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Empathy and its associations with age and sociodemographic characteristics in a large UK population sample

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  • Andrew Sommerlad
  • Jonathan Huntley
  • Gill Livingston
  • Katherine P Rankin
  • Daisy Fancourt

Abstract

Objectives: Empathy is fundamental to social cognition, driving prosocial behaviour and mental health but associations with aging and other socio-demographic characteristics are unclear. We therefore aimed to characterise associations of these characteristics with two main self-reported components of empathy, namely empathic-concern (feeling compassion) and perspective-taking (understanding others’ perspective). Methods: We asked participants in an internet-based survey of UK-dwelling adults aged ≥18 years to complete the Interpersonal Reactivity Index subscales measuring empathic concern and perspective taking, and sociodemographic and personality questionnaires. We weighted the sample to be UK population representative and employed multivariable weighted linear regression models. Results: In 30,033 respondents, mean empathic concern score was 3.86 (95% confidence interval 3.85, 3.88) and perspective taking was 3.57 (3.56. 3.59); the correlation between these sub-scores was 0.45 (p

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Sommerlad & Jonathan Huntley & Gill Livingston & Katherine P Rankin & Daisy Fancourt, 2021. "Empathy and its associations with age and sociodemographic characteristics in a large UK population sample," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-17, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0257557
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257557
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