On the Status of Trait Empathy in American and Iranian population: A Cross-cultural Comparison

The extent to which individuals with a variety of cultural backgrounds differ in empathic responsiveness is unknown. This paper describes the cross-cultural path of empathy and its differences in two Western and Eastern societies. The analysis of responses given by 606 individuals to Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Empathy Quotient questionnaires revealed a significant difference between the cognitive and affective component of trait empathy with regard to participants’ affiliation to either a Western or an Eastern culture. Data obtained from bicultural participants also indicated the availability of a specific path of trait empathy different from the other two groups. In line with previous studies, gender difference was observed in all subscales of questionnaires except perspective taking in favor of female participants. The same pattern was also observed with age and educational level. Implications for understanding the cross-cultural differences of various components of empathy trait are discussed.