Assessing dental students’ empathy through experimental economics: a complementary approach

Background Empathy is crucial in dentistry, influencing both the quality of care and the practitioner-patient relationship. However, traditional methods of assessing empathy, such as self-assessments, are often biased by social desirability and fail to capture observable behaviours. In response to these limitations, behavioural economics proposes using experimental games to measure social preferences such as altruism and cooperation, which are linked to empathy. This study aims to evaluate dental students’ psychosocial competencies by combining traditional tools such as the Jefferson scale and Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), with experimental economic games. The study also explores the impact of the recent French reform of access to health studies on the psychological profiles of recruited students. Methods One hundred and fifty fourth-year students at the Faculty of Dentistry at the Université Côte d’Azur, participated over three academic years (2022–2025). They were assessed using a self-report questionnaire (Jefferson scale), an external evaluation during OSCEs, and participation in economic games simulating social dilemmas. Results There was no correlation between Jefferson scale scores and external assessments (OSCE and CARE grids), but there was a positive correlation between OSCE and CARE scores. The economic games revealed that students from the post-reform pathway exhibited greater cooperation in the Public Good Game than those from the former pathway. However, no significant effect was found on neither Jefferson scores nor on OSCE scores. Conclusion Combining these three tools provides a more comprehensive assessment of students' psychosocial skills. Although the economic games are less correlated with other tools, they reveal stable personality traits and avoid social desirability biases. These findings suggest that educational reforms can lead to subtle yet meaningful changes in students' prosocial behaviours, with implications for training future healthcare professionals.