empathy
'Psychologists distinguish between measurements of situational empathy—that is, empathic reactions in a specific situation—and measurements of dispositional empathy, where empathy is understood as a person's stable character trait. Situational empathy is measured either by asking subjects about their experiences immediately after they were exposed to a particular situation, by studying the “facial, gestural, and vocal indices of empathy-related responding. or by various physiological measures such as the measurement of heart rate or skin conductance. None of these measurements are perfect tools. '

'Empathic Civilization': Do We Have Empathy Or Are We Just Good Rule Followers?
As yet there is no fool-proof test of empathy, yet given its growing importance within cognitive neuroscience, it won't be long before there is one. The advent of functional neuroimaging is making it possible to see beneath surface behaviour, to establish if the typical neural circuitry for empathy is (or is not) being employed, when someone says they care.  Simon Baron-Cohen

A systematic review of tests of empathy in medicine 1
A systematic review of tests of empathy in medicine 2
'Empathy is frequently cited as an important attribute in physicians and some groups have expressed a desire to measure empathy either at selection for medical school or during medical (or postgraduate) training. In order to do this, a reliable and valid test of empathy is required. The purpose of this systematic review is to determine the reliability and validity of existing tests for the assessment of medical empathy.' Empathy may be measured from three different perspectives:

• Self-rating (first person assessment) – the assessment of empathy using standardised questionnaires completed by those being assessed.

• Patient-rating (second person assessment) – the use of questionnaires given to patients to assess the empathy they experience among their carers.

• Observer rating (third person assessment) – the use of standardised assessments by an observer to rate empathy in interactions between health personnel and patients, including the use of 'standardised' or simulated patient encounters to control for observed differences secondary to differences between patients.

Dissociation of Cognitive & Emotional Empathy: Multifaceted Empathy Test for Children & Adolescents
'Background: Empathy, generally defined as the ability to understand and share another peronßs emotional state, is a multidimensional construct, consisting of cognitive (inferring mental states) and emotional (observer's emotional response to another person's emotional state ) components.  Both autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and conduct disorders (CD) have been described as disorders with empathy impairment. While most instruments assessing empathy focused rather on one component of empathy, the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) was designed to measure cognitive and emotional empathy simultaneously and independently using a series of photorealistic stimuli.'


The Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index
'The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980, 1983) is a measure of dispositional empathy that takes as its starting point the notion that empathy consists of a set of separate but related constructs. The instrument contains four seven-item subscales, each tapping a separate facet of empathy. The perspective taking (PT) scale measures the reported tendency to spontaneously adopt the psychological point of view of others in everyday life ("I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective"). The empathic concern (EC) scale assesses the tendency to experience feelings of sympathy and compassion for unfortunate others ("I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me").  '

Development and validation of the Basic Empathy Scale
'In developing the Basic Empathy Scale (BES), 40 items measuring affective and cognitive empathy were administered to 363 adolescents in Year 10 (aged about 15). Factor analysis reduced this to a 20-item scale that was administered 1 year later to 357 different adolescents in Year 10 in the same schools. Confirmatory factor analysis verified the two-factor solution. Females scored higher than males on both affective and cognitive empathy'

Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy,
A 20-item questionnaire measuring components of empathy among physicians in patient-care setting. The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) was developed by researchers at the Center for Research in Medical Education and Health Care (CRMEHC) at Jefferson Medical College to measure empathy among physicians, health professionals and medical students. Article as PDF with 20 questions (98 KB)

1.  I try to imagine myself in my patients’ shoes when providing care to them.

2.  My understanding of my patients’ feelings gives them a sense of validation that is therapeutic in its own
   right. .

3. . An important component of the relationship with my patients is my understanding of the emotional status
   of themselves and their families.
   ..20

Reading Peoples Expressions

Quick Guide - Emotion Test
Welcome to the quick guide to the Emotion Test. The Emotion Test is part of the Global Cognitive Empathy Study. Take part today - go to www.cognisess.com


 

Reading the mind in the eyes
	'For each pair of eyes, choose which word best describes what the person in the picture is thinking or feeling. When you've answered all the questions, press the 'Get score' button at the bottom to see your results.'

 

Reading the mind in the eyes
	For each set of eyes, choose which word best describes that the person is thinking or feeling.

 

DVD Mind Reading demo

'Mind Reading is a unique reference work covering the entire spectrum of human emotions. Using the software you can explore over 400 emotions, seeing and hearing each one performed by six different people.'

• View Shockwave Demo

  • Emotions Library:

  • Learning Center:

  • Game: Try out the game to identify the emotions

Yawning test
 

Tracing the Origins of Human Empathy
	In a group of people, if one person yawns, the first person to catch the yawn would be the most empathic. A recent report from The Wall Street Journal’s Science Journal columnist Robert Lee Hotz, on empathy in primates and other animals (”Tracing the Origins of Human Empathy”). (Yawning, mirroring, Frans de Wal, Kevin Ochsner, brain studies, mirror neurons, identifying with certain close groups)

Contagious Yawning Empathy Test
 
It has long been known that yawning is contagious among humans. Scientific studies have started to link contagious yawning with the emotional response known as empathy. Try watching this short video and count how many times you yawn.
 

Writing the E for Empathy on your Forehead test
Ask someone to draw a a capital E on their forehead. Do they write it so they can see it our so that others can see it?

 

The University of Michigan test - American college students test

Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time: A Meta-Analysis Personality and Social Psychology Review  Sara H. Konrath, Edward H. O'Brien, Courtney Hsing "The current study examines changes over time in a commonly used measure of dispositional empathy. A cross-temporal meta-analysis was conducted on 72 samples of American college students who completed at least one of the four subscales (Empathic Concern, Perspective Taking, Fantasy, and Personal Distress) of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index between 1979 and 2009"

 

Science of Empathy
'Autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen reveals the science behind "the world's most valuable resource" – and how its lack is the root of human cruelty'
See how you fare in our empathy test

Qualtrics Survey
'Please answer ALL of the questions below and when you are done, you will see a screen with your score on it. You will learn how you compare to almost 14,000 college students on empathy. '

Empathy quotient test
Read each of the following 60 statements very carefully and state how strongly you agree or disagree with it. When you've answered all the questions, press the 'Get score' button at the bottom to see your results.
 

Systemizing quotient test
Read each of the following 60 statements very carefully and state how strongly you agree or disagree with it. When you've answered all the questions, press the 'Get score' button at the bottom to see your results.

 

Autism Spectrum quotient test
Read each of the following 50 statements very carefully and state how strongly you agree or disagree with it.


Levels of Empathy
'Empathy can be difficult to measure, so an "empathy scale" is often used by psychologists to characterize degrees of empathy during our verbal exchanges with others.

Level 1: Tuned Out
Level 2: Reptilian or Pretend Listening
Level 3: Connection
Level 3: Advanced Level'

 

 

Empathy test

'The following test measures one's empathy level. Empathy is the ability to feel and comprehend other people's emotions. An empathic person performs an active effort to get in tune with another person, leaving out personal aptitudes such as sympathy, antipathy, fondness and moral judgements.'

 

Test how self-compassionate you are
'Please read each statement carefully before answering. To the left of each item, indicate how often you behave in the stated manner, using the following scale'

 

Are you an Empath? Take the test and find out!
'This test scores you on several categories, including: whether you are an Out of Control Healer, how well you use your own Empathic Protection Tools, how much you Unconsciously Mirror other people, and how Logical vs Intuitive you are. '

 

What’s your EQ (empathy quotient)?  pdf
'This quiz, adapted from a common psychological test of empathy, gauges two key empathy types: concern for others and perspective (the ability to imagine someone’s point of view). For each question, pick a number from 1 to 5, then tally your scores.'

Second Person  Assessment Test
 

  Ask others to Assess You

 

Observer rating (third person assessment)

Measuring Bodily Chemicals

Measuring Oxytocin Levels

 

Oxytocin Enhances Amygdala-Dependent, Socially Reinforced Learning and Emotional Empathy in Humans
'Oxytocin (OT) is becoming increasingly established as a prosocial neuropeptide in humans with therapeutic potential in treatment of social, cognitive, and mood disorders. However, the potential of OT as a general facilitator of human learning and empathy is unclear. ...A general conclusion from our results is that treatment with an OTR agonist may be a useful therapy in enhancing socially motivated learning and emotional empathy in men. '

 

Measuring Testosterone Levels
 

Extra Testosterone and Reduced Empathy
	A new study for the first time has provided hard data on how administering testosterone under the tongue (sublingually) negatively affects an important marker for empathy.

 
2D:4D ratio. finger Ratio
Digit ratio - Wikipedia
Hand with index finger being shorter than the ring finger, resulting in a small 2D:4D ratio, pointing to a high exposure to testosterone in the uterus.


Genetic Markers for Oxytocin Receptors

Telltale Signs You’ve Got the ‘Love Hormone’ Gene?
Research has shown that people with two G variants of the gene are more empathetic and “prosocial,” showing more compassion, cooperation and positive emotion. In contrast, those with the at least one A version of the gene tend to be less empathetic, may have worse mental health and are more likely to be autistic.

 

fMRI

Others

 

 

Draw the Letter E on our forehead test

Then ask him to take that extended finger and draw a capital E on his forehead. Does he draw the letter so that it faces him – that is, backward to a person looking at him? Or does he draw the letter so that the viewer can read it? Neither way is right or wrong. But the direction of that letter might tell you something about the disposition of that leader.  [the more empathic person draws it so others can read it]