Culture, Sex, and Group-Bias in Trait and State Empathy

Frontiers in Psychology

Qing Zhao¹  Chao Yan²  Sandra Djekic³  David L. Neumann⁴  David H. K. Shum⁵ 

[1] Department of Pain Management, The State Key Clinical Specialty in Pain Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China;School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia;Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia;Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (MOE&STCSM), Shanghai Changning-ECNU Mental Health Center, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China;School of Applied Arts, University of Art in Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia;School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia;School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia;Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong;Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;

关键词: culture–sex interaction;    ethnic group bias;    sex group favor;    Empathy Quotient (EQ);    Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI);   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.561930

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Empathy is sharing and understanding others’ emotions. Recently, researchers identified a culture–sex interaction effect in empathy. This phenomenon has been largely ignored by previous researchers. In this study, the culture–sex interaction effect was explored with a cohort of 129 participants (61 Australian Caucasians and 68 Chinese Hans) using both self-report questionnaires (i.e., Empathy Quotient and Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and computer-based empathy tasks. In line with the previous findings, the culture–sex interaction effect was observed for both trait empathy (i.e., the generalized characteristics of empathy, as examined by the self-report questionnaires) and state empathy (i.e., the on-spot reaction of empathy for a specific stimulus, as evaluated by the computer-based tasks). Moreover, in terms of state empathy, the culture–sex interaction effect further interacted with stimulus traits (i.e., stimulus ethnicity, stimulus sex, or stimulus emotion) and resulted in three- and four-way interactions. Follow-up analyses of these higher-order interactions suggested that the phenomena of ethnic group bias and sex group favor in empathy varied among the four culture–sex participant groups (i.e., Australian female, Australian male, Chinese female, and Chinese male). The current findings highlighted the dynamic nature of empathy (i.e., its sensitivity toward both participant traits and stimulus features). Furthermore, the newly identified interaction effects in empathy deserve more investigation and need to be verified with other Western and Asian populations.

【 授权许可】

CC BY