UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Empathy and its associations with sociodemographic and personality characteristics in a large UK population sample

Sommerlad, A; Huntley, J; Livingston, G; Rankin, K; Fancourt, D; (2020) Empathy and its associations with sociodemographic and personality characteristics in a large UK population sample. PsyArXiv Preprints: Ithaca, NY, USA. Green open access

[thumbnail of Sommerlad September 2020.pdf]
Preview
Text
Sommerlad September 2020.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (598kB) | Preview

Abstract

Background: Empathy is fundamental to social cognition, driving prosocial behaviour and mental health. Self-reported empathy varies across cultures and there are differing reports of associations with demographic characteristics. We therefore aimed in a UK survey to characterise two main self-reported components of empathy, namely empathic concern (feeling compassion) and perspective taking (understanding others’ perspective). We hypothesised that empathy would be associated with age, gender, ethnicity, relationship status, employment, socio-economic status, education, and personality. / Methods: We asked participants in the COVID-19 Social Study - an internet-based survey of UK-dwelling adults aged ≥18 years - to complete the Interpersonal Reactivity Index subscales measuring empathic concern and perspective taking, and sociodemographic and personality questionnaires. We weighted the sample to be UK population representative and employed multivariable weighted linear regression models. Results: In 30,033 respondents, mean empathic concern score was 3.86 (95% confidence interval 3.85, 3.88) and perspective taking was 3.57 (3.56. 3.59), the correlation between these subscores was 0.45 (p < 0.001). In adjusted models, greater empathic concern was associated with female gender, non-white ethnicity, having more education, working in health, social-care, or childcare professions, and having higher neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience and agreeableness traits. Perspective taking was associated with younger age, female gender, more education, employment in health or social-care, neuroticism, openness, and agreeableness. / Conclusions: Women and people working in caring professions have higher empathy levels. Perspective taking declines with age but empathic concern does not. Empathic compassion and understanding are distinct dimensions of empathy with differential associations with demographic factors.

Type: Working / discussion paper
Title: Empathy and its associations with sociodemographic and personality characteristics in a large UK population sample
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/dgnkz
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dgnkz
Language: English
Additional information: This is an Open Access paper published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10111687
Downloads since deposit
189Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item