Do empathy and oxytocin predict responsiveness to a crying infant simulator in expecting and non-expecting couples? A multilevel study

ABSTRACT

Infant crying is a strong emotional stimulus that elicits caregiving responses in adults. Here we examine the role of empathy (measured with the Polish version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and salivary oxytocin in modulating sensitive responsiveness to a crying infant simulator in two groups of heterosexual couples: 111 expecting or 110 not expecting a baby. Sensitive responsiveness was observed during a standardized procedure using the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale while participants took care of the infant simulator, both individually and as a couple. Other-oriented empathy predicted elevated levels of individual but not couple sensitive responsiveness. More OT reactivity to crying predicted less responsiveness in non-expecting couples, which might be explained by their stronger focus on task performance. This study uniquely combined hormonal, observational and self-report measures in couples, and showed that personality and hormonal correlates of sensitive responsiveness might be studied before the child’s birth with the use of infant simulators.

KEYWORDS:

• Empathy
• oxytocin
• responsiveness
• caregiving
• couples

Acknowledgments

1. The study has been funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (grant no. 2016/22/E/ HS6/00237 awarded to Maria Kaźmierczak). The funding source had no role in the study design, writing of the report, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

2. Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg was supported by the European Research Council (ERC AdG 669249)

3. The authors would like to thank Paulina Pawlicka, Ariadna Łada-Maśko and Paulina Anikiej-Wiczenbach for their help in conducting the study, Paweł Jurek for comments on the statistical analyses and all the couples for their participation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement:

The data that support the findings of this study are available in OSF

https://osf.io/g9xwy/?view_only=89c6540489524a98922d775eae12c186; https://osf.io/2qxtj/?view_only=743bab4a38ea4cd493574d760e496879

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2022.2063911

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ERC AdG [grant number 669249]; the National Science Centre, Poland [2016/22/E/HS6/00237].