Skip to main content
. 2021 Nov 24;12:781346. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.781346

TABLE 2.

Characterization of the samples used by the different studies (N = 50 – ranked from most studied to least studied).

Instrument Author/year Country Sample
N/Sex Age-years (x̄/DP) Level of education
Empathy Quotient (EQ) (11 studies) Kim and Lee (2010) Canada 322♀/156♂ 27,2 (NI) 44% CS/56% UD
Preti et al. (2011) Italy 138♀/118♂ 24.0 (4.5) 43% HS/30.5% ES/26.5% UD
Rodrigues et al. (2011) Portugal 329♀/177♂ 33.9 (11.7) Not informed
Gouveia et al. (2012) Brazil 134♀/103♂ 31.0 (14.1) 52.3% CS
Wright and Skagerberg (2012) United States 2126♀/3060♂ 45 to 54 Not informed
Kosonogov (2014) Russia 121♀/100♂ 24.9 (7.7) 33% CS/33% UD
Senese et al. (2016) Italy 409♀/224♂ 24.3 (5.9) Not informed
Kose et al. (2018) Turkey 195♀/241♂ 22.6 (7.2) 89.9% CS
Redondo and Herrero-Fernández (2018) Spain 350♀/121♂ 20.0 (2.0) CS
Zhang et al. (2018) China 754♀/884♂ EFA group: 20.7 (2.1)/CFA group: 21.7 (3.2) CS
Zhao et al. (2018) China 375♀/213♂ 24.1 (6.2) 15.4 (2.2 years)
Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (10 studies) Fernández et al. (2011) Chile 234♀/201♂ 20.1 (1.9) CS
Sampaio et al. (2011) Brazil S1: 176♀/74♂/S2: 144♀/107♂ S1: 20.8 (1.9)/S2 = 20.8 (1.9) CS
Gilet et al. (2013) Switzerland 190♀/132♂ 49.5 (21.1) UN
Koller and Lamm (2014) Austria 1203♀♂ 18 to 81 54.6% CS
Braun et al. (2015) Belgium S1: 710♀/534♂/S2: 425♀/304♂ S1: 19.6 (1.6)/S2: 19.3 (1.5) S1: CS/S2: CS
Formiga et al. (2015) Brazil 254♀/397♂ 21.1 (2.2) CS
Chrysikou and Thompson (2016) United States 246♀/171♂ 33.2 (NI) Not informed
Ingoglia et al. (2016) Italy S1: 773♀/331♂/S2: 435♀/401♂/S3: 389♀/260♂ S1:17.6 (3.0)/S2:20.5 (3.3)/S3: 20.5 (3.3) S1: 74.1% HS/S2: 42.3% HS/S3: 42.1% HS
Budagovskaia et al. (2017) Russia S1: 43♀/160♂/S2: 217♀/101♂ S1: 17 to 25/S2: NI S1: CS/S2: NI
Lucas-Molina et al. (2017) Spain S1: 1780♀/719 ♂S2: 607♀/831♂ S1: 21.1 (3.6)/S2: 40.0 (5.4) S1: CS/S2: NI
Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) (5 studies) Reniers et al. (2011) United Kingdom S1 = 434♀/206♂/S2 = 230♀/88♂ S1 = 23.7 (7.8)/S2 = 30.0 (11.0) 45% UD
Di Girolamo et al. (2017) Italy S1: 300♀/107♂; QS2: 224♀/61♂ S1: 22.6 (4.6)/S2: 26.4 (7.0) S1: CS/S2: 60% CS
Myszkowski et al. (2017) France 275♀/143♂ 26.1 (8.2) 77.5% CS
Queirós et al. (2018) Portugal 413♀/149♂ 27.5 (10.3) Not informed
Liang et al. (2019) China 615♀/609♂ 22.16 (2.93) CS
The Active-Empathic Listening Scale (AELS) (2 studies) Bodie (2011) United States S1 = 250♀/165♂/S2 = 111♀/106♂ S1 = 20.0 (3.0)/S2 = 20.5 (2.2) S1: 98.3% HS/S2: 98.1% HS
Gearhart and Bodie (2011) United States 191♀/154♂ 20,3 (2.9) CS
The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) (2 studies) Spreng et al. (2009) Canada S1 = 100♀/10/♂S2 = 55♀/ 24♂/S3 = 46♀/19♂ S1: 18.8 (1.2)/S2: 18.9 (3.0)/S3: 18.6 (2.3) S1: CS/S2: CS/S3: CS
Totan et al. (2012) Turkey 357♀/231♂ 20.6 (NI) UN
Empathy Assessment Index (EAI) (2 studies) Gerdes et al. (2011) United States 260♀/50♂ 18 to 60 (NI) CS
Lietz et al. (2011) United States 587♀/186♂ 21,4 (NI) 88.1% CS
Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy (ACME) (2 studies) Vachon and Lynam (2016) United States S1: 162♀/207♂/S2: 340♀/368♂/S3: 120♀/90♂ S1: NI/S2: NI/S3: NI S1: CS/S2: CS/S3: CS
Murphy et al. (2018) United States 215♀/186♂ 35.5 (11.0) Not informed
The Mexican Empathy Scale (MxES) (1 study) Mendez et al. (2011) United States S1 = 344♀/131♂/S2 = 102♀/ 34♂/S3 = 50♀/29♂ S4 = 104♀/59♂ S1 = NI/S2 = 18 to 45/S3 = 20.3 (NI)/S4 = 18 to 22 CS
Multidimensional Emotional Empathy Scale (MDEES) (1 study) Alloway et al. (2016) United States 197♀/115♂ 19.0 (NI) CS
Basic Empathy Scale (BES) (1 study) Carré et al. (2013) France 260♀/110♂ 26.05 (12.4) 67% CS
Empathy Inventory (EI) (1 study) Falcone et al. (2013) Brazil 129♀/101♂ 26.2 (11.8) 50.4% CS
Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) (1 study) Foell et al. (2018) United States 58♀/22♂ 19.6 (NI) CS
The Vicarious Experience Scale (VES) (1 study) Oceja Fernández et al. (2009) Spain S1 = 220♀/160♂/S2 = 44♀/ S3 = 19♀/21♂ S1 = 32.7 (13.8)/S2 = NI/S3 = 33.6 (13.0) S1: UD/S2 = CS/S3 = 67% UD
Interpersonal and Social Empathy Index (ISEI) (1 study) Segal et al. (2013) United States 296♀/152♂ 23.0 (5.7) UN
Measure of Empathy and Sympathy (MES) (1 study) Wang et al. (2017) China 388♀/220♂ 20.6 (2.6) 78.3% CS/21.7% UD
Positive Empathy Scale (PES) (1 study) Yue et al. (2016) China S1: 428♀♂/S2: 503♀♂ Not informed CS
Empathic Behavior Scale (ECE) (1 study) Auné et al. (2017) Argentina 946♀/222♂ 22.0 (6.0) CS
Empathy Components Questionnaire (ECQ) (1 study) Batchelder et al. (2017) United States S1: 66♀/35♂. S2: 116♀/95♂ S1: 20.3♀ (1.9)/20.40♂ (1.9)/S2: 29.2♀ (9.9)/26.0♂ (6.6) S1: CS/S2: 47.4% CS
Empathy Gradient Questionnaire (EGQ) (1 study) Hollar (2017) United States 78♀/83♂ 18 to 60 29.8% CS/70.2% UD
Cognitive, Affective, and Somatic Empathy Scales (CASES) (1 study) Park et al. (2019) China 172♀/176♂ 22.7♀ (NI);/21.5♂ (NI) CS
Online Empathy Questionnaire (QoE) (1 study) Miguel et al. (2018) Brazil 2727♀/2074♂ 27.73 (7.9) 37.5% HS or less/49.2% CS/13.3% UD
Pictorial Empathy Test (PET) (1 study) Lindeman et al. (2018) Finland S1: 49♀/42♂/S2: 2035♀/1049♂ S3: 65♀/49♂ S1: 49.9 (NI)/S2: 27.6 (8.8)/S3: 31.0 (11.2) S1: Not informed/S2: 54.2% CS/S3: 48.2% CS
Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES) (1 study) Konrath et al. (2018) United States 5724♀♂ 36.0 (12.1) Not informed

CS, college students; ES, elementary school; HS, high school; NS, non-student; UD, university degree ♀, women; ♂, men; S, sample.