Questioning the Empathy-Altruism Scale

Abstract

In Batson's research, people are frequently divided into an empathy group and a distress group depending on their answers to a questionnaire after being exposed to someone in distress. The present study followed this procedure but obtained preexposure measures on the questionnaire as well. Analysis indicated that the distress group (n = 15) is well named—they do respond with increased distress after exposure. There was no evidence to support the claim (a) that the empathy group (n = 14), relative to the distress group, responded with increased empathy upon seeing someone in distress or (b) that the empathy group showed a greater increase in empathy than in distress.