Department of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Psychol Aging. 2011 Mar;26(1):60-70. doi: 10.1037/a0021138.
This study investigated age differences in cognitive and affective facets of empathy: the ability to perceive another's emotions accurately, the capacity to share another's emotions, and the ability to behaviorally express sympathy in an empathic episode. Participants, 80 younger (M(age) = 32 years) and 73 older (M(age) = 59 years) adults, viewed eight film clips, each portraying a younger or an older adult thinking-aloud about an emotionally engaging topic that was relevant to either younger adults or older adults. In comparison to their younger counterparts, older adults generally reported and expressed greater sympathy while observing the target persons; and they were better able to share the emotions of the target persons who talked about a topic that was relevant to older adults. Age-related deficits in the cognitive ability to accurately perceive another's emotions were only evident when the target person talked about a topic of little relevance to older adults. In sum, the present performance-based evidence speaks for multidirectional age differences in empathy.
准确感知他人情绪的能力、分享他人情绪的能力以及在同理心事件中表现出同情的能力。参与者包括 80 名年轻参与者（平均年龄 32 岁）和 73 名年长参与者（平均年龄 59 岁），他们观看了八个电影片段，每个片段都描绘了一个年轻或年长的成年人在思考一个与年轻人或老年人相关的情感相关话题时的自言自语。与他们的年轻同龄人相比，老年人在观察目标人物时通常报告和表达更多的同情；并且他们能够更好地分享谈论与老年人相关话题的目标人物的情绪。只有当目标人谈论与老年人关系不大的话题时，才会出现与认知能力相关的年龄相关的情绪感知缺陷。总之，目前基于表现的证据表明同理心存在多方向的年龄差异。
