Shyness has been a very common Finnish characteristic as social skills are manifest. Shy people may have a good empathetic listening but self-disclosure, another aspect of empathetic communication, is missing. Shyness refers to poor social skills more than a personality trait, which would have a more genetic background, as Finns have been genetically isolated for a long time. Shy persons show a mediocre empathy (good empathetic listening and sensitivity but poor self-disclosure), weak self-esteem, weak narcissism, and sometimes more burnout.

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In an art project we studied empathy and self-esteem of 25 young musicians who played piano or violin 6 yr. and 30 children from regular school. Mean age of both groups was 12 yr. Methods used are the modified Mehrabian and Epstein Empathy Scale and the Battle Self-esteem Scale, Form B. An active interest in music seems to improve self-esteem (especially total self-esteem, general self-esteem, and social self-esteem scores). The music group had high self-esteem (total score) and the 30 controls moderate self-esteem. An active interest in music seems to promote empathy, too. Self-expression via music encourages students to take more responsibility, to concentrate, and as such to improve an inner self-control although playing an instrument works in the service of the ego.

Half of the 32 children, aged 6 yr. old, took part in the 12-hr. holistic empathy education program with music exercises over three months. Others were controls. Children were tested at a pretest, 3 months later at the posttet after the training, and follow-up test, 9 months after posttest. The Feshbach and Roe Empathy Slide Test, the Weir and Duveen Prosociability Rating Scale, and the Kalliopuska Prosociability Rating Scale for Teachers were used. Empathy and prosociability increased significantly from pretest to posttest after empathy education. As hypothesized, comparison of pretest and follow-up test results showed a significant increase in empathy for the test group and a nonsignificant increase among controls.

The subjects were 39 students of psychology (5 men and 34 women). Empathy was measured by the modified Mehrabian and Epstein emotional empathy scale and loneliness by open-ended questions. Scores on empathy correlated slightly and positively with loneliness which was experienced positively and correlated negatively with loneliness when experienced negatively. Objective loneliness is not necessarily subjective loneliness. When evaluating loneliness the subjective personal view has the greatest value. The data are too limited to allow broader generalizations.