Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ)
How much do you feel what others feel? The TEQ measures emotional empathy - your ability to pick up on and respond to others emotions.
How much do you feel what others feel? The TEQ measures emotional empathy - your ability to pick up on and respond to others emotions. 16 items, about 4 minutes.
How empathetic are you?
Do you catch other people's emotions easily? Feel a tug when someone is upset? Get swept up in a friend's excitement? That's emotional empathy, and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) measures how much it happens for you.
The TEQ treats empathy as primarily an emotional process rather than a cognitive one. It's not about how well you read people — it's about how much their feelings affect yours. Spreng, McKinnon, Mar and Levine created it in 2009.
Psychometrics
Validated across three independent samples. Internal consistency alpha=0.81. Converges with prosocial behavior and self-report empathy measures; inversely correlated with autism traits. A Chinese version (cTEQ) was validated in a 2020 study with medical students.
Who it's for
Anyone curious about their empathy style. High empathy is linked to stronger relationships, but also to compassion fatigue — so this scale is often useful for therapists, healthcare workers, and educators who want to keep tabs on their emotional load.
Result Interpretation
After completing the 16 questions, you'll receive an immediate, detailed report with:
- Your score — calculated automatically based on your responses
- Score interpretation — what your score means in practical terms
- Context — how your results compare to general population norms where available
All results are displayed on screen. No account or login needed.