The empathic measure of true emotion (EMOTE): a novel set of stimuli for measuring emotional responding

Empathy plays a fundamental role in successful social interactions. However, most tasks currently available for measuring empathy have limited ecological validity and therefore may not elicit true emotional responses in observers. To address this gap, we developed the Empathic Measure of True Emotion (EMOTE), the first emotion stimuli set to include footage of genuine positive and negative emotions unfolding in naturalistic contexts. We validated the EMOTE in a sample of 216 participants. The EMOTE demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, construct validity, and alternate forms reliability for both cognitive and affective empathy. We also found that, relative to conventional empathy measures, the EMOTE elicited stronger affective empathy ratings in observers, and the stimuli were rated higher in both genuineness and emotional intensity. Together, these findings demonstrate that the EMOTE is a reliable and valid measure of cognitive and affective empathy with enhanced ecological validity, providing a valuable new tool for measuring empathy in both clinical and research settings.

共情（Empathy）在成功的社会互动中扮演着基础性作用。然而，当前多数用于测量共情的任务生态效度有限，因此难以唤起观察者的真实情绪反应。为填补这一研究空白，我们开发了真实情绪共情测量量表（Empathic Measure of True Emotion，简称EMOTE），这是首个包含自然情境下真实正负性情绪动态影像的情绪刺激集。我们招募216名参与者组成样本，对EMOTE进行了效度验证。结果显示，EMOTE在认知共情与情感共情维度上均表现出可接受的内部一致性信度、结构效度与复本信度。此外，相较于传统共情测量工具，EMOTE能够唤起观察者给出更强的情感共情评分，且其刺激材料在真实性与情绪强度两方面的评分均更高。综合以上发现，EMOTE是一款生态效度得到提升的可靠且有效的认知共情与情感共情测量工具，可为临床与科研场景中的共情测量提供极具价值的新工具。