The Basic Empathy Scale (BES) was based specifically on the definition of empathy put forth by Cohen and Strayer (1996) ‘‘as the understanding and sharing in another’s emotional state or context’’. Items within the Basic Empathy Scale were created based on the conceptualization of affective and cognitive empathy. Items for the BES were also based on four of the five ‘basic emotions’ (fear, sadness, anger, happiness). Each scale item asks participants to respond on a Likert scale from 1 representing ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 representing ‘strongly agree’, depending on the degree to which the item described them.
Content
Empathy, Affective Empathy, Cognitive Empathy
Administration Information
Not indicated
Access and Use
Corresponding Author: Darrick Jolliffe
Professor, Head of School of Law & Criminology, University of Greenwich
BSc, MPhil, PhD
Email: d.jolliffe@gre.ac.uk
Stavrinides, P., Georgiou, S., & Theofanous, V. (2010). Bullying and empathy: a short‐term longitudinal investigation. Educational Psychology, 30(7), 793-802. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2010.506004
Topcu, Ç., & Erdur-Baker, Ö. (2012). Affective and cognitive empathy as mediators of gender differences in cyber and traditional bullying. School Psychology International, 33(5), 550-561. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034312446882
Triffaux, J. M., Tisseron, S., & Nasello, J. A. (2019). Decline of empathy among medical students: Dehumanization or useful coping process?. L'Encéphale, 45(1), 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.encep.2018.05.003
Psychometrics
D’Ambrosio, F., Olivier, M., Didon, D., & Besche, C. (2009). The basic empathy scale: A French validation of a measure of empathy in youth. Personality and Individual Differences, 46(2), 160-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.020
Geng, Y., Xia, D., & Qin, B. (2012). The Basic Empathy Scale: A Chinese validation of a measure of empathy in adolescents. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 43(4), 499-510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-011-0278-6
Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006). Development and validation of the Basic Empathy Scale. Journal of Adolescence, 29(4), 589-611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.08.010
Sánchez-Pérez, N., Fuentes, L. J., Jolliffe, D., & González-Salinas, C. (2014). Assessing children’s empathy through a Spanish adaptation of the Basic Empathy Scale: parent’s and child’s report forms. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1438. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01438