Individual differences and personality traits across situations.

BACKGROUND: According to the Big Five theory, personality can be classified into five traits (i.e., extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness), and past research showed that situations impact personality. In the present study, (1) we measured which of these five personality traits changed according to different situations and (2) tested whether the across-situation variability (ASV; i.e., a continuous variable showing how much people change their personality traits according to situations) was significantly connected with specific personality domains, revealing a potential marker of personality disturbance. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: We recruited 80 participants (40 women) to complete the five situation-version (family, work, friends, romantic partner, and hobbies/leisure) of the Big Five Inventory to measure whether personality traits significantly changed across these situations. In addition, we ran a network analysis to reveal how the ASV is related to personality traits. RESULTS: The findings showed that all traits significantly changed across the situations, except openness, which remained stable. The network analysis revealed that the ASV variable was especially connected with conscientiousness (in romantic partner and family situations). CONCLUSIONS: Most personality traits were flexible, showing how important it is to consider the role of situations in the study of personality. Openness appeared to be particularly stable and understanding its nature represents a challenge for future studies. Finally, the network analysis demonstrated that the ASV shows specific connections with conscientiousness and might be a potential psychopathology marker.

The role of empathy in trolley problems and variants: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The role of empathy in morality is a subject of ongoing scientific debate due to the lack of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on this topic. To address this gap, we conducted a PRISMA-based systematic quantitative review to investigate the role of empathy in moral judgements, decision-making, and inclinations using trolley problems and variants, which are popular types of moral dilemmas that explore utilitarianism and deontology. We searched for articles in four databases (PsycINFO, Pubmed, WorldWideScience, and Scopus) and performed citation searches. Out of 661 records, we selected 34 that studied the associations between empathy and moral judgements, moral decision-making, and/or moral inclinations. Six meta-analyses and systematic reviews of these records consistently showed small to moderate associations between affective empathy and these moral parameters, particularly in personal moral dilemmas involving intentional harm (although some approaches highlighted more complex associations between these parameters). Regarding other empathy domains, most studies found limited or insignificant links between cognitive empathy domains and moral judgements, decision-making, and inclinations. We discuss the nuances and implications of these results.

Moral Decision-Making in Trolley Problems and Variants: How Do Participants' Perspectives, Borderline Personality Traits, and Empathy Predict Choices?

The aim of the present study was to demonstrate and extend the causal effect of participants' perspectives on moral decision-making using trolley problems and variants. Additionally, we investigated whether empathy and borderline (BDL) personality traits predicted participants' choices in these scenarios. We used both a classical trolley problem (a causing harm scenario) and an everyday trolley-like problem (a causing inconvenience scenario). Participants (N = 427, women: 54%) completed BDL traits and empathy questionnaires and, randomly, the two types of trolley problems, presenting both three different perspectives. Our study provided strong evidence that the perspective from which participants were enrolled in the trolley problem caused significant changes in their moral decision-making. Furthermore, we found that affective empathy and BDL traits significantly predicted participants' decisions in the causing inconvenience scenario, while only BDL traits predicted choices in the causing harm scenario. This study was original in providing new experimental materials, causal results, and highlighting the significant influence of BDL traits and affective empathy on moral decision-making. These findings raised fundamental questions, which are further developed in the discussion section.

Focusing: A new challenger for improving the empathy skills of medical students.

OBJECTIVES: Studies of empathy among medical students reported an alarming significant decline during medical education. Some authors identified the third year of education as the most problematic one: empathy decreased significantly when the curriculum was shifting to patient-care activities. Scientists have tried to address the means and methods for improving empathy skills (e.g., by improving communication abilities), but investigations on this topic are missing. Based on the Damasio's hypothesis and scientific studies, we assume that Focusing (i.e., an embodied practice where one attends to a bodily felt sense and uses it to understand the self and situations) would be significantly and positively linked to empathy. METHOD: After their clinical internships, we selected third-year medical students (N = 121) and asked them to complete three questionnaires assessing empathy, Focusing, and social desirability. RESULTS: By controlling social desirability, findings confirmed that Focusing (especially the "having access to the felt body" component) was significantly and positively linked with empathy (i.e., Fantasy & Perspective-Taking), and positively predicted Fantasy, Perspective-Taking, and Empathic Concern. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results suggest that the felt body plays a role in increasing empathy (mainly on cognitive empathy). Few scientific studies have described constructs that significantly promote cognitive empathy and empathic concern (a deeply anchored trait of empathy), which suggests new avenues of investigation.

The intergroup empathy bias among incoming medical students.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies revealed a significant empathy decline over time among medical students. Scientific literature also supports the influence of group belonging on the empathy expression. OBJECTIVE: Through this study, we aimed to demonstrate whether group belonging (peers or patients) significantly influences empathy levels before students undertake their education in medicine. DESIGN: A total of 194 incoming medical students participated in our study. All participants filled-in the Interpersonal Reactivity Index under three primed situations (a general; a peers' one; a patients' one) at three different points in time during a session of information. RESULTS: Analyses revealed significant main effects of: gender; situations; and empathy dimensions. We also obtained a significant interaction effect between dimensions and situations. CONCLUSIONS: We showed that empathy levels were modulated by group belonging (25% of the variance was explained by group belonging). Post hoc analyses showed that the differences between the peers' and patients' situations tend to reveal an appropriate professional attitude with regard to patients because they displayed: (1) lower scores on personal distress and fantasy; (2) higher scores on perspective taking (as for peers); (3) stable scores on empathic concern in peers' and patients' situations. However, integrating empathy lessons in the educational program of medical students remains a priority. In a long-term perspective, these findings suggest an investigation of the impacts of group belonging on the evolution of students' empathy scores through their medicine studies.