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Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time: A Meta-Analysis

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 Dist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality and social psychology review 2011-05, Vol.15 (2), p.180-198
Main Authors: Konrath, Sara H., O'Brien, Edward H., Hsing, Courtney
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1088-8683
1532-7957
DOI:10.1177/1088868310377395