About the test
Empathy test
Seventeen statements from two public research scales show how you describe your own empathy, both how strongly you feel with others and how much you care for them in practice.
Questionnaire / instrument: IPIP Empathy
The test at a glance
- Price
- Free, including results
- Registration
- No account required
- Length
- 17 statements
- Time
- About 3 minutes
- Format
- Self-report · five response options
- Your report
- Overall score and two parts
The two parts
The test combines two scales that look at empathy from different sides:
Feeling with others
Being moved by other people's feelings and misfortunes, and how easily you are moved in general.
Caring in practice
Noticing what others need, reassuring them and making time for them.
What your results show
Your report is available straight after the last statement. You can preview an example before starting.
- An overall score from 0 to 100 and what it means.
- Your score on each of the two parts, with a short description.
- Tips that fit your result, and what the test can and cannot tell you.
What does it measure?
How you describe your own empathy, as one score and on two sides: feeling with others, and caring for them in practice.
Where does it come from?
The 17 statements come from two preliminary IPIP scales, both called Empathy. One is keyed to the Jackson Personality Inventory and the other to Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. The names of the two parts are our own.
How is the result calculated?
Answers are scored from 1 to 5, with negatively worded statements reversed, and shown as a score from 0 to 100. The labels lower, middle and higher only describe where your answers fall on the answer scale. One statement belongs to both scales and counts in both.
What can the result tell you?
This is a self-report, so it shows how you see yourself, not how accurately you read other people. The scales are preliminary and have no norms here, so the test cannot show how you compare with others. It is not a clinical test.
Languages and adaptations
English follows the IPIP statements. Most translated statements come from our other tests, and the rest are our own AI-assisted translations. They have not been independently validated. Our explanations and result commentary are written for this website.
Frequently asked questions
What is empathy?
Empathy is about sensing and sharing what others feel, and caring about it. Researchers define it in several ways, and it is often split into feeling with someone and understanding them.
Is a high score always good?
No. High empathy can make you a good support, but taking on others' feelings can also wear you out. A lower score can come with calm in difficult situations.
Can this test show that I lack empathy?
No. It shows how you describe yourself, on a scale without norms. It cannot diagnose anything, and many people show that they care in ways the statements do not capture.
Can you learn empathy?
Many people can get better at noticing and responding to others, for example by asking more questions and listening. The test cannot show how much you can change.
How does this differ from the emotional intelligence test?
The emotional intelligence test covers several skills and habits around emotions. This test looks only at empathy, using different scales.
Are my answers anonymous?
Answers are stored without your name or contact details, and you can delete your result later.
License and reuse
Public domainIPIP places its items and scales in the public domain. They may be used, copied, adapted and translated for commercial and non-commercial purposes without a fee or separate permission.
The terms below apply to the test materials. Articles, translations, software and our result descriptions may have separate terms.
Sources and further reading
Preliminary IPIP scales measuring constructs similar to Empathy in the Jackson Personality Inventory (JPI-R) and Empathy in Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). IPIP keys: https://ipip.ori.org/newJPI-RKey.htm and https://ipip.ori.org/newTCIKey.htm