Ethnocultural empathy in relation to social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, hypersensitive narcissism and overt narcissism

The intended impact of this study was to provide empirical support to the notion that there are personality traits that may correlate with people's ability to empathize with members of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. The personality traits studied in relation to Ethnocultural Empathy were Social Dominance Orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Overt Narcissism, and Hypersensitive Narcissism. All of these traits were hypothesized to have a negative relationship to Ethnocultural Empathy. A sample of 96 adult participants completed surveys and hypotheses were tested with Pearson Correlations and a multiple regression.; Results indicated that Social Dominance Orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Hypersensitive Narcissism all demonstrated negative correlations with Ethnocultural Empathy. Social Dominance Orientation demonstrated the strongest correlation with Ethnocultural Empathy and accounted for the most variance in the simultaneous multiple regression.; This study serves as a step towards the goal of understanding and eventually reducing prejudiced attitudes. More specifically, the interplay between Ethnocultural Empathy and above mentioned personality traits might play a significant role in better understanding these social attitudes. Based on the findings in this study, empathizing with those who are culturally or ethnically different may be contingent on a person's need to be a part of the dominant group and/or a person's views on submission to authority. Future researchers may seek a broader demographic sample to better generalize current results.