An Analysis of Ethno-Cultural Empathy Ability in Tehran Metropolis

The objective of the present paper is to study the ethno-cultural empathy ability in the metropolitan Tehran. 156990 citizens from five neighborhoods in the geography of the Tehran constituted the statistical population of this research. The sample constituted of 553 citizens who were selected through classified sampling. The Scale of Ethno-Cultural Empathy (ECE) by Wang, et al. (2003) was used to collect the data. Cluster analysis with Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), single t-test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. The results indicate that overall ethno-cultural empathy ability in the mega city of Tehran is above the average and two groups can be identified on the basis of empathy ability. The average of all dimensions in the first group, expect acceptance of cultural differences, is above the mean, while in the second group awareness and acceptance of cultural differences is above the mean. The average of the expression of empathic feelings in the first group is higher than that of the second group. Accordingly, it may be said that the first group is emotionally oriented and the second one is pragmatist. In both groups the acceptance of cultural differences has higher predictability significance compared to other factors. The findings of the research imply the domination of emotional empathy over pragmatist empathy in the mega city of Tehran.