Table 1. Empathic concern and perspective taking subscales from Interpersonal reactivity index.

Empathic concern: I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me. Sometimes I don’t feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems. (*) When I see someone being taken advantage of, I feel kind of protective towards them. Other people’s misfortunes do not usually disturb me a great deal. (*) When I see someone being treated unfairly, I sometimes don’t feel very much pity for them. (*) I would describe myself as a pretty soft-hearted person. I am often quite touched by things that I see happen.

Perspective-taking: I sometimes find it difficult to see things from the "other guy’s" point of view. (*) I try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before I make a decision. I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective. If I’m sure I’m right about something, I don’t waste much time listening to other people’s arguments. (*) I believe that there are two sides to every question and try to look at them both. When I’m upset at someone, I usually try to "put myself in his shoes" for a while. Before criticizing somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place.

Responses were given on a 5-item Likert scale with two anchors (A = Does not describe me well; E = Describes me very well). Questions were scored from 1 to 5 and questions marked with (*) were reverse-scored.