[This corrects the article on p. 161 in vol. 6, PMID: 25750631.].

Research shows that we spontaneously imitate people. Moreover, empathy predicts the degree of this non-conscious imitation. Little is known, however, if or how this expression of empathy is influenced by stable physical characteristics of our interaction-partners. In two studies, we tested whether attractiveness of others moderated the relation between empathy and imitation. While seeing a woma...

MacKayfs initial chapter of this book demonstrates the complexity of the empathy construct by reviewing various definitions and conceptualizations of empathy. The present chapter analyzes empathy as a personality disposition. Empathy-like any personality disposition-possesses four levels of meaning. These four levels of meaning are: (1) global, evaluative impressions about an actor perceived by...

In three experiments, we examine parochial empathy (feeling more empathy for in-group than out-group members) across novel group boundaries, and test whether we can mitigate parochial empathy with brief narrative descriptions. In the absence of individuating information, participants consistently report more empathy for members of their own assigned group than a competitive out-group. However, ...

Previous studies found that humor and empathy are associated with interpersonal relationships. Particularly, Hampes (2001) reported that humor styles and empathy had a positive correlation in adults. The purpose of the study is to explore the link between empathy and humor use in teenagers and to investigate if gender differences exist as well. 115 adolescents between 11-12 years old participat...

This study examines: (a) the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on emotional empathy, (b) the relationship between emotional empathy and neuropsychological ability, and (c) the influence of low emotional empathy on measures of affect. Eighty-nine patients completed the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES), a number of neuropsychological tests, some of which were ecologically valid tests ...

Forgiving is a motivational transformation that inclines people to inhibit relationship-destructive responses and to behave constructively toward someone who has behaved destructively toward them. The authors describe a model of forgiveness based on the hypothesis that people forgive others to the extent that they experience empathy for them. Two studies investigated the empathy model of forgiv...

This study investigated the effects of voluntarily empathizing with a musical performer (i.e., cognitive empathy) on music-induced emotions and their underlying physiological activity. N = 56 participants watched video-clips of two operatic compositions performed in concerts, with low or high empathy instructions. Heart rate and heart rate variability, skin conductance level (SCL), and respirat...

OBJECTIVE Deficits in empathy, an important part of social cognition, have been described in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Importantly, psychosocial stress enhances emotional empathy in healthy participants. However, it remains unknown whether stress affects empathy in BPD. METHOD We randomized 47 women with BPD and 47 healthy women to either the Trier Social Stress Tes...

This study used descriptive correlation to examine factors affecting empathy in nurses, specifically, how empathy relates to adult attachment, self-esteem, and communication self-efficacy. Data were collected from March 16until March 27, 2015. A survey was administered to 100 nurses working in two university hospitals located in D city and K province. All data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Stati...