摘要：The events in contemporary have affected the social spaces, economic and cultural as well the interpersonal relations. It is believed that an individualist or collectivist orientation would influence people's ability to recognition of his capacity for interpersonal resonance: to empathize. The present study aims to verify a theoretical model in which the type of cultural orientation does associate with empathy. 456 subjects, male and female, ages from 12 to 67 years, of different educational levels of public and private institutions in the cities of Joao Pessoa-PB and Rio de Janeiro-RJ, answered to the Multidimensional Scale of Interpersonal Reactivity, the Scale of the Attributes of Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultural Orientation and socio-demographic data. There was a positive association between the collectivist orientation and empathy, on the other hand, individualistic orientation was associated negatively with empathy. It also highlighted the existence of a higher average score on collectivism which influences the high score on empathy.
