What is it about?
Empathy involves sharing the same emotion that someone else is feeling. We looked at how well older and younger adults empathise by analysing findings from 33 previous studies. We discovered that older adults seem to be better at empathising than younger adults. However, results did vary depending on how empathy was measured.
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Why is it important?
Before this study, previous research reported very mixed reports of whether older adults had better, worse, or the same ability to empathise compared to younger adults. By analysing the combined results of these previous studies, we were able to draw a more comprehensive conclusion. The results also identified that researchers should think carefully about what tool they use to measure empathy.
Perspectives
This work sought to bring clarity to how empathy may change throughout adulthood. It is hoped that these results will challenge thoughts that aging largely results in declines in different abilities.
Amy Jarvis
University of South Australia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Emotional empathy across adulthood: A meta-analytic review., Psychology and Aging, November 2023, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000788.
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