The word Empathy originates from the Greek word “empatheia”, meaning physical affection or passion. It empowers us to understand others’ purposes, predict their response, and experience emotions triggered by their encounters. It’s an essential skill that helps us from misunderstanding other people's intentions and enables us to build trust with them.
Take this test now to determine your ability for understanding how other people feel.
Empathy quotient (EQ) is a psychological self-report measure of empathy developed by Simon Baron-Cohen and Sally Wheelwright at the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. EQ is based on a definition of empathy that includes cognition and affect.
What does this Empathy Quotient Test do?
By answering 20 simple questions, you'd see your Empathy Quotient test results. Please do NOT put too much social or moral pressure when answering these questions. Please pick the answer that your heart really follows.
Is empathy born or learned?
Both. There are people born with very good empathy while many people have increased their empathy quotient during their teenage or even adult times.
What is a normal empathy quotient?
According to our statistical data, females averagely scored 46.44 while males averagely scored 43.45.
How to improve my empathy quotient?
Self Improvement - As the lyrics “Everything that kills me makes me feel alive” - Try to stay out of your comfort zone. Learn something you can’t do, for instance, swimming or a foreign language.
Listen - When you are having a conversation with others, try not to express your own feelings too much. Effective listening is more important than talking.
Put yourself in someone else's shoes - Never make judgments about other people's behaviors. Be sensitive and listen.
Relocation - Get out of your usual environment. Travel to new places and learn about their new cultures. Making new friends and see how your EQ improvement is helping your communication. This is a very good way to practice.
Get feedback - Ask for feedback about your empathy skills from friends. You may check their feedback from time to time. Note: Asking strangers or new friends may lead to unexpected results. It’s not recommended.
Top 25 Empathy Quotient Score by country
Rank
Country
Avg. EQ
1
🇫🇮 Finland
48.54
2
🇧🇪 Belgium
48.22
3
🇯🇵 Japan
47.94
4
🇩🇪 Germany
47.81
5
🇨🇭 Switzerland
47.23
6
🇨🇦 Canada
47.18
7
🇰🇷 South Korea
46.84
8
🇳🇴 Norway
46.82
9
🇮🇪 Ireland
46.29
10
🇩🇰 Denmark
46.15
11
🇦🇺 Australia
46.12
12
🇸🇪 Sweden
45.82
13
🇹🇭 Thailand
45.49
14
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
45.32
15
🇸🇬 Singapore
45.3
16
🇮🇹 Italy
45.28
17
🇺🇸 United States
44.9
18
🇲🇽 Mexico
44.85
19
🇵🇱 Poland
44.51
20
🇧🇷 Brazil
44.44
21
🇨🇱 Chile
44.43
22
🇪🇸 Spain
44.13
23
🇵🇹 Portugal
44.03
24
🇫🇷 France
43.7
25
🇮🇱 Israel
43.58
Empathy Quotient Score by age group breakdown
Age Group
Avg. EQ
Below 18
42.12
18 ~ 25
43.42
26 ~ 35
43.47
36 ~ 45
43.49
46 ~ 55
43.51
56 ~ 65
43.49
66 ~ 75
43.48
Above 76
42.98
Empathy Quotient Score by gender breakdown
Gender
Avg. EQ
Female
46.44
Male
43.45
Other
45.99
Empathy Quotient Score by Device/OS
Device/OS
Avg. EQ
iPhone
46.1
Android
46.3
Windows
45.4
Macintosh
45.2
Linux
45.4
Others/Unknown
45.7
Source: Anonymously from Google Analytics / Wikipedia
9% sampled from 200K visitors
The stats may NOT be able to represent the demographics data because of the “Survivorship bias” theory.
References:
E. Lawrence, P. Shaw, D. Baker, S. Baron-Cohen, A. David (2004) Measuring empathy: reliability and validity of the Empathy Quotient. Psychological Medicine
A. Pehlivanidis, Tasios Konstantinos, K. Papanikolaou, A. Douzenis, I. Michopoulos (2021) Validation of the Empathy Quotient (EQ) - Greek version.. Psychiatrike = Psychiatriki
S. Baron-Cohen, S. Wheelwright (2004) The Empathy Quotient: An Investigation of Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism, and Normal Sex Differences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Iratxe Redondo, David Herrero-Fernández (2018) Adaptación del Empathy Quotient (EQ) en una muestra española. Terapia psicológica
A. Preti, M. Vellante, S. Baron-Cohen, G. Zucca, D. Petretto, C. Masala (2011) The Empathy Quotient: A cross-cultural comparison of the Italian version. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry
You have a perfect ability for understanding how other people feel and how to respond properly. You know how to treat people with special care and sensitivity. People love to keep in touch with you as they feel you can always support them.
You have a good ability for understanding how other people feel and how to respond properly. You know how to treat people with care. People love to keep in touch with you.
You have an above-average ability for understanding how other people feel and how to respond properly. People love to keep in touch with you.
You have an average skill at understanding how other people feel and how to respond appropriately. However, don’t just put yourself in someone else’s shoes - try taking a walk with them.
You have a noticeable lack of ability for understanding how other people feel and how to respond appropriately. However, empathy is a skill that can be acquired and improved. Try to be open-minded and ask for feedback from others. Things will get better if you realize that there is space for improvement.
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