The Negative Impacts of Life Stress on Empathy for Emotions, for Music, but Not for Pain

Empathy is sharing and understanding others’ feelings and emotions. The stress of life seems to push people away not only from mental wellness but also from empathy for others. This notion, however, lacks empirical verification. This study aims to investigate the impact of life stress on three dimensions of empathy (viz., for physical pain, emotions, and music).

Via an online survey, 619 Chinese participants were recruited from among clinical workers and the general population to complete a set of questionnaires, including the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI), the Empathy Quotient (EQ), the Empathy for Pain Scale (EPS), the Music Empathizing (ME) inventory, and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ).

Results revealed that the perceived life stress negatively predicted participants’ empathy for emotions, as well as for music, but not for physical pain. Furthermore, mediation analyses illuminated that participants’ psychological wellness (e.g., burnout and mindfulness) mediated the predictive pathway from life stress to empathy.

Overall, the current study revealed the subtle distinctions among the three empathy dimensions under the impacts of life stress. Moreover, the current results hinted at the potential of stress reduction (e.g., mindfulness training) in empathy promotion.