Pictorial Empathy Test (PET)

The Pictorial Empathy Test (PET) is a brief instrument capturing the respondent’s situational affective empathy. It consists of 7 photographs depicting individuals (men, women and children) in distress. Respondents answer on a scale how emotionally moving they find the photo. The use of photographs is a valid way to investigate affective empathy because facial expressions of emotion are central to empathic responses and create a mechanism of emotional resonance in the observer.

Length of filling

Filling out the PET takes approximately 5 minutes.

Individualized feedback for the respondent

The experimental person finds out about himself how he stands in the field of empathy.

Keywords

Pictorial Empathy Test, PET, empathy, affective empathy, photography

Scoring and interpretation

To get the total score, you need to calculate the average score of the answers. Higher scores indicate higher levels of affective empathy.

Response scale

Respondents answer on a five-point scale: 1=not at all, 2=a little, 3=raises certain feelings, 4=quite a lot, 5=very.

References

Alcorta-Garza, A., San-Martín, M., Delgado-Bolton, R., Soler-González, J., Roig, H., & Vivanco, L. (2016). Cross-validation of the Spanish HP-version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy confirmed with some cross-cultural differences. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 1002. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01002

Koirikivi, I. (2014). Measurement of affective empathy with Pictorial Empathy Test (PET) [Master’s thesis, University of Helsinki]. https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/135570/measurem.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Lindeman, M., Koirikivi, I., & Lipsanen, J. (2018). Pictorial Empathy Test (PET): An easy-to-use method for assessing affective empathic reactions. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 34(6), 421–431. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000353