Abramson Lior, Eldar Eran, Markovitch Noam, Knafo-Noam Ariel
Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
J Pers. 2023 Jun;91(3):753-772. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12772. Epub 2022 Sep 25.
How do genetic and environmental processes affect empathy during early adolescence? This study illuminated this question by examining the aetiology of empathy with the aetiology of other personality characteristics.
Israeli twin adolescents rated their empathy and personality at ages 11 (N = 1176) and 13 (N = 821) (733 families, 51.4% females). Parents rated adolescents' emotional empathy. Adolescents performed an emotion recognition task, indicating cognitive empathy.
Using a cross-validated statistical learning algorithm, this study found emotional and cognitive "empathic personality profiles," which describe and predict self-reported empathy from nuanced Big-Five personality characteristics, or "nuances" (i.e., individual items). These profiles predicted empathy moderately (R = 0.17-0.24) and were stable and robust, within each age and between ages. They also predicted empathy in a new sample of older nontwin adolescents (N = 96) and were validated against non-self-report empathy measures. Both emotional and cognitive empathy were predicted by nuances representing positive attitudes toward others, trust, forgiveness, and openness to experiences. Emotional empathy was also predicted by nuances representing anxiousness and negative reactivity. Twin analyses revealed overlapping genetic and environmental influences on empathy and the empathic personality profiles and overlapping environmental influences on empathy-personality change.
This study demonstrates how addressing the complexity of individuals' personalities can inform adolescents' empathy development.
遗传和环境因素如何在青春期早期影响共情能力？本研究通过将共情能力的病因学与其他人格特征的病因学进行比较，阐明了这一问题。
以色列双胞胎青少年在11岁（N = 1176）和13岁（N = 821）时对自己的共情能力和人格进行评分（733个家庭，51.4%为女性）。父母对青少年的情感共情能力进行评分。青少年完成一项情绪识别任务，以评估认知共情能力。
本研究使用交叉验证的统计学习算法，发现了情感和认知“共情人格特征”，这些特征通过细微的大五人格特征或“细微差别”（即单个项目）来描述和预测自我报告的共情能力。这些特征对共情能力的预测具有中等程度（R = 0.17 - 0.24），并且在每个年龄组内以及不同年龄组之间都稳定且可靠。它们还在一个新的年龄较大的非双胞胎青少年样本（N = 96）中预测了共情能力，并通过非自我报告的共情测量方法进行了验证。代表对他人的积极态度、信任、宽容和开放体验的细微差别同时预测了情感和认知共情能力。代表焦虑和负面反应性的细微差别也预测了情感共情能力。双胞胎分析揭示了共情能力和共情人格特征在遗传和环境影响上的重叠，以及共情 - 人格变化在环境影响上的重叠。
本研究表明，了解个体人格的复杂性如何能够为青少年共情能力的发展提供信息。
