Development and Validation of the Counter-Empathy Scale

Abstract

Counter-empathy refers to an emotional response that is valence-opposite from the emotional state of another individual. Screening for counter-empathy characteristics is of great significance for social psychology, clinical psychology, and criminal psychology research. Unfortunately, until now, there has been no specific scale to measure counter-empathy, creating a main bottleneck in counter-empathy research. We developed and validated a new instrument to measure counter-empathy: the Counter-Empathy Scale (CES). We tested the CES in a survey of 1265 Chinese college students. Both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis revealed a clear two-factor structure (feeling annoyed with others’ happiness and taking pleasure in others’ pain) for the CES. The CES is internally consistent, test-retest stable, and acceptable in terms of criterion-related validity. In conclusion, the CES is a promising instrument to assess counter-empathy.

Chatbot as an emergency exist: Mediated empathy for resilience via human-AI interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…One of the respondents showed counter-empathy with Replika. Counter-empathy emerges when emotional responses or reactions are incongruent with, or valence-opposite from, the emotional state of the other ( Jie & Wang, 2022 ; Yamada et al, 2011 ). Per certain therapeutic approaches, Replika was designed to help its users deal with negative emotions, whereas some respondents found Replika's responses to their negative emotions to be programmed or rigid.…”