Empathy, Arrogance and Social Desirability Among Medical Students in Puerto Rico: An Exploratory Study PostHurricane María

Stephanie M. Vega-Molina*, José R. Rodríguez-Gómez and Coralee Pérez-Pedrogo

Empathy, Arrogance and Social Desirability Among Medical Students in Puerto Rico: An Exploratory Study Post Hurricane María.

Medical and psychological literature finds that empathy is crucial in the doctor-patient relationship, and that in the last 30-years there has been a decrease among college students, particularly medical students. After the passing of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, many medical professionals migrated, leaving the island with fewer specialists to teach the remaining medical community.

The new globalization informatics era has created greater public awareness of health and medicine, and with it, the emergence of the health care management system. Is it possible that this emphasis on the business aspect of medicine has diminished the humane doctor-patient relationship?

Could it be possible that the business model of medicine has managed to create the “zeitgeist” of redefining not only the physician’s role in medicine but also, how high of a value he or she
perceives to have in comparison to others? “Every age develops its own peculiar forms of pathology, which express in exaggerated form its underlying character structure”.

Moreover, social desirability was included as a moderator variable and it has been identified as a key component of impression management.33 Results support that the variable is not statistically significant as a moderator between empathy and arrogance. So, when the students report high social desirability, without considering empathy scores, the arrogance levels tend to decrease. In other words, a person that aims to be socially desirable or “liked” might reduce arrogance. However, when both empathy and social desirability interact, or are present, they tend to
increase slightly the appearance or display of arrogance.

Soc Behav Res Pract Open J. 2020; 5(2): 24-34. doi: 10.17140/SBRPOJ-5-125

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