Self-Assessment
Empathy Self-Assessment
Inspired by the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ)
Measure how often you feel emotionally responsive to other people's feelings and situations. Informed by empathy research from Spreng et al. (2009).
This assessment covers your typical emotional reactions to other people's feelings and situations. It focuses on emotional empathy: how strongly and how often you resonate with what others are experiencing.
There are no right or wrong answers. Some statements describe reactions that might seem less empathic. Answer based on what you actually tend to do, not what you think you should do.
Please select an answer to continue.
Your Empathy Pattern
Exploratory breakdown. These are not validated subscales.
What this might look like day to day
Things to try this week
The Research Behind This Assessment
Grounded in peer-reviewed empathy research from multiple international studies.
The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire was developed by Spreng, McKinnon, Mar, and Levine in 2009 as a brief measure of trait empathy. It focuses specifically on the emotional component of empathy: how often someone feels emotionally responsive to other people's feelings and situations.
The TEQ was designed to capture empathy as "a primarily emotional process." It does not directly measure how accurately you read emotions, or how you behave in empathic situations. It measures self-reported tendency, which can differ from actual performance.
From the Research
"The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) represents empathy as a primarily emotional process."
— Spreng, R.N., McKinnon, M.C., Mar, R.A., & Levine, B. (2009). The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire: Scale development and initial validation . Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(1), 62-71.
The TEQ has been validated across multiple populations, languages, and research contexts. Here is how internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and test-retest reliability look across key studies:
Reliability varies by sample. Some validations (Chinese and Korean medical student studies) found that negatively worded items can split into separate factors, suggesting item wording affects measurement structure across languages and populations.
From the Research
"Finally, the TEQ demonstrated high test-retest reliability, r = .81, p < .001."
— Spreng et al. (2009). Study 3 results section. PMC2775495.
We cannot reproduce the original TEQ items on this page because they are copyrighted by the publisher. Instead, we built a research-inspired version targeting the same emotional empathy construct, informed by the development paper and several international validation studies.
Transparency note: Our items have not been validated against the official TEQ. Scores from this assessment are indicative of self-reported empathic tendencies but are not equivalent to official TEQ scores. We keep the same scoring range (0-64) and response format for familiarity, but treat all results as exploratory.
Sources informing this adaptation
"One limitation of this study is that our data were derived from a relatively small sample, composed of college-aged students."
— Spreng, R.N., McKinnon, M.C., Mar, R.A., & Levine, B. (2009). The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire . J. Personality Assessment.
- Kourmousi, N. et al. (2017). TEQ reliability and validity in Greek teachers. Social Sciences, 6(2), 62.
- Xu, R.H. et al. (2020). TEQ validation among Chinese medical students. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 810.
- Yeo, S. & Kim, K-J. (2021). Korean TEQ validation in medical students. BMC Medical Education, 21, 87.
- Novak, L. et al. (2021). Czech TEQ psychometric analysis. IJERPH, 18(10), 5343.
Related Assessments
Empathy is one piece of a larger psychological picture. These assessments explore connected areas.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The official TEQ is a 16-item scale developed by Spreng, McKinnon, Mar, and Levine (2009) at the University of Toronto. Our empathy self-assessment is independently written, measuring similar emotional empathy constructs using our own original items. The TEQ has been validated with good internal consistency (α = .85) and correlates well with other empathy measures.
The TEQ focuses specifically on emotional empathy — feeling what others feel. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) by Davis (1983) is broader, measuring four dimensions: perspective taking, empathic concern, fantasy, and personal distress. The Empathy Quotient (EQ) by Baron-Cohen covers both cognitive and affective empathy. If you want a broader empathy profile, try our Interpersonal Reactivity Index assessment.
Yes. Research suggests empathy is not fixed. A meta-analysis by Teding van Berkhout & Malouff (2016) found that empathy training programs produce moderate improvements, particularly in perspective-taking skills. Practices like active listening, reading fiction (Kidd & Castano, 2013), and mindfulness meditation have all shown promise in enhancing empathic responses.
About This Assessment
Built by our team using research from the TEQ development study and related validation papers. This is not the official Toronto Empathy Questionnaire.
The original TEQ items are copyrighted and not reproduced here. Our assessment uses independently written questions targeting the same emotional empathy construct. Scores are not equivalent to official TEQ results.
Based on Spreng et al. (2009), with guidance from validations by Kourmousi et al. (2017), Xu et al. (2020), Yeo & Kim (2021), and Novak et al. (2021).
This is an educational tool, not a clinical instrument. No diagnostic cutoffs exist for the TEQ. Self-reported empathy may differ from actual empathic behavior. Seek professional guidance for clinical concerns.