Relationship between levels of empathy and co-housing with animals

Abstract

Some studies associate higher levels of empathy in people living with companion animals. This study aims to assess the degree of cognitive and affective empathy of people living with and without companion animals (CA) and also, to determine the possible differences in the sex and age variables. The 4 scales of the Cognitive and Affective Empathy Test (TECA) Adoption of Perspectives, Emotional Comprehension, Empathic Stress and Empathic Joy have been used on a sample of 1127 subjects older than 16 years, with an average age of 43, 11 years. The results obtained show the existence of significant differences in the Empathic Stress scale (ZMW = -2.17; p = .030), with higher scores in people living with companion animals and, in gender differences in both the Adoption of Perspectives (ZMW = -1.97; p = .049) and the Empathic Joy scales (ZMW = -2.22; p = .026), the average being superior for women. Moreover, a significant statistic relationship has been found in a positive sense and with a low magnitude, between the age and the four measures of empathy. Results indicate that the more the participants’ age increases, the more the scores of the 4 variables used tend to increase.