Empathy faking – The susceptibility to faking good of empathy measures

A lack of empathy is closely related to antisocial behavior and criminal offending. Which is why, sentencing decisions, for instance, depend in part on how much empathy an offender expresses during trial, or addressing empathy deficits is a critical component of many offender intervention programs. An accurate assessment of empathy is therefore crucial within the justice system. Yet, only little research has been conducted to date on whether – and to what extend – empathy measures are susceptible to malingering. With this project, we aim to answer the question as to how vulnerable various empathy measures (i.e., self-report, experimental, psychophysiological, and implicit) are to faking good by using a randomized double-blind design. Furthermore, we will examine whether individuals who malinger can be accurately identified with both established social desirability scales and a newly developed empathy malingering scale. Our findings will help improve the accuracy of empathy assessments, particularly in situations where individuals have an incentive to exaggerate their level of empathy.