Article/Study Title: Changes in dispositional empathy in American college students over time: a meta-analysis
DOI or Website Link: 10.1177/1088868310377395
Publication: Journal
Authors: Konrath, Sara H.; O'Brien, Edward H.; Hsing, Courtney
Date: 2011
Affiliation(s):
Citation:
Konrath, Sara H.; O'Brien, Edward H.; Hsing, Courtney (2011): Changes in dispositional empathy in American college students over time: a meta-analysis. In: Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc 15 (2), S. 180-98. DOI: 10.1177/1088868310377395
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Abstract:
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 (IRI) between 1979 and 2009 (total N = 13,737). Overall, the authors found changes in the most prototypically empathic subscales of the IRI: Empathic Concern was most sharply dropping, followed by Perspective Taking. The IRI Fantasy and Personal Distress subscales exhibited no changes over time. Additional analyses found that the declines in Perspective Taking and Empathic Concern are relatively recent phenomena and are most pronounced in samples from after 2000.
Topic Area:
A cohort study with American college students
The definition of dispotional empathy was largely adopted from Davis' IRI
Empathy is portrayed as antidote to narcissism.
(What were the methods used to train empathy?)
(Who participated in this study / training?)
Davis' IRI
Result:
Empathy is on the decline in American college students. Some speculation about the causation was made: too much social media, too much competition in college, nuclear families with no siblings, too much exposure to TV
Posted By:
Sascha Bosetzky
Notes:
(Any other relevant information)