Anemone's Research Emporium

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (28 items) was created specifically to measure four factors related to empathy, and was carefully put through several factor analyses to make sure it does what it's supposed to.

The Fantasy Scale (FS) measures the tendency to get caught up in fictional stories and imagine oneself in the same situations as fictional characters. You could probably look at this as imaginative empathy.

The Perspective Taking (PT) scale measures the tendency to take the psychological point of view of others. You could probably look at this as cognitive (thinking) empathy.

The Empathic Concern (EC) scale measures sympathy and concern for others. You could probably look at this as emotional empathy.

The final scale, the Personal Distress (PD) scale measures the kind of feelings (anxiety, etc.) that gets in the way of helping others.

Means reported by Davis, 1980

More information

Mark H. Davis, 1980. A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85.

Mark H. Davis, 1983. Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44(1):113-126