The database for this study (Briganti et al. 2018; the same for the Braun study analysis) was composed of 1973 French-speaking students in several universities or schools for higher education in the following fields: engineering (31%), medicine (18%), nursing school (16%), economic sciences (15%), physiotherapy, (4%), psychology (11%), law school (4%) and dietetics (1%). The subjects were 17 to 25 years old (M = 19.6 years, SD = 1.6 years), 57% were females and 43% were males. Even though the full dataset was composed of 1973 participants, only 1270 answered the full questionnaire: missing data are handled using pairwise complete observations in estimating a Gaussian Graphical Model, meaning that all available information from every subject are used.
The feature set is composed of 28 items meant to assess the four following components: fantasy, perspective taking, empathic concern and personal distress. In the questionnaire, the items are mixed; reversed items (items 3, 4, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19) are present. Items are scored from 0 to 4, where “0” means “Doesn’t describe me very well” and “4” means “Describes me very well”; reverse-scoring is calculated afterwards. The questionnaires were anonymized. The reanalysis of the database in this retrospective study was approved by the ethical committee of the Erasmus Hospital.
df = read.csv("data/data.csv",sep = ";")The following gives the description of the variables:
| Feature | FeatureLabel | Domain | Item meaning from Davis 1980 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | 1FS | Green | I daydream and fantasize, with some regularity, about things that might happen to me. |
| 002 | 2EC | Purple | I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me. |
| 003 | 3PT_R | Yellow | I sometimes find it difficult to see things from the “other guy’s” point of view. |
| 004 | 4EC_R | Purple | Sometimes I don’t feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems. |
| 005 | 5FS | Green | I really get involved with the feelings of the characters in a novel. |
| 006 | 6PD | Red | In emergency situations, I feel apprehensive and ill-at-ease. |
| 007 | 7FS_R | Green | I am usually objective when I watch a movie or play, and I don’t often get completely caught up in it.(Reversed) |
| 008 | 8PT | Yellow | I try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before I make a decision. |
| 009 | 9EC | Purple | When I see someone being taken advantage of, I feel kind of protective towards them. |
| 010 | 10PD | Red | I sometimes feel helpless when I am in the middle of a very emotional situation. |
| 011 | 11PT | Yellow | sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective |
| 012 | 12FS_R | Green | Becoming extremely involved in a good book or movie is somewhat rare for me. (Reversed) |
| 013 | 13PD_R | Red | When I see someone get hurt, I tend to remain calm. (Reversed) |
| 014 | 14EC_R | Purple | Other people’s misfortunes do not usually disturb me a great deal. (Reversed) |
| 015 | 15PT_R | Yellow | If I’m sure I’m right about something, I don’t waste much time listening to other people’s arguments. (Reversed) |
| 016 | 16FS | Green | After seeing a play or movie, I have felt as though I were one of the characters. |
| 017 | 17PD | Red | Being in a tense emotional situation scares me. |
| 018 | 18EC_R | Purple | When I see someone being treated unfairly, I sometimes don’t feel very much pity for them. (Reversed) |
| 019 | 19PD_R | Red | I am usually pretty effective in dealing with emergencies. (Reversed) |
| 020 | 20FS | Green | I am often quite touched by things that I see happen. |
| 021 | 21PT | Yellow | I believe that there are two sides to every question and try to look at them both. |
| 022 | 22EC | Purple | I would describe myself as a pretty soft-hearted person. |
| 023 | 23FS | Green | When I watch a good movie, I can very easily put myself in the place of a leading character. |
| 024 | 24PD | Red | I tend to lose control during emergencies. |
| 025 | 25PT | Yellow | When I’m upset at someone, I usually try to “put myself in his shoes” for a while. |
| 026 | 26FS | Green | When I am reading an interesting story or novel, I imagine how I would feel if the events in the story were happening to me. |
| 027 | 27PD | Red | When I see someone who badly needs help in an emergency, I go to pieces. |
| 028 | 28PT | Yellow | Before criticizing somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place |
“Network analysis of empathy items from the Interpersonal Reactivity Index in 1973 young adults” Giovanni Briganti, Chantal Kempenaers, Stéphanie Brauna , Eiko I. Friedb, Paul Linkowski, Psychiatry Research 265, 87-92, 2018.