The Empathy and Systemizing Quotient: The Psychometric Properties of the Dutch Version and a Review of the Cross-Cultural Stability

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 45; no. 9; pp. 2848 - 2864
• Main Authors: Groen, Y., Fuermaier, A. B. M., Den Heijer, A. E., Tucha, O., Althaus, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2015; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Asia; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder - psychology; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Blindness; Brain; Care and treatment; Child & adolescent psychiatry; Child and School Psychology; Cognitive Style; Cross Cultural Studies; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Diagnosis; Effect Size; Empathy; Factor Analysis; Female; Females; Foreign Countries; Gender Differences; Humans; Hypotheses; Information Processing; Interpersonal Competence; Interpersonal Relationship; Male; Males; Middle Aged; Neuropsychology; Neurosciences; Original Paper; Pediatrics; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Psychology; Psychometrics; Public Health; Quantitative psychology; Reliability; Social Characteristics; Social Cognition; Standard scores; Validity; Western Hemisphere; Young Adult; Asia; Netherlands; United States > US; Extreme male brain hypothesis; Sex differences; Empathy; Theory of mind; EQ; SQ
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-015-2448-z

The ‘Empathy Quotient’ (EQ) and ‘Systemizing Quotient’ (SQ) are used worldwide to measure people’s empathizing and systemizing cognitive styles. This study investigates the psychometric properties of the Dutch EQ and SQ in healthy participants (n = 685), and high functioning males with autism spectrum disorder (n = 42). Factor analysis provided support for three subscales of the abridged 28-item EQ: Cognitive Empathy, Emotional Empathy and Social Skills. Overall, the Dutch EQ and SQ appeared reliable and valid tools to assess empathizing and systemizing cognitive style in healthy adults and high functioning adults with autism. The literature showed good cross-cultural stability of the SQ and EQ in Western countries, but in Asian countries EQ is less stable and less sensitive to sex differences.