Empathy and the Experiencing of Loneliness

The subjects were 39 students of psychology (5 men and 34 women). Empathy was measured by the modified Mehrabian and Epstein emotional empathy scale and loneliness by open-ended questions. Scores on empathy correlated slightly and positively with loneliness which was experienced positively and correlated negatively with loneliness when experienced negatively. Objective loneliness is not necessarily subjective loneliness. When evaluating loneliness the subjective personal view has the greatest value. The data are too limited to allow broader generalizations.