Relationship between empathy and the big five personality traits in a sample of Spanish adolescents

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2004Suggested citation
Barrio, María Victoria del;
Aluja Fabregat, Antón;
García Rodríguez, Luis Francisco;
.
(2004)
.
Relationship between empathy and the big five personality traits in a sample of Spanish adolescents.
Social Behavior and Personality, 2004, vol. 32, núm. 7, p. 677-682.
https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2004.32.7.677.
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Empathy has been considered a central feature of our temperamental dispositions in childhood
and adolescence. It plays a central role in the development of prosocial behavior and moral
reasoning. However, the links between empathy and the major factors of personality have not
yet been well described. This study explores the relationships between an index of empathy
and the Big-Five personality model in a sample of 832 Spanish adolescents. As expected,
results show that empathy correlates strongly with Friendliness. Positive correlations with
Conscientiousness, Energy, and Openness traits have also been observed, but regression
analyses show that relationships of empathy with those three factors were of negligible
importance. Contrary to expectations, empathy did not correlate with Emotional stability. This
pattern of results was replicated across boys and girls.