Relationship between emotional intelligence and empathy towards humans and animals

Raquel Gómez-Leal; Ana Costa; Alberto Megías-Robles; Pablo Fernández-Berrocal; Luísa Faria

doi:10.7717/peerj.11274

Relationship between emotional intelligence and empathy towards humans and animals

PeerJ. 2021 Apr 16:9:e11274. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11274. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Raquel Gómez-Leal¹, Ana Costa², Alberto Megías-Robles¹, Pablo Fernández-Berrocal¹, Luísa Faria²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Basic Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain.
² Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Abstract

Previous research has highlighted that Emotional Intelligence (EI) is related to an array of positive interpersonal behaviours, including greater human empathy. Nonetheless, although animals are an integral part of our lives, there is still a lack of clarity regarding the way in which EI relates to empathy towards animals. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between EI and empathy towards humans and animals. We used the Trait-Meta Mood Scale to assess EI, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to assess empathy for humans, and the Animal Empathy Scale to assess empathy for animals. Our findings revealed a positive relationship between empathy for humans and animals. The results also supported the idea that EI is positively related to empathy for humans, while the relationship between EI and empathy for animals was dependent on whether or not the participants had experience with pets. In addition, multiple regression analysis showed that the variables that best predicted empathy for animals were having a pet (or not), age, gender and human empathic concern. Finally, the relationship between human empathic concern and empathy for animals was stronger in participants who had pets. These findings provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying empathic behaviour and suggest that empathy for humans and animals can be influenced by different factors. Limitations and future lines of research are discussed.

Keywords: Emotional intelligence; Empathy; Empathy for animals; Empathy for humans.

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (project: PSI2017-84170-R) to Pablo Fernández-Berrocal, Junta de Andalucía (project: UMA18-FEDERJA-137) to Alberto Megías-Robles, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (FPU15/05179) to Raquel Gómez-Leal, and by the Portuguese National Science Foundation (Postdoctoral Grant awarded to Ana Costa and supervised by Luísa Faria - FCT SFRH/BPD/117479/2016). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.