Development and Validation of the Counter-Empathy Scale

Counter-empathy refers to an emotional response that is valence-opposite from the emotional state of another individual. Screening for counter-empathy characteristics is of great significance for social psychology, clinical psychology, and criminal psychology research. Unfortunately, until now, there has been no specific scale to measure counter-empathy, creating a main bottleneck in counter-empathy research. We developed and validated a new instrument to measure counter-empathy: the Counter-Empathy Scale (CES). We tested the CES in a survey of 1265 Chinese college students. Both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis revealed a clear two-factor structure (feeling annoyed with others’ happiness and taking pleasure in others’ pain) for the CES. The CES is internally consistent, test-retest stable, and acceptable in terms of criterion-related validity. In conclusion, the CES is a promising instrument to assess counter-empathy.