Self-report measure

Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) Battery

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) Battery administers Davis’s four-subscale empathy instrument as one 28-item session: Perspective-Taking, Empathic Concern, Personal Distress, and Fantasy. Each subscale is scored separately. There is no total IRI score, because Davis designed the IRI as a multidimensional profile rather than a single empathy sum.

You learn how you empathize across four sides: concern, perspective, imagination and distress.

For anyone curious about the different ways they connect with what others feel.

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Report and PDF $15, paid after you finish.

Your answers stay private.

It comes from empathy research that separates feeling for others, imagining their view and being overwhelmed.

Sample result, example data. Illustrative chart with invented scores; it does not describe any real respondent.

Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) Battery box

What this test is

Welcome. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) Battery administers Davis’s four-subscale empathy instrument as one 28-item session: Perspective-Taking, Empathic Concern, Personal Distress, and Fantasy. Each subscale is scored separately. There is no total IRI score, because Davis designed the IRI as a multidimensional profile rather than a single empathy sum.

The measure

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) Battery was developed by Davis (1983). It has 28 items, each answered on a 5-point (Does Not Describe Me Well … Describes Me Very Well) scale. Its scores cover Perspective-Taking, Empathic Concern, Personal Distress and Fantasy.

Davis, M. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(1), 113–126. Items hosted at ipip.ori.org.

At a glance

Items

Response scale

5-point (Does Not Describe Me Well … Describes Me Very Well)

Est. time

~4 min

Subscales

Access

Free to take · Full report and PDF for $15, or $11 to repeat

What it measures

Empathy includes several distinct responses to other people. Perspective-Taking is the habit of seeing things from another person's point of view; Empathic Concern is feeling warmth and compassion for people in difficulty; Personal Distress is feeling anxious and uneasy in tense or emergency situations; and Fantasy is becoming absorbed in the feelings of characters in books, films and plays. The battery asks about each with seven statements.

Davis (1980) developed the index to treat empathy as a set of related but separate constructs rather than a single trait, and Davis (1983) reported evidence that the four scales relate differently to other aspects of personality and social behavior. The approach bridged earlier research that had treated empathy either as a cognitive skill or as an emotional reaction.

Each scale is scored separately, and the four scores are read side by side. Higher Perspective-Taking and Empathic Concern describe other-oriented understanding and compassion; higher Personal Distress describes self-oriented discomfort in the face of others' distress, which can make it harder to help; higher Fantasy describes imaginative involvement in fictional lives. The profile shows which kinds of empathic response are most characteristic.

The index is used widely in research on empathy, helping and relationships, and in clinical and educational settings. On this site, each scale can be taken separately, for example Perspective-Taking or Empathic Concern, and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) treats empathy as a single trait.

Nomological network

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index treats empathy as four related constructs: perspective taking, empathic concern, personal distress and fantasy (Davis, 1983). Perspective taking relates to better social functioning and higher self-esteem, and empathic concern relates to emotionality and concern for others (Davis, 1983).

The scales show discriminant patterns: personal distress relates to lower self-esteem and poorer social functioning, unlike perspective taking, and the scales relate only weakly to intelligence (Davis, 1983).

Subscales

Perspective-Taking 7 items

how readily you adopt the psychological viewpoint of others in daily life

Empathic Concern 7 items

how strongly you feel other-oriented sympathy and concern for people in difficulty

Personal Distress 7 items

how much you experience self-focused anxiety and distress when witnessing others in need

Fantasy 7 items

how readily you imaginatively enter the emotional world of fictional characters and scenarios

Example item

“I sometimes find it difficult to see things from the "other guy's" point of view.”

Does Not Describe Me WellSlightly Describes MeSomewhat Describes MeMostly Describes MeDescribes Me Very Well

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Scoring & interpretation

Your report explains each of your scale scores in plain language.

References

Davis, M. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(1), 113–126.

Sample report preview

The report opens with a profile of your scores on the 4 scales (Perspective-Taking, Empathic Concern, Personal Distress, and Fantasy), drawn on a common scale so the overall shape of the profile is visible at a glance. Each scale then receives a short plain-language explanation of what a higher or lower standing describes. It closes with guidance on reading the results and on the limits of self-report.

Report contents
Section	What it shows
Subscale scores	Your score on each of the 4 subscales.
Comparisons	How your scores compare with a published comparison group.

It is free to take, and the full report with a downloadable copy is $15.

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