Empati dan Prasangka terhadap Penyandang Disabilitas

Abstract— Stereo types toward persons with disability have resulted in many people having prejudice about persons with disability and committing discriminatory behavior. This negative attitude and behavior toward persons with disability may be due to a lack of empathy. This study aims to determine the relationship between empathy and student prejudice toward persons with disabilities. The research subjects were 167 students with an age range of 18-25 years in the city of Surabaya. Interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) and attitude to disability scale (ADS) were used to measure empathy and prejudice against persons with disabilities. The hypothesis was tested using Pearson Product Moment correlation. The results showed that empathy negatively correlated with prejudice (r = -0.286, p < 0.001), which revealed that the higher the empathy, the lower the prejudice toward persons with disabilities. In addition, it was found that two of the empathy aspects, namely fantasy and personal distress, were not correlated with prejudice. Mean while, the other aspects were perspective taking and empathic concern had a negative correlation with prejudice. The implications of this research’s results were discussed. Keywords: empathy, prejudice toward people with disability, college student Abstrak— Stereotip terhadap penyandang disabilitas mengakibatkan banyak masyarakat yang berprasangka buruk terhadap penyandang disabilitas hingga melakukan perilaku diskriminasi. Sikap dan perlaku negatif terhadap penyandang disabilitas ini mungkin terjadi karena minimnya empati. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui hubungan empati dengan prasangka mahasiswa terhadap penyandang disabilitas. Subjek penelitian sebanyak 167 mahasiswa dengan rentang usia 18-25 tahun di Kota Surabaya. Interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) dan attitude to disability scale (ADS) digunakan untuk mengukur empati dan prasangka terhadap penyandang disabilitas. Hipotesis penelitian di uji dengan Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa empati berkorelasi negative dengan prasangka (r = -0.286, p < 0.001) yang berarti semakin tinggi empati semakin rendah prasangka terhadap penyandang disabilitas. Selain itu ditemukan bahwa dua dari aspek empati yaitu fantasy dan personal distress tidak berkorelasi dengan prasangka. Sementara itu, aspek yang lain yakni perspective taking dan empathic concern berkorelasi negatif dengan prasangka. Implikasi dari hasil penelitian ini didiskusikan lebih lanjut. Kata kunci: empati, prasangka terhadap penyandang disabilitas, mahasiswa