Empathy is related to a variety of prosocial behaviors, but the brain mechanisms producing the experience of empathy have not been fully characterized. This study investigated whether the experience of empathy raises oxytocin levels and affects subsequent generosity toward strangers. Short video clips of an emotional scene and an unemotional scene were used as stimuli. Participants rated the em...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate how perception of weight stigma among underserved women with obesity impacts doctor-patient relationships. METHODS This study consisted of an interviewer-administered survey of 149 women with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) immediately after their physician visit at four Federally Qualified Health Centers. Perceptions of weight stigma and physician empathy were measured using t...

INTRODUCTION Empathy refers to a personality character that has a great role in communication with others. Thus, proper evaluation and education of empathy in medical students is important for medical education. Because previous studies had suggested that physician's empathy may reduce with clinical trainings, in this study we decided to measure the empathy score among medical students. METHO...

The empathy-altruism hypothesis claims that prosocial motivation associated with feeling empathy for a person in need is directed toward the ultimate goal of benefiting that person, not toward some subtle form of self-benefit. We explored two new egoistic alternatives to this hypothesis. The empathy-specific reward hypothesis proposes that the prosocial motivation associated with empathy is dir...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to identify the correlation between communication skills for emotional empathy and academic achievement on the Clinical Performance Examination (CPX). METHODS One hundred twelve medical school students were observed to determine the extent to which they applied communication skills for emotional empathy (preparation stage: interview attitude, respect; rap...

OBJECTIVE Surgeons and psychiatrists have been described as two contrary groups, the one healing by hands and the other by words. Empathy is needed in every physician-patient relationship. We tested whether (1) surgeons and psychiatrists show different levels of cognitive and emotional empathy; (2) measurements of cognitive and emotional empathy correlate with physician-specific empathy; and (3...

This study examined the influence of group climate on empathy in a Dutch youth correctional facility in a sample of 59 incarcerated delinquent boys. Higher levels of empathy have been shown to be associated with less delinquent and more prosocial behaviour and may therefore be vital for successful rehabilitation and recidivism reduction. Although empathy was originally considered to be a trait,...

The purpose of this study is to develop a Chinese version of Empathy Quotient (Baron-Cohen, 2004). The original version of Empathy Quotient (EQ) is a self-report questionnaire including cognitive and affective aspects of empathy. We translated the Empathy Quotient into Chinese and asked 360 subjects to fill up the questionnaire. The results of confirmatory factor analyses showed that the factor...

CONTEXT It has been reported that medical students become more cynical as they progress through medical school. This can lead to a decline in empathy. Empirical research to address this issue is scarce because the definition of empathy lacks clarity, and a tool to measure empathy specifically in medical students and doctors has been unavailable. OBJECTIVE To examine changes in empathy among m...