Development and validation of the Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES)

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• Empathy, the capacity to understand and share others' feelings, is crucial for social functioning.
• Existing empathy measures can be lengthy, limiting their use in time-constrained research or clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a brief, single-item measure of trait empathy.
• To assess the reliability and validity of the Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES).

Main Methods:

• Seven studies involving 5,724 participants were conducted.
• The Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES) was administered and correlated with various psychological constructs.
• Psychometric properties, including reliability and convergent/discriminant validity, were evaluated.

Main Results:

• The SITES demonstrated good reliability and validity across multiple studies.
• SITES scores were negatively correlated with narcissism, depression, anxiety, and alexithymia.
• SITES scores were positively correlated with other empathy measures, self-esteem, well-being, agreeableness, compassion, and helping behaviors.

Conclusions:

• The Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES) is a reliable and valid measure of trait empathy.
• The SITES is a practical tool for assessing empathy when time or question quantity is limited.
• The scale's utility extends to measuring both intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of empathy.