A-B similarity-complementarity and accurate empathy

Rated the audio portions of videotaped segments of 32 dyadic interviews between A-type and B-type undergraduate males for accurate empathy using Truax's AE-Scale. Results indicate that the level of empathy displayed by both members of an interactive dyad was influenced by the A-B types of the individuals of the dyad. B-types elicited higher levels of empathy when they interacted with other B-types, while any dyad that contained an A-type resulted in a lower level of empathy when compared to the empathy found in BB dyads. This result better fits a similarity hypothesis than a complementarity hypothesis.