A-B similarity-complementarity and accurate empathy

Rated the audio portions of videotaped segments of 32 dyadic interviews between A‐type and B‐type undergraduate males for accurate empathy using Truax's AE‐Scale. Results indicate that the level of empathy displayed by both members of an interactive dyad was influenced by the A‐B types of the individuals of the dyad. B‐types elicited higher levels of empathy when they interacted with other B‐types, while any dyad that contained an A‐type resulted in a lower level of empathy when compared to the empathy found in BB dyads. This result better fits a similarity hypothesis than a complementarity hypothesis.