The Importance of Affective Dissonance: Extending the Nomological Network and Incremental Validity Evidence of the Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy (ACME)

Abstract Empathy is a multifaceted capacity commonly assessed through cognitive and affective dimensions, yet traditional measures may insufficiently capture opposite-valence emotional responding. The Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy (ACME) was developed to broaden empathy assessment by distinguishing Cognitive Empathy, Affective Resonance, and Affective Dissonance. The present study examined whether this broader representation provides explanatory value beyond established measures of empathy used and whether it generalizes to an Italian adult sample. Participants ( N = 542; 18–79 years) completed the ACME and measures of empathy, emotion dysregulation, aggression, and impulsivity. Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for the expected three-factor structure and measurement invariance across sex. Internal consistency was good to excellent across ACME subscales. Construct validity was supported by associations with established empathy measures and theoretically coherent links with emotion dysregulation, aggression, and impulsivity, with Affective Dissonance showing the strongest links to externalizing outcomes. Hierarchical regression further indicated that ACME explained significant additional variance beyond a widely used empathy measure across all tested outcomes, with the largest increments observed for Reactive Aggression, Proactive Aggression, and Hostility. Overall, these findings suggest that explicitly modeling Affective Dissonance may improve construct coverage in empathy assessment in research and applied settings.