Abuse and Empathy

This spreadsheet contains data from 190 university students (90 male, 100 female). In addition to demographic information (age, sex, gender), summary scores are provided on self-report measures tapping into alexithymia (20 item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1994), sensory processing sensitivity (Highly Sensitive Person Scale, Aron & Aron, 1997; Orienting Sensitivity Subscale of Adult Temperament Questionnaire, Evans & Robthbart, 2008), empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Davis, 1983; Empathy Index, Jordan et al., 2016), and childhood emotional abuse (Emotional Abuse subscale of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Bernstein et al., 2003). In addition, the spreadsheet includes participants’ summary scores on a behavioural task designed to measure emotional reactivity/contagion. Here, they were asked to rate how strongly they experienced each of five emotions (amusement, repulsion, fear, boredom, and embarrassment) after viewing brief positive, negative, mixed valence, and neutral film clips. Keywords for discoverability: alexithymia, sensory processing sensitivity, emotional abuse, early adversity, empathy, emotional contagion