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“Principles in his nature which interest him in the fortune of others…”: The heritability of empathic concern for others 1
Author(s) -
Matthews Karen A.,
Batson C. Daniel,
Horn Joseph,
Rosenman Ray H.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1981.tb00933.x
Subject(s) - psychology , empathic concern , empathy , heritability , happiness , prosocial behavior , personal distress , adjective check list , index (typography) , social psychology , altruism (biology) , developmental psychology , dizygotic twin , twin study , perspective taking , personality , biology , world wide web , computer science , genetics
The present research was conducted to explore genetic influences on empathic concern for others. First, an index of empathic concern was created by combining relevant items from Gough's Adjective Check List (ACL). This index was validated by correlating scores of 88 undergraduates on the index with their scores on a self‐report measure of empathy, which has been related to prosocial behavior. Correlations were sufficiently high to accept the validity of the index. Next, previously collected ACL responses of 114 monozygotic (MZ) and 116 dizygotic (DZ) twins were reanalyzed in order to create an empathic concern score for each twin. The twins were middle‐aged males initially raised together but living apart at the time they completed the ACL. Comparison of intraclass correlations for MZ and DZ twins revealed, as predicted by the genetic hypothesis, significant ( p < .005) heritability in empathic concern scores. This finding suggests that there may, indeed, be a genetic influence on individual differences in empathic concern for others. Some limitations of the present data are also considered. How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him.