Feeling for the Other With Ease: Prospective Actors Show High Levels of Emotion Recognition and Report Above Average Empathic Concern, but Do Not Experience Strong Distress

Abstract

Differences in empathic abilities between acting, dance, and psychology students were explored, in addition to the appropriateness of existing empathy measures in the context of these cohorts. Students (N = 176) across Higher Education Institutions in the United Kingdom and Europe were included in the online survey analysis, consisting of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), the Empathy Quotient (EQ), and the E-drawing test (EDT), each measuring particular facets of empathy. Based on existing evidence and our understanding of the discipline practices, we predicted that acting students would perform the best at identifying people’s emotional expressions but might lack other cognitive or affective empathy skills, particularly those related to emotional reactions. This cohort thus provides an opportunity to evaluate different empathy measures. While actors showed significantly higher RME scores than dancers, the difference between actors and psychologists was marginal. Moreover, actors’ scores did not differ significantly on other empathy measures, such as their concern for others’ emotional wellbeing or fantasy, both measured by IRI subscales. Psychology students scored highest in the IRI perspective taking subscale and the data supported anecdotal evidence that psychologists were more concerned for others’ emotional wellbeing than dancers or actors. Dancers seemed the least concerned with others’ perspectives and emotional states, which we explained through a somatosensory ‘inward’ focus required by their art form. Nevertheless, compared to the general population, our groups reported higher empathic abilities on all IRI subscales except for personal distress. Altogether, our study shows that the RME, the IRI, and the EDT vary in their susceptibility to different facets of empathic abilities in acting, dance, and psychology students whereas the EQ does not. Emotions can be expressed and perceived through language, facial expressions, or behavior. As many empathy tests focus on one type of signal they might miss other strategies. Where empathy tests are applied to individuals that have a predominance to read or respond to others in a particular way, as we showed through these three disciplines, they might not capture these empathic strategies. We thus propose that empathy tests must evolve by means of integrating varied forms of communication.

Behind the mask: What the eyes can’t tell: Facial emotion recognition in a sample of Italian health care students

“…While previous studies that have assessed empathy with different scales, have found it related to unmasked facial emotion recognition accuracy (Besel and Yuille, 2010; Israelashvili et al, 2019; Laukka et al, 2021), others that have used the IRI reported significant but inconsistent results (Laukka et al, 2021; Schlegel et al, 2019; Ventura et al, 2023). For example, Beals et al (2022) reported a positive association between fantasy scale scores and recognition of fear in facial expressions in typical participants, while Schmidt et al (2021) found higher fantasy scale scores related to better scores in emotion recognition in actors when compared to dancers and psychologists. These results suggest that the tendency to use the imagination to take the perspective of a fictional character may improve emotion recognition ability.…”

“I’m Never Going to Be in Phantom of the Opera”: Relational and Emotional Wellbeing of Parkinson’s Carers and Their Partners in and Beyond Dancing

“…A recent review by Pick et al (2019) showed that research regarding the understanding of empathic deficits in Parkinson’s is sparse and fragmented, despite its importance in the establishment of a functional doctor-patient relationship. With reference to the care-partners wellbeing, it is of interest to note people who engage in embodied and theoretical practices, such as theatre, show higher empathic skills without increased feelings of distress (e.g., Schmidt et al, 2021 ). Dance classes that emphasise a theatrical component could therefore be beneficial not only for people with Parkinson’s through the practice of gestures and facial expressions but also for their care-partner’s resilience.…”

Interaction in acting training and its different manifestations in novice and professional actors

“…Even for the most studied dimension, empathy, convincing evidence that explains its causal link with acting remains absent (Winner, 2018), and the results of studies comparing the scores for empathy between groups of actors and non-actors do not consistently show higher scores among actors (Goldstein et al, 2009;Goldstein and Winner, 2012). Psychometric studies measuring performance in other dimensions of social abilities and social cognition further demonstrate that actors do not consistently show higher scores in these dimensions (Alfonso-Benlliure, 2021;Schmidt et al, 2021). Considering these studies showing that more acting experience does not necessarily bring about better scores in social abilities or social cognition, researchers have faced hardships in explaining the effect of the actual experience of acting.…”

“…Upon measuring the effects of representations of violence on spectators and performers, another study showed stronger emotional responses in the latter than in the first ( Berceanu et al, 2020 ). While examining the influence of acting experience on personality traits related to social abilities, as well as comparing the results for actors (exposed to different levels of acting training and embodied experience of theatrical performance) with those for the general population, academicians have found that professional actors have higher scores in extraversion, empathy, and theory of mind tasks than the general population and amateur actors ( Nettle, 2006 ; Goldstein and Winner, 2010 ; Schmidt et al, 2021 ).…”