Cultural practices socialize people to relate to others in different ways. One critical way in which these interpersonal bonds are formed and maintained is via empathy, our emotional reactivity toward others’ experiences. However, the extent to which individuals from different cultures vary in their dispositional empathy, and the correlates of these differences, are relatively unknown. Thus, the current study explored cultural variation in empathy, and how this variation is related to psychological characteristics and prosocial behavior across cultures. Evidence from an original sample of 104,365 adults across 63 countries reveals that higher empathy countries also have higher levels of collectivism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, self-esteem, emotionality, subjective well-being, and prosocial behavior. These findings reveal that empathy is situated within a broader nomological network of other psychological characteristics, emotional expression and experiences, and prosocial behavior across cultures. The current study expands our understanding about how psychological characteristics vary across cultures and how these characteristics can manifest in broader national indicators of prosocial behavior.

References

Aluja, A., García, Ó., García, L. F. ( 2002 ). A comparative study of Zuckerman’s three structural models for personality through the NEO-PI-R, ZKPQ-III-R, EPQ-RS and Goldberg’s 50-bipolar adjectives . Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 713 - 725 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Benet-Martinez, V., John, O. P. ( 1998 ). Los Cinco Grandes across cultures and ethnic groups: Multitrait-multimethod analyses of the Big Five in Spanish and English . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 729 - 750 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Bjørnskov, C. ( 2010 ). How comparable are the Gallup World Poll Life Satisfaction Data? Journal of Happiness Studies, 11, 41 - 60 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Brumbaugh, C. C., Wood, D. ( 2013 ). Mate preferences across life and across the world . Social Psychological & Personality Science, 4, 100 - 107 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Bushman, B. J., Baumeister, R. F. ( 1998 ). Threatened egotism, narcissism, self-esteem, and direct and displaced aggression: Does self-love or self-hate lead to violence? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 219 - 229 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Cantril, H. ( 1965 ). The pattern of human concerns. New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press .

Google Scholar

Cassels, T. G., Chan, S., Chung, W., Birch, S. A. J. ( 2010 ). The role of culture in affective empathy: Cultural and bicultural differences . Journal of Cognition and Culture, 10, 309 - 326 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Castillo, R., Salguero, J. M., Fernández-Berrocal, P., Balluerka, N. ( 2013 ). Effects of an emotional intelligence intervention on aggression and empathy among adolescents . Journal of Adolescence, 36, 883 - 892 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Chopik, W. J., Edelstein, R. S. ( 2014 ). Age differences in romantic attachment around the world . Social Psychological & Personality Science, 5, 892 - 900 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Chopik, W. J., Edelstein, R. S., Fraley, R. C. ( 2013 ). From the cradle to the grave: Age differences in attachment from early adulthood to old age . Journal of Personality, 81, 171 - 183 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Clifton, J. ( 2012 , November 12 ). Singapore ranks as least emotional country in the world . Gallup. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/158882/singapore-ranks-least-emotional-country-world.aspx

Google Scholar

Costa, P. T., McCrae, R. R. ( 1992 ). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEOFFI): Professional manual. Lutz, FL : Psychological Assessment Resources .

Google Scholar

Costa, P. T., McCrae, R. R., Dye, D. A. ( 1991 ). Facet scales for agreeableness and conscientiousness: A revision of the NEO Personality Inventory . Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 887 - 898 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Dalsky, D., Gohm, C. L., Noguchi, K., Shiomura, K. ( 2008 ). Mutual self-enhancement in Japan and the United States . Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39, 215 - 223 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Davis, M. H. ( 1983 ). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 113 - 126 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Davis, M. H. ( 1994 ). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Boulder, CO : Westview Press .

Google Scholar

Decety, J., Lamm, C. ( 2006 ). Human empathy through the lens of social neuroscience . The Scientific World Journal, 6, 1146 - 1163 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Doherty, R. W. ( 1997 ). The emotional contagion scale: A measure of individual differences . Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 21, 131 - 154 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Spinrad, T. L. ( 2006 ). Prosocial development . In Eisenberg, N., Damon, W., Lerner, R. M. (Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development ( 6th ed. , pp. 646 - 718 ). Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley .

Google Scholar

Eisenberg, N., Guthrie, I. K., Murphy, B. C., Shepard, S. A., Cumberland, A., Carlo, G. ( 1999 ). Consistency and development of prosocial dispositions: A longitudinal study . Child Development, 70, 1360 - 1372 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Eisenberg, N., Miller, P. A. ( 1987 ). The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors . Psychological Bulletin, 101, 91 - 119 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Gallup . ( 2009 ). World poll methodology. Washington, DC . Retrieved from http://media.gallup.com/dataviz/www/WP_Questions_WHITE.pdf.

Google Scholar

Gorodnichenko, Y., Roland, G. ( 2011 ). Individualism, innovation, and long-run growth . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108( Suppl. 4 ), 21316 - 21319 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Gosling, S. D., Vazire, S., Srivastava, S., John, O. P. ( 2004 ). Should we trust web-based studies? A comparative analysis of six preconceptions about internet questionnaires . American Psychologist, 59, 93 - 104 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Graziano, W. G., Eisenberg, N. ( 1997 ). Agreeableness: A dimension of personality . In Hogan, R., Johnson, J. A., Briggs, S. R. (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 795 - 824 ). San Diego, CA : Academic Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Graziano, W. G., Habashi, M. M., Sheese, B. E., Tobin, R. M. ( 2007 ). Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: A person × situation perspective . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 583 - 599 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Grühn, D., Rebucal, K., Diehl, M., Lumley, M., Labouvie-Vief, G. ( 2008 ). Empathy across the adult lifespan: Longitudinal and experience-sampling findings . Emotion, 8, 753 - 765 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Haidt, J., Keltner, D. ( 1999 ). Culture and facial expression: Open-ended methods find more expressions and a gradient of recognition . Cognition and Emotion, 13, 225 - 266 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Harzing, A.-W. ( 2006 ). Response styles in cross-national survey research: A 26-country study . International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 6, 243 - 266 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals

He, J., van de Vijver, F. J. R., Dominguez Espinosa, A., Abubakar, A., Dimitrova, R., Adams, B. G., . . . Villieux, A. ( 2015 ). Socially desirable responding: Enhancement and denial in 20 countries . Cross-Cultural Research, 49, 227 - 249 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R. ( 2004 ). Move the body, change the self: Acculturative effects on the self-concept . In Schaller, M., Crandall, C. S. (Eds.), The psychological foundations of culture (pp. 305 - 331 ). Mahwah, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum .

Google Scholar

Helliwell, J., Layard, R. F., Sachs, J. ( 2013 ). World happiness report 2013. New York, NY : UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network .

Google Scholar

Hoffman, M. L. ( 2001 ). Toward a comprehensive empathy-based theory of prosocial moral development . In Bohart, A. C., Stipek, D. J. (Eds.), Constructive & destructive behavior: Implications for family, school, & society (pp. 61 - 86 ). Washington, DC : American Psychological Association .

Google Scholar Crossref

Hofstede, G. H., Hofstede, G. J., Minkov, M. ( 2010 ). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. New York, NY : McGraw-Hill .

Google Scholar

Inglehart, R., Foa, R., Peterson, C., Welzel, C. ( 2008 ). Development, freedom, and rising happiness: A global perspective (1981-2007) . Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 264 - 285 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

John, O. P., Caspi, A., Robins, R. W., Moffitt, T. E., Stouthamer-Loeber, M. ( 1994 ). The “little five”: Exploring the nomological network of the five-factor model of personality in adolescent boys . Child Development, 65, 160 - 178 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Johnson, R. C., Danko, G. P., Darvill, T. J., Bochner, S., Bowers, J. K., Huang, Y.-H., . . . Pennington, D. ( 1989 ). Cross-cultural assessment of altruism and its correlates . Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 855 - 868 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R. ( 2000 ). The pursuit of happiness and the realization of sympathy: Cultural patterns of self, social relations, and well-being . In Diener, E., Suh, E. M. (Eds.), Culture and subjective well-being (pp. 113 - 161 ). Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press .

Google Scholar

Konrath, S., Falk, E., Fuhrel-Forbis, A., Liu, M., Swain, J., Tolman, R., . . . Walton, M. ( 2015 ). Can text messages increase empathy and prosocial behavior? The development and initial validation of text to connect . PLoS ONE, 10(9), e0137585 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Konrath, S., Grynberg, D. ( 2013 ). The positive (and negative) psychology of empathy . In Watt, D., Panksepp, J. (Eds.), The neurobiology and psychology of empathy. Hauppauge, NY : Nova Biomedical Books .

Google Scholar

Konrath, S., Ho, M.-H., Zarins, S. ( 2016 ). The strategic helper: Narcissism and prosocial motives and behaviors . Current Psychology, 35, 182 - 194 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Konrath, S., O’Brien, E., Hsing, C. ( 2011 ). Changes in dispositional empathy in American college students over time: A meta-analysis . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 180 - 198 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Labouvie-Vief, G., Diehl, M., Tarnowski, A., Shen, J. ( 2000 ). Age differences in adult personality: Findings from the United States and China . The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 55, P4 - P17 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Larrieu, J., Mussen, P. ( 1986 ). Some personality and motivational correlates of children’s prosocial behavior . The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on Human Development, 147, 529 - 542 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Lebra, T. S. ( 1976 ). Japanese patterns of behavior. Honolulu, HI : University of Hawaii Press .

Google Scholar

Levine, R. V., Norenzayan, A., Philbrick, K. ( 2001 ). Cross-cultural differences in helping strangers . Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32, 543 - 560 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Markus, H. R., Kitayama, S. ( 1991 ). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation . Psychological Review, 98, 224 - 253 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D. R., Salovey, P. ( 2000 ). Selecting a measure of emotional intelligence: The case for ability scales . In Bar-On, R., Parker, J. D. A. (Eds.), The handbook of emotional intelligence: Theory, development, assessment, and application at home, school, and in the workplace (pp. 320 - 342 ). San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass .

Google Scholar

McCrae, R. R., Terracciano, A. ( 2005a ). Personality profiles of cultures: Aggregate personality traits . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 407 - 425 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

McCrae, R. R., Terracciano, A. ( 2005b ). Universal features of personality traits from the observer’s perspective: Data from 50 cultures . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 547 - 561 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

O’Brien, E., Konrath, S. H., Grühn, D., Hagen, A. L. ( 2013 ). Empathic concern and perspective taking: Linear and quadratic effects of age across the adult life span . The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68, 168 - 175 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Oishi, S. ( 2010 ). The psychology of residential mobility: Implications for the self, social relationships, and well-being . Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 5 - 21 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Ostroff, C. ( 1993 ). Comparing correlations based on individual-level and aggregated data . Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 569 - 582 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Phalet, K., Schönpflug, U. ( 2001 ). Intergenerational transmission of collectivism and achievement values in two acculturation contexts: The case of Turkish families in Germany and Turkish and Moroccan families in the Netherlands . Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32, 186 - 201 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Rentfrow, P. J. ( 2010 ). Statewide differences in personality: Toward a psychological geography of the United States . American Psychologist, 65, 548 - 558 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Rentfrow, P. J., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J. ( 2008 ). A theory of the emergence, persistence, and expression of geographic variation in psychological characteristics . Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 339 - 369 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Richardson, D. R., Hammock, G. S., Smith, S. M., Gardner, W., Signo, M. ( 1994 ). Empathy as a cognitive inhibitor of interpersonal aggression . Aggressive Behavior, 20, 275 - 289 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Robinson, W. S. ( 1950 ). Ecological correlations and the behavior of individuals . American Sociological Review, 15, 351 - 357 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Ross, M., Xun, W. Q. E., Wilson, A. E. ( 2002 ). Language and the bicultural self . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1040 - 1050 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Schaller, M., Murray, D. R. ( 2008 ). Pathogens, personality, and culture: Disease prevalence predicts worldwide variability in sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 212 - 221 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Schmitt, D. P., Alcalay, L., Allensworth, M., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., . . . ZupanÈiÈ, A. ( 2004 ). Patterns and universals of adult romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions: Are models of self and of other pancultural constructs? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35, 367 - 402 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Schmitt, D. P., Allik, J. ( 2005 ). Simultaneous administration of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in 53 nations: Exploring the universal and culture-specific features of global self-esteem . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 623 - 642 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Schmitt, D. P., Allik, J., McCrae, R. R., Benet-Martínez, V. ( 2007 ). The geographic distribution of Big Five personality traits: Patterns and profiles of human self-description across 56 nations . Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38, 173 - 212 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Schwartz, S. H. ( 2006 ). A theory of cultural value orientations: Explication and applications . Comparative Sociology, 5, 137 - 182 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Singh, P., Dali, C. M. ( 2013 ). The value of empathy as an instructional leadership competency for school principals . Education as Change, 17( Suppl. 1 ), S65 - S78 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Soto, J. A., Levenson, R. W. ( 2009 ). Emotion recognition across cultures: The influence of ethnicity on empathic accuracy and physiological linkage . Emotion, 9, 874 - 884 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Srivastava, S., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J. ( 2003 ). Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1041 - 1053 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Terracciano, A., Abdel-Khalek, A. M., Ádám, N., Adamovová, L., Ahn, C., Ahn, H., . . . McCrae, R. R. K. ( 2005 ). National character does not reflect mean personality trait levels in 49 cultures . Science, 310, 96 - 100 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Tkach, C. T. ( 2006 ). Unlocking the treasury of human kindness: Enduring improvements in mood, happiness, and self-evaluations (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Riverside) . Dissertation Abstracts International, 67, 603 .

Google Scholar

Trommsdorff, G., Friedlmeier, W., Mayer, B. ( 2007 ). Sympathy, distress, and prosocial behavior of preschool children in four cultures . International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31, 284 - 293 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

United Nations Development Programme . ( 2015 ). Human development report. New York, NY : Oxford University Press .

Google Scholar

Vandello, J. A., Cohen, D. ( 1999 ). Patterns of individualism and collectivism across the United States . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 279 - 292 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

van Herk, H., Poortinga, Y. H., Verhallen, T. M. M. ( 2004 ). Response styles in rating scales: Evidence of method bias in data from six EU countries . Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35, 346 - 360 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Kroonenberg, P. M. ( 1988 ). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: A meta-analysis of the strange situation . Child Development, 59, 147 - 156 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Voronov, M., Singer, J. A. ( 2002 ). The myth of individualism-collectivism: A critical review . The Journal of Social Psychology, 142, 461 - 480 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Wei, M., Liao, K. Y., Ku, T. Y., Shaffer, P. A. ( 2011 ). Attachment, self-compassion, empathy, and subjective well-being among college students and community adults . Journal of Personality, 79, 191 - 221 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Wu, S., Keysar, B. ( 2007 ). The effect of culture on perspective taking . Psychological Science, 18, 600 - 606 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI