Cross-cultural and sex differences of empathy, aggression and anxiety among Russian students (on examples Russian and Tatars).
DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2022-1/20-44
Abstract
Empathy is one of the primary social emotions in humans, which facilitates successful socialization and normal functioning of a person within society. The article considers empathy in conjunction with other personal characteristics (physical and verbal aggression, hostility, personal or situational anxiety). This empirical study was conducted on a sample of 489 students from two Russian cities – Moscow (237 persons) and Kazan (252 persons). The authors founded sex and cross-cultural differences in empathy, aggression, and anxiety. This data allows for a better understanding of the relationship between empathy and aggressive behavior, personal and situational anxiety, and the individual reaction to stress factors.
Females were characterized by higher levels of empathy and personal anxiety than males in both samples. In the Moscow sample, the girls in comparison with the boys showed a significantly higher level of situational anxiety, while the Kazan males were more anxious under the influence of stress. Sex differences were found on three scales of aggression – boys had significantly higher values of physical and verbal aggression than girls in both samples, the level of hostility among Moscow students was higher among girls, but not in Kazan. Cross-cultural differences were founded for all scales except physical aggression and situational anxiety in boys, and personal anxiety in both sexes – on all scales the total scores were higher among Moscow students. No significant differences were found in emotional responses to stimulus photographs. Also, a negative connection was found between empathy and physical and verbal aggression in Moscow girls, and with verbal aggression and hostility in Moscow boys. The presence of a positive relationship between anxiety and empathy was shown only in Tatar males. This data allows to better understand the relationship between empathy and aggressive behavior, personal and situational anxiety, and the reaction of individuals to stress factors including the influence of the cultural factor.
