The Balanced Emotional Empathy Test (BEES) and Optional

Software
Definition of Emotional Empathy
Scale Description
Software for the Scale
Scale Reliability and Validity
Some Recent Validity Data
Translations in Spanish & French
Key Articles
Important References
Link to Professor Mehrabian's General Emotional Intelligence Scale (GEIS) Page
Contact For Price and Ordering Information

Definition of Emotional Empathy

"Emotional Empathy" is defined as one's vicarious experience of another's emotional

experiences -- feeling what the other person feels. In the context of personality measurement, it
describes individual differences in the tendency to have emotional empathy with others. Some
individuals tend to be generally more empathic in their dealings with others; they typically
experience more of the feelings others feel, whereas others tend to be generally less empathic.
In addition, Emotional Empathy has been found to relate to generally healthy and adjusted
personality functioning and to reflect interpersonal positiveness and skill. The Balanced
Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) measures both of the aforementioned components of
Emotional Empathy (i.e., vicarious experience of others' feelings; interpersonal positiveness) in
a balanced way. It is a completely new scale and is based on a substantial amount of research
evidence derived with an earlier scale developed in my laboratory.

An interesting and extremely important feature of the BEES is that it relates negatively (r = -.50)
to interpersonal violence and, thus, may be useful (as an indirect and subtle measure) for
identifying persons who may have a potential to behave in highly aggressive or violent ways
(Mehrabian, 1997b).

Windows Software for Administring and Scoring the BEES

Windows software for administering, scoring, and interpreting the Balanced Emotional Empathy
Scale is available. It runs on IBM-compatible machines. The software may be useful even if you
plan on group administering the paper and pencil version of the BEES given in the test manual.
In that case, you can use the software to input data from each participant and have the software
compute total scores and z-scores for all participants as well as averaged data for different
groups of participants (see next paragraph).

The software provides (a) total score, equivalent z-score, equivalent percentile score, and
interpretation of these scores for each person tested and (b) a database of scores for all
individuals tested. The software includes several useful features of which some are noted here.
It allows you to assign a Group ID to each participant (e.g. to assign different Group ID numbers
to individuals from different experimental conditions, such as medical students vs. engineering
students or to assign different Group ID numbers to a pretest (e.g., pre-empathy-training
participants) vs. a posttest group). The software supplies averaged total scores and averaged z-
scores for each Group ID. Additionally, it allows you to export the data as an ASCII DOS TEXT
file (.txt) that you can print. It also will export a spreadsheet file (.csv) for additional analyses,
e.g., with Excel. Conversely, the software will allow importing of data from various testing sites
so that data obtained from several locations can be combined into a single file, thereby
providing a quick summary of averaged reactions of respondents to stimuli.
The software is easy to use and is password protected so that the Administrator can control
access to the database of results. In this way, individuals being tested cannot have access to
the results, unless the Administrator chooses to report such results to them.

Scale Description: Format, Sample Items, Features

The Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) is in a questionnaire format and is very easy to
administer and score. Subjects report the degree of their agreement or disagreement with each
of its 30 items using a 9-point agreement-disagreement scale.

Sample Items of the BEES

Unhappy movie endings haunt me for hours afterward.

I cannot feel much sorrow for those who are responsible for their own misery.

Test Features

Administration: does not require tester to be present

Test format: questionnaire, 30 items
Appropriate population: English fluency, ages 15 and older
Time required for administration: approximately 10 minutes
Scoring: hand scored; yields a single total-scale score; with software, scoring and
interpretation are automated
Manual: contains complete scale, scoring directions, norms
Background literature: includes a review article on reliability and validity by Mehrabian,
Young, and Sato (1988) on our earlier scale in this area, the Emotional Empathic
Tendency Scale (EETS).

Reliability and Validity Data

Alpha internal consistency of the BEES was .87 (Mehrabian, 1997b, page 440). Validity data for
the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) was reported by Mehrabian (1997b).

In addition, experimental work, reviewed by Mehrabian, Young, and Sato (1988) and by
Chlopan et al. (1985) yielded the findings listed below for an early version of our empathy scale,
the 1972 Emotional Empathic Tendency Scale (EETS). The listed validity evidence can be
attributed to the newer BEES (Mehrabian, 1996) because the BEES has exhibited a very high
positive correlation of .77 with the 1972 EETS (Mehrabian, 1997b, Table 2).

Evidence reviewed in Mehrabian, Young, and Sato (1988) can be summarized as follows:
Persons with higher Emotional Empathic Tendency Scale scores, compared with those with
lower scores, are more likely to:

have higher skin conductance and heart rate to emotional stimuli,

be emotional, as evidenced by their tendency to weep,
have had parents who spent more time with them, displayed more affection, and were
more explicit verbally about their feelings,
be tolerant of infant crying and less abusive toward children (only mothers tested),
be altruistic in their behavior toward others and volunteer to help others,
be affiliative,
be non-aggressive,
rate positive social traits as important,
score higher on measures of moral judgment,
have arousable and pleasant temperaments.

Considerable additional reliability and validity information on the Abbreviated Balanced

Emotional Empathy Scale were provided by Mehrabian (2000). In particular, findings showed
the Abbreviated BEES to be a positive correlate of emotional success (i.e., general emotional
well-being), relationship success (i.e., healthy and happy inter-personal relationships), career
and financial success, and overall life success (Mehrabian, 2000, Table 10).

Mehrabian's (1997a) theoretical analysis of traits that are approximately related to affiliation and
sociability (i.e., sensitivity to rejection, empathy, dependency, conformity, popularity, loneliness,
and shyness) sheds additional light on the construct validity of the BEES.

Illustrative Examples of Validity from Recent Studies

In an interesting study, Singer, Seymour, O'Doherty, Kaube, Dolan, and Frith (2004) used
functional imaging to assess brain activity of participants who watched a loved one receive a
painful stimulus. BEES scores correlated with level of activation of the affective component of
the pain matrix (namely, anterior insula, AI, and rostral anterior cingulate cortex, rACC).

Van Hasselt et al (2005) used the BEES as part of a study of actual negotiated encounters by
the Cirsis Negotiation Unit of the FBI. Their findings showed that the BEES had moderate
positive correlations with negotiation skills of the FBI agents as indexed by positive correlations
with "paraphrasing," "reflecting and mirroring," and "total active listening" skills of the agents.

Participants in LeSure-Lester?s (2000) study were adolescents living in a group home under
supervision of the Los Angeles County Protective Services. The BEES was used to measure
empathy and reliable behavioral observations constituted the remaining variables. Highly
significant and strong correlations obtained in the study were as follows: BEES scores
correlated -.57 with aggression toward peers, -.59 with aggression toward staff, .67 with
compliance with house rules, and .57 with chores completed.

Shapiro, Morrison, and Boker (2004) used the BEES to assess the effectiveness of an empathy
training course for first year medical students. The students participated in 8 sessions involving
the reading of poetry and prose dealing with doctors and patients. BEES scores increased
significantly from before to after the empathy training sessions. In a related study, Farkas (2002)
used a multisensory technique (designed to stimulus multiple senses) to train students for
greater empathy towards Holocaust victims. The empathy training resulted in significant gains in
BEES scores.

Macaskill, Maltby, and Day (2002) studied the BEES in relation to forgiveness of others and
self. Their findings showed that both male and female participants with higher BEES scores
were more likely to find it easier to forgive others (but not the self). Mackey, Courtright, and
Packard (2006) found the BEES to be the best predictor of participant beliefs that greater
expenditures and efforts are needed to rehabilitate prisoners for assimilation into society.

Translations of the BEES in Spanish & French

A Spanish translation of the BEES is available and can be obtained from from Albert Mehrabian.

A French translation of the BEES is available and can be obtained from from Albert Mehrabian.

Key Articles Relating to the BEES

If you are unable to obtain any of these important articles bearing on the BEES, contact Albert
Mehrabian to get Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files:

Article on the BEES containing data relating it to our 1972 empathy scale and to various
measures of aggression:
Mehrabian, A. (1997b). Relations among personality scales of aggression, violence,
and empathy: Validational evidence bearing on the Risk of Eruptive Violence Scale,
Aggressive Behavior, 23 433-445.
 Review article bearing on our 1972 empathy scale:
Mehrabian, A., Young, A.L., & Sato, S. (1988). Emotional empathy and associated
individual differences. Current Psychology: Research & Reviews, 7, 221-240.
Theoretical analysis of traits that are approximately related to affiliation and sociability
(i.e., sensitivity to rejection, empathy, dependency, conformity, popularity, loneliness,
and shyness):
Mehrabian, A. (1997a). Analysis of affiliation-related traits in terms of the PAD
Temperament Model. Journal of Psychology, 131,101-117.

References

Chlopan, B.E., McCain, M.L., Carbonell, J.L., & Hagen, R.L. (1985). Empathy: Review of
available measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 635-653.

Farkas, R.D. (2002). Effect(s) of traditional versus learning-styles instructional methods on

seventh-grade students' achievement, attitudes, empathy, and transfer of skills through a study
of the Holocaust. Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: Humanities & Social Sciences,
63(4-A), 1243.

LeSure-Lester, G.E. (2000). Relation between empathy and aggression and behavior
compliance among abused group home youth. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 31,
153-161.

Macaskill, A., Maltby, J., & Day, L. (2002). Forgiveness of self and others and emotional
empathy. Journal of Social Psychology, 142, 663-665.

Mackey, D.A., Courtright, K.E., & Packard, S.H. (2006). Testing the rehabilitative ideal among
college students. Criminal Justice Studies, 19,153-170.

Mehrabian, A., & Epstein, N. (l972). A measure of emotional empathy. Journal of Personality,
40, 525-543.

Mehrabian, A., Young, A.L., & Sato, S. (1988). Emotional empathy and associated individual
differences. Current Psychology: Research & Reviews, 7, 221-240.

Mehrabian, A. (1996). Manual for the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES). (Available
from Albert Mehrabian, 1130 Alta Mesa Road, Monterey, CA, USA 93940).

Mehrabian, A. (1997a). Analysis of affiliation-related traits in terms of the PAD Temperament

Model. Journal of Psychology, 131,101-117.

Mehrabian, A. (1997b). Relations among personality scales of aggression, violence, and

empathy: Validational evidence bearing on the Risk of Eruptive Violence Scale, Aggressive
Behavior, 23 433-445.

Mehrabian, A. (2000). Beyond IQ: Broad-based measurement of individual success potential or

"emotional intelligence." Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 126, 133-239.

Shapiro, J., Morrison, E.H., & Boker, J.R. (2004). Teaching empathy to first year medical
students: Evaluation of an elective literature and medicine course. Education for Health:
Change in Learning & Practice, 17, 73-84.

Singer, T., Seymour, B., O'Doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R.J., & Frith, C.D. (2004). Empathy for
pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain. Science, 303 1157-1162.
Van Hasselt, V.B., Baker, M.T., Romano, S.J., Sellers, A.H., Noesner, G.W., & Smith, S. (2005).
Development and validation of a role-play test for assessing crisis (hostage) negotiation skills.
Criminal Justice & Behavior, 32(3)345-361.

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