Work

The empathic personality profile: Using personality characteristics to reveal genetic, environmental, and developmental patterns of adolescents' empathy

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Objective How do genetic and environmental processes affect empathy during early adolescence? This study illuminated this question by examining the aetiology of empathy with the aetiology of other personality characteristics. Method Israeli twin adolescents rated their empathy and personality at ages 11 (N = 1176) and 13 (N = 821) (733 families, 51.4% females). Parents rated adolescents' emotional empathy. Adolescents performed an emotion recognition task, indicating cognitive empathy. Results Using a cross‐validated statistical learning algorithm, this study found emotional and cognitive “empathic personality profiles,” which describe and predict self‐reported empathy from nuanced Big‐Five personality characteristics, or “nuances” (i.e., individual items). These profiles predicted empathy moderately (R2 = 0.17–0.24) and were stable and robust, within each age and between ages. They also predicted empathy in a new sample of older nontwin adolescents (N = 96) and were validated against non‐self‐report empathy measures. Both emotional and cognitive empathy were predicted by nuances representing positive attitudes toward others, trust, forgiveness, and openness to experiences. Emotional empathy was also predicted by nuances representing anxiousness and negative reactivity. Twin analyses revealed overlapping genetic and environmental influences on empathy and the empathic personality profiles and overlapping environmental influences on empathy–personality change. Conclusions This study demonstrates how addressing the complexity of individuals' personalities can inform adolescents' empathy development.

Source: Journal of Personality

DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12772

Authors: Lior Abramson, Eran Eldar, Noam Markovitch, Ariel Knafo‐Noam

Institutions: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Columbia University

Language: English

Topic: Personality Traits and Psychology

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,600