Empathy is hard work: People choose to avoid empathy because of its cognitive costs

Considering the Role of Human Empathy in AI-Driven Therapy

Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) language models have elevated the vision of using conversational AI support for mental health, with a growing body of literature indicating varying degrees of efficacy. In this paper, we ask when, in therapy, it will be easier to replace humans and, conversely, in what instances, human connection will still be more valued. We suggest that empathy lies at the heart of the answer to this question. First, we define different aspects of empathy and outline the potential empathic capabilities of humans versus AI. Next, we consider what determines when these aspects are needed most in therapy, both from the perspective of therapeutic methodology and from the perspective of patient objectives. Ultimately, our goal is to prompt further investigation and dialogue, urging both practitioners and scholars engaged in AI-mediated therapy to keep these questions and considerations in mind when investigating AI implementation in mental health.

Cognitive, emotional, and social factors promoting psychosocial adaptation: a study of latent profiles in people living in socially vulnerable contexts

Introduction

Social adaptation is a multifaceted process that encompasses cognitive, social, and affective factors. Previous research often focused on isolated variables, overlooking their interactions, especially in challenging environments. Our study addresses this by investigating how cognitive (working memory, verbal intelligence, self-regulation), social (affective empathy, family networks, loneliness), and psychological (locus of control, self-esteem, perceived stress) factors interact to influence social adaptation.

Methods

We analyzed data from 254 adults (55% female) aged 18 to 46 in economically vulnerable households in Santiago, Chile. We used Latent profile analysis (LPA) and machine learning to uncover distinct patters of socioadaptive features and identify the most discriminating features.

Results

LPA showed two distinct psychosocial adaptation profiles: one characterized by effective psychosocial adaptation and another by poor psychosocial adaptation. The adaptive profile featured individuals with strong emotional, cognitive, and behavioral self-regulation, an internal locus of control, high self-esteem, lower stress levels, reduced affective empathy, robust family support, and decreased loneliness. Conversely, the poorly adapted profile exhibited the opposite traits. Machine learning pinpointed six key differentiating factors in various adaptation pathways within the same vulnerable context: high self-esteem, cognitive and behavioral self-regulation, low stress levels, higher education, and increased social support.

Discussion

This research carries significant policy implications, highlighting the need to reinforce protective factors and psychological resources, such as self-esteem, self-regulation, and education, to foster effective adaptation in adversity. Additionally, we identified critical risk factors impacting social adaptation in vulnerable populations, advancing our understanding of this intricate phenomenon.

AI can help people feel heard, but an AI label diminishes this impact

People want to "feel heard" to perceive that they are understood, validated, and valued. Can AI serve the deeply human function of making others feel heard? Our research addresses two fundamental issues: Can AI generate responses that make human recipients feel heard, and how do human recipients react when they believe the response comes from AI? We conducted an experiment and a follow-up study to disentangle the effects of actual source of a message and the presumed source. We found that AI-generated messages made recipients feel more heard than human-generated messages and that AI was better at detecting emotions. However, recipients felt less heard when they realized that a message came from AI (vs. human). Finally, in a follow-up study where the responses were rated by third-party raters, we found that compared with humans, AI demonstrated superior discipline in offering emotional support, a crucial element in making individuals feel heard, while avoiding excessive practical suggestions, which may be less effective in achieving this goal. Our research underscores the potential and limitations of AI in meeting human psychological needs. These findings suggest that while AI demonstrates enhanced capabilities to provide emotional support, the devaluation of AI responses poses a key challenge for effectively leveraging AI's capabilities.

In praise of empathic AI

In this article we investigate the societal implications of empathic artificial intelligence (AI), asking how its seemingly empathic expressions make people feel. We highlight AI's unique ability to simulate empathy without the same biases that afflict humans. While acknowledging serious pitfalls, we propose that AI expressions of empathy could improve human welfare.

Visualizing Compassion: Episodic Simulation as Contemplative Practice

Contemplative interventions designed to cultivate compassion are receiving increasing empirical attention. Accumulating evidence suggests that these interventions bolster prosocial motivation and warmth towards others. Less is known about how these practices impact compassion in everyday life. Here we consider one mechanistic pathway through which compassion practices may impact perception and action in the world: simulation. Evidence suggests that vividly imagining a situation simulates that experience in the brain as if it were, to a degree, actually happening. Thus, we hypothesize that simulation during imagery-based contemplative practices can construct sensorimotor patterns in the brain that prime an individual to act compassionately in the world. We first present evidence across multiple literatures in Psychology that motivates this hypothesis, including the neuroscience of mental imagery and the emerging literature on prosocial episodic simulation. Then, we examine the specific contemplative practices in compassion-based interventions that may construct such simulations. We conclude with future directions for investigating how compassion-based interventions may shape prosocial perception and action in everyday life.

"How did you stay together so long?" Relationship longevity, a cross-generational qualitative study

This global qualitative study adopted a cross-generational approach considering key factors contributing to relationship longevity. Relatively few studies consider factors leading to relationship longevity as articulated by couples themselves, and there is a paucity of research considering young couples' questions regarding relationship longevity. This study has two sample groups. In sample one (n = 137) we asked individuals in relationship of 3-15 years questions they would ask couples in marriages of 40+ years. We then asked our second sample of coupled individuals married 40+ years (n = 180) these questions. The primary question from the younger couples to couples in long-term marriages regarded their "secret" to relationship longevity. This study focuses on this one question and coupled individuals' self-articulation of their "secrets" to relationship longevity. The top seven were (1) commitment, (2) altruism, (3) shared values, (4) good communication, (5) compromise: give and take, (6) love, and (7) never give up. The clinical implications for couple therapists are discussed.

Social Motivation in Schizophrenia: What's Effort Got to Do With It?

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS

Social motivation, defined as the fundamental human desire to seek out, engage in, and maintain interpersonal bonds, has become a growing area of research in schizophrenia. The major focus has been on understanding the impact of social reward-related processes. An obvious but rarely acknowledged fact is that social interactions, much like other goal-directed acts, require the exertion of effort. In this Review Article, we argue that social motivation in schizophrenia can be conceptualized through the lens of an established framework: effort-based decision-making (EBDM).

STUDY DESIGN

We conducted a literature review on social reward processing in schizophrenia, then extended these findings by applying concepts and insights from the literature on EBDM to the study of social motivation.

STUDY RESULTS

Within the EBDM framework, decisions about whether or not to pursue social interactions are bound by cost/benefit calculations. That is, people do not pursue social behaviors when the estimated "cost" of the required effort outweighs the anticipated "benefit" or reward. We propose that people with schizophrenia are less likely to engage in social interaction compared with healthy samples because they: (1) underestimate the benefits of relationships (based on expectations of reward/punishment), (2) overestimate the effort costs associated with social interaction, and/or (3) fail to integrate cost-benefit information in an optimal manner.

CONCLUSIONS

EBDM is an especially promising framework of social motivation that goes beyond the current focus on social reward processing to include a focus on effort.

Social cognition and apathy between two cognitive subtypes of schizophrenia: Are there the same or different profiles?

Objective

Cognitive impairment is an essential feature of schizophrenia, and it involves a broad array of nonsocial and social cognitive domains. This study aimed to examine whether there are the same or different social cognition profiles between two cognitive subtypes of schizophrenia.

Method

There were one hundred and two chronic and institutionalized patients with schizophrenia from two referral tracks. One group is "Cognitively Normal Range" (CNR) (N = 52), and another group is "Below Normal Range" (BNR) (N = 50). We assessed or collected their apathy, emotional perception judgment, facial expression judgment, and empathy by the Apathy Evaluation Scale, the International Affective Picture System, the Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expression of Emotion, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, respectively.

Results

We found different impairment profiles depending on the cognitive subtypes of the patient with schizophrenia. Surprisingly, the CNR presented impairments in apathy, emotional perception judgment, facial expression judgment, and empathy and feature impairment in empathy and affective apathy. In contrast, even though the BNR had significant neurocognition impairments, they had almost intact empathy with significantly impaired cognitive apathy. Both groups' global deficit scores (GDSs) were comparable, and all reached at least a mild impairment level.

Conclusions

The CNR and the BNR had similar abilities in emotional perception judgment and facial emotion recognition. They also had differentiable deficits in apathy and empathy. Our findings provide important clinical implications for neuropsychological pathology and treatment in schizophrenia.

Reliability of the empathy selection task, a novel behavioral measure of empathy avoidance

The empathy selection task is a novel behavioral paradigm designed to assess an individual's willingness to engage in empathy. Work with this task has demonstrated that people prefer to avoid empathy when some other activity is available, though individual differences that might predict performance on this task have been largely unexamined. Here, we assess the suitability of the empathy selection task for use in individual difference and experimental research by examining its reliability within and across testing sessions. We compare the reliability of summary scores on the empathy selection task (i.e., proportion of empathy choices) as an individual difference metric to that of two commonly used experimental tasks, the Stroop error rate and go/no-go commission rate. Next, we assess systematic changes at the item/trial level using generalized multilevel modeling which considers participants' individual performance variation. Across two samples (N = 89), we find that the empathy selection task is stable between testing sessions and has good/substantial test-retest reliability (ICCs = .65 and .67), suggesting that it is comparable or superior to other commonly used experimental tasks with respect to its ability to consistently rank individuals.

Autistic adults' perspectives on appropriate empathic responses to others' emotions

Although the ability of autistic adults to recognize others' emotions has been extensively studied, less attention has been given to how they respond to these emotions. We examined two aspects of autistic and non-autistic adults' responsiveness to the emotional expressions of non-autistic actors: their perspectives on the appropriate way of responding to others' emotions and their awareness of others' perceptions of the likely appropriateness of such responses. Autistic (N = 63) and non-autistic (N = 67) adult samples viewed videos of 74 dyadic social interactions displaying different examples of 12 emotions expressed by one actor in response to the behavior of the other. After each video, participants (a) nominated the emotion expressed by the first actor, (b) offered their perspective on what would constitute an appropriate empathic response by the second actor, and (c) indicated their confidence in that response. Although the autistic group provided fewer appropriate empathic responses-operationalized via a panel's interpretations of normative responses-than the non-autistic group, within-group variability was marked, and the effect was weak and largely confined to basic emotions. Autistic individuals were, however, considerably less confident in their responses. Examination of the relationships between confidence in and the appropriateness of empathic responses provided no indication in either group of reliable discrimination of appropriate from inappropriate empathic responses or finely tuned metacognitive awareness of variations in appropriateness. In sum, autistic adults' perspectives on the appropriate empathic reactions to non-autistic adults' emotions were not unilaterally or markedly different to those of non-autistic adults.

Do Bad People Deserve Empathy? Selective Empathy Based on Targets' Moral Characteristics

The relation between empathy and morality is a widely discussed topic. However, previous discussions mainly focused on whether and how empathy influences moral cognition and moral behaviors, with limited attention to the reverse influence of morality on empathy. This review summarized how morality influences empathy by drawing together a number of hitherto scattered studies illustrating the influence of targets' moral characteristics on empathy. To explain why empathy is morally selective, we discuss its ultimate cause, to increase survival rates, and five proximate causes based on similarity, affective bonds, the appraisal of deservingness, dehumanization, and potential group membership. To explain how empathy becomes morally selective, we consider three different pathways (automatic, regulative, and mixed) based on previous findings. Finally, we discuss future directions, including the reverse influence of selective empathy on moral cognition, the moral selectivity of positive empathy, and the role of selective empathy in selective helping and third-party punishment.

Associations of Empathy with Teacher-Student Interactions: A Potential Ternary Model

Empathy has garnered increasing recognition as a pivotal component of teacher-student interactions and a notable determinant of student achievement. Nevertheless, the exact impact of empathy on teacher-student interactions remains elusive, despite research endeavors into the neural mechanisms of teacher empathy. Our article examines the cognitive neural processes of teacher empathy during various forms of teacher-student interactions. To this end, we first present a concise review of theoretical considerations related to empathy and interactions, followed by an extensive discussion of teacher-student interactions and teacher empathy through both "single-brain" and "dual-brain" perspectives. Drawing on these discussions, we propose a potential model of empathy that integrates the affective contagion, cognitive evaluation, and behavior prediction aspects of teacher-student interactions. Finally, future research directions are discussed.

People are curious about immoral and morally ambiguous others

Looking to the popularity of superheroes, true crime stories, and anti-heroic characters like Tony Soprano, we investigated whether moral extremity, especially moral badness, piques curiosity. Across five experiments (N = 2429), we examine moral curiosity, testing under what conditions the moral minds of others spark explanation-seeking behavior. In Experiment 1, we find that among the most widely watched Netflix shows in the US over a five-month period, the more immoral the protagonist, the more hours people spent watching. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we find that when given a choice to learn more about morally good, bad, ambiguous, or average others, people preferred to learn more about morally extreme people, both good and bad. Experiment 3 reveals that people are more curious for explanations about (vs. descriptions of) morally bad and ambiguous people compared to morally good ones. Finally, Experiment 4 tests the uniqueness of curiosity for moral ambiguity. We find that people are more drawn to moral rather than aesthetic ambiguity, suggesting that ambiguity, which is cognitively taxing and sometimes avoided, preferentially engenders information seeking in the moral domain. These findings suggest deviations from moral normativity, especially badness, spur curiosity. People are curious about immorality and agents who differ from the norm.

Moral barrier to compassion: How perceived badness of sufferers dampens observers' compassionate responses

Compassion has been theorized as a desirable prosocial emotion due to its potential to transcend arbitrary boundaries (e.g., race, physical distance) and motivate us to alleviate the suffering of all human beings. Our paper nevertheless examines a potential moral barrier to compassion--whether and how moral evaluations of the suffering and the sufferer hinder our compassion and prosocial motivation. In four pre-registered studies (total N = 421, within-participant design), we demonstrated that adult U.S. participants withheld their compassion and willingness to help when they perceived moral badness of the sufferer, even when the perceived moral badness did not directly cause the suffering. The effects were found in terms of diverse types of moral judgments, including the sufferers' immoral intention (e.g., harming another; Study 1), bad moral character (e.g., being a dishonest person; Study 2), and even mere associations with groups perceived as deserving of suffering based on moral status (Studies 3-4). Deservedness judgment--how much the sufferer was viewed as deserving the suffering--mediated the effect between moral judgment and compassionate responses. Importantly, participants judged withholding compassion based on moral deservedness as what should be done and what morally good people would do, suggesting that people hold a normative view of the tendency that might make it difficult to overcome. Our findings thus reveal moral judgment as a barrier that prevents us from alleviating the suffering of all human beings.

Associations of state and trait empathy with daily alcohol use

BACKGROUND

A growing literature documents associations between lower trait empathy and heavier alcohol use and more alcohol problems in adolescent and young adult samples. Prior work linking empathy and alcohol use/problems in these populations has thus far focused on trait rather than state empathy, and researchers often do not differentiate between cognitive and affective empathy. Further, no prior studies have examined associations between daily fluctuations in state empathy and alcohol use. The goal of the current study is to advance knowledge about the associations between state (vs. trait) and cognitive (vs. affective) empathy and alcohol use.

METHODS

Adult alcohol drinkers (n = 492; Mage = 22.89, SD = 5.53; 53.70% female) participated in ecological momentary assessment studies for 7 to 10 days (day n = 4683). Multilevel hurdle models were used to investigate associations between day-level state empathy and daily alcohol use at the within-person level, and associations between individual differences in trait empathy and alcohol use across days at the between-person level.

RESULTS

Higher day-level state affective empathy was not associated with the likelihood of drinking on a particular day, but it was significantly associated with a greater number of drinks consumed on alcohol-consuming days, with the latter associations remaining after controlling for day-level positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). No associations were found for day-level state cognitive empathy, or trait affective or cognitive empathy.

CONCLUSIONS

On drinking days, when individuals reported more affective empathy than is typical for them, they were more likely to consume a greater number of alcoholic drinks, results that remained when controlling for levels of PA and NA. Daily shifts in affective empathy may be important to consider in efforts to understand alcohol use.

Empathic Accuracy and Shared Depressive Symptoms in Close Relationships

Empathic accuracy, the ability to accurately understand others' emotions, is typically viewed as beneficial for mental health. However, empathic accuracy may be problematic when a close relational partner is depressed because it promotes shared depression. Across two studies, we measured empathic accuracy using laboratory tasks that capture the ability to rate others' emotional valence accurately over time: first, in a sample of 156 neurotypical married couples (Study 1; Total N=312), and then in a sample of 102 informal caregivers of individuals with dementia (Study 2). Across both studies, the association between empathic accuracy and depressive symptoms varied as a function of a partner's level of depressive symptoms. Greater empathic accuracy was associated with (a) fewer depressive symptoms when a partner lacked depressive symptoms, but (b) more depressive symptoms when a partner had high levels of depressive symptoms. Accurately detecting changes in others' emotional valence may underpin shared depressive symptoms.

Psycho-Social Correlates of Cyberbullying among Polish Adolescents

Cyberbullying has recently attracted attention due to its increasing prevalence and serious consequences for both victims and perpetrators. The objective of this population-based study was to examine the determinants of a person becoming a perpetrator of cyberbullying, including personal resources (emotional self-regulation, self-esteem, internal locus of control, optimism), social skills (prosocial behavior, assertiveness, cognitive empathy, cooperation), peer relationships (peer support, threats from peers, peer rejection, dislike of peers), and problematic Internet use (excessive Internet use, impulsive reactions to Internet deprivation). Participants (N = 541) were students at elementary schools (age 14-15) in Ostroleka, a city in central-eastern Poland. Two-part regression was used to explore protective/risk factors of the likelihood of an individual using cyberviolence (dichotomous part: involvement in violence) and how often it is used (continuous part: frequency of cyberbullying). The results showed that the emotional component is crucial to cyberbullying, as indicated by the importance of emotional self-control, which reduces the frequency of cyberbullying. Other important factors are assertiveness, impulsive response to limited Internet access (which increases the likelihood of engaging in cyberbullying) and fear of peers (which reduces its frequency). In turn, the importance of pro-sociality (which inhibits engagement) and peer support (which promotes engagement) points to the second important component of cyberbullying-that is, group mechanisms. At the same time, the results indicate that while the importance of Internet addiction as a risk factor for cyberbullying should not be underestimated, the amount of time spent online cannot be seen as the source of the problem. The study leads to the conclusion that effective interventions targeting cyberbullying should focus on the development of more adaptive styles of coping with emotions.

Effects of Brief Mindfulness Meditation and Compassion Meditation on Parochial Empathy and Prosocial Behavior Toward Ethnic Out-Group Members

Objectives

Relative to the tendency to empathize with and help sociocultural in-group members, there are often social and psychological barriers to responding prosocially toward out-group members. This experiment examined the roles of mindfulness instruction and compassion instruction in fostering prosocial behavior toward an ethnic out-group (non-U.S. Arabs) relative to an ethnic in-group (U.S. residents). The study also examined whether contemplative practices would predict less parochial empathy and whether parochial empathy would mediate the relations between mindfulness/compassion and prosocial behavior toward the out-group.

Method

A national sample of n = 450 U.S. residents was recruited online via the Prolific platform using the standard sample function, which distributed the study to available participants on Prolific. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three brief, structurally equivalent audio-recorded instruction conditions: mindfulness meditation, compassion meditation, or a relaxation control, and then completed a series of tasks to assess prosociality toward in- and out-group members.

Results

The compassion training was most effective in reducing parochial empathy when controlling for all covariates. The mindfulness training reduced parochial empathy when controlling for in-group empathy, and it led to greater out-group altruism and support for out-group immigration. Parochial empathy predicted out-group altruism; however, it was not a better predictor of support for Arab immigration than trait empathic concern. Training conditions did not differ on support for out-group cause. Exploratory moderation analyses found that those with higher trait empathic concern and intergroup contact quality were more likely to show compassion training and mindfulness training effects, respectively, on support for out-group immigration.

Conclusions

Brief compassion training had the strongest effect on parochial empathy, but mindfulness training showed stronger effects on out-group altruism and support for out-group immigration. Predisposing social psychological characteristics may enhance intergroup prosociality among those receiving compassion or mindfulness instruction.

Preregistration

This study is preregistered at https://osf.io/rnc97.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-023-02100-z.

The role of empathy in shared intentionality: Contributions from Inter-Processual Self theory

Research in psychology related to the conceptualization of empathy has been on the rise in the last decades. However, we argue that there is still space for further research to help capture the important notion of empathy and its theoretical and conceptual depth. Following a critical review of the current state of the research that conceptualizes and measures empathy, we focus on works that highlight the importance of a shared vision and its relevance in psychology and neuroscience. Considering the state of the art of current neuroscientific and psychological approaches to empathy, we argue for the relevance of shared intention and shared vision in empathy-related actions. Upon review of different models that emphasize a shared vision for informing research on empathy, we suggest that a newly developed theory of self, human growth and action–the so-called Inter-Processual Self theory (IPS)–can significantly and novelly inform the theorization on empathy beyond what the literature has stated to date. Then, we show how an understanding of integrity as a relational act that requires empathy is an essential mechanism for current key research on empathy and its related concepts and models. Ultimately, we aim to present IPS as a distinctive proposal to expand upon the conceptualization of empathy.

Changing Kindergarten Teachers' Mindsets Toward Children to Overcome Compassion Fatigue

Introduction

Kindergarten teachers who empathize with toddlers experience a great risk of burnout and emotional disturbance. This is referred to as compassion fatigue, in which teachers' empathy experience is reduced. This study proposed a moderated mediation model to identify the risks of compassion fatigue and its protective factors for developing evidence-based clinical interventions.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, self-report measures were administered to 1049 kindergarten teachers to observe their mindsets toward children, motivation for teacher empathy, job stress, social support, and compassion fatigue. The PROCESS macro (SPSS 23.0) was used to assess the moderated mediation model.

Results

The results demonstrated that motivation for teacher empathy mediated the negative relationship between kindergarten teachers' mindsets toward children and compassion fatigue. Moreover, job stress and social support moderated the relationship between kindergarten teachers' mindsets toward children and motivation for teacher empathy. However, this effect was not observed in the negative relationship between kindergarten teachers' mindsets toward children and compassion fatigue.

Conclusion

The proposed moderated mediation model was found to be valid. Furthermore, the study findings have practical implications for developing evidence-based interventions for addressing kindergarten teachers' compassion fatigue.

Promoting prosocial behavior in an unequal world

Amid a global pandemic and the climate crisis, there is an increasing need to understand how to promote largescale, coordinated action between different groups. Yet certain factors such as inequality can hinder cooperation. We aimed to establish how to orient groups toward a superordinate goal when they have unequal resources. Participants were divided into two 'countries' and asked to assemble LEGO bricks into food (by building pieces in a certain order) to prevent starvation among 'the people'. One 'country' had few LEGO bricks whereas the other had an abundance, and the only way to maximize food creation was for the groups to work together. We assessed the efficacy of three diverse interventions on superordinate behavior and attitudes: compassion meditation training (Study 1), lower inequality (Study 2), and the introduction of a pro-sharing group norm by a confederate (Study 3). Compassion meditation training and altering the degree of inequality between groups did not have a clear effect on collaborative action. Only the introduction of a pro-sharing group norm enhanced sharing behavior, made participants feel more cooperative and reduced fears of being compassionate toward others. Our findings speak to the importance of leadership in promoting coordinated action to address challenges that face the superordinate group.

Determinants of Social Cognitive Aging: Predicting Resilience and Risk

This review focuses on conceptual and empirical research on determinants of social cognitive aging. We present an integrated model [the social cognitive resource (SCoRe) framework] to organize the literature and describe how social cognitive resilience is determined jointly by capacity and motivational resources. We discuss how neurobiological aging, driven by genetic and environmental influences, is associated with broader sensory, neural, and physiological changes that are direct determinants of capacity as well as indirect determinants of motivation via their influence on expectation of loss versus reward and cognitive effort valuation. Research is reviewed that shows how contextual factors, such as relationship status, familiarity, and practice, are fundamental to understanding the availability of both types of resource. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of social cognitive change in late adulthood for everyday social functioning and with recommendations for future research.

Cognitive flexibility as a protective factor for empathy

Although cognitive flexibility has always been considered essential to empathy, the relevant findings have been inconsistent. Inconsistent results may be because cognitive flexibility is a multi-level structure, while empathy is also a multilayer structure, and there are differences in how researchers define and measure cognitive flexibility. Therefore, the study explores the relationship between cognitive flexibility and empathy from a multi-dimensional perspective. This study involved 105 China students aged between 18 and 22 (M age = 20.26, SD = 2.00) who completed the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (cognitive flexibility trait, cognitive flexibility at the individual level), perspective-switching flexibility task (perspective-switching flexibility, cognitive flexibility at the cognitive level), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale (IRI, traits empathy), Multi-dimensional Empathy Test (state empathy), 2-back task (inhibitory control), and Stroop task (working memory). After controlling for additional variables, the results showed that: (1) Cognitive flexibility traits negatively predicted trait cognitive (IRI-PT) and affective empathy (IRI-EC). (2) The Other/Self perspective-switching flexibility negatively predicted the affective component of state empathy. (3) Cognitive flexibility traits and Other/Self perspective-switching flexibility negatively predicted empathy even after controlling for one of these. The study's results suggested that cognitive flexibility negatively predicts empathy and is a protective factor for reducing the cost of empathy and promoting emotion regulation.

Why help others? Insights from rodent to human early childhood research

Helping behavior are actions aiming at assisting another individual in need or to relieve their distress. The occurrence of this behavior not only depends on automated physiological mechanisms, such as imitation or emotional contagion, that is, the individual's emotion and physiological state matching with others, but also needs motivation to sustain. From a comparative and developmental perspective, we discover that the motivation for helping behavior has a deep foundation both phylogenetically and ontogenetically. For example, empathic concern for others, relieving personal distress and the desire for social contact are universal motivations across rodents, non-human primates and human early childhoods. Therefore, a circle-layered model integrating evidences for motivation for helping behavior from rodent to human early childhood research is proposed: the inner circle contains the emotional-behavioral system and the outer circle contains the affective-cognitive system. The application of this model has significance for both behavioral neuroscience research and cultivating prosocial behavior in human society.

Measuring empathy online and moral disengagement in cyberbullying

This investigation intends to explore how adolescents report empathy in online contexts and moral disengagement in cyberbullying incidents, and how these two constructs are related. To accomplish this goal, three studies were conducted considering the need to develop new instruments to uncover this new approach of measuring empathy and moral disengagement. In the first study, we adapted the Portuguese version of the Empathy Quotient-short form to online contexts, which resulted in the Empathy Quotient in Virtual Contexts (EQVC). We also developed the Process Moral Disengagement in Cyberbullying Inventory (PMDCI), in order to assess moral disengagement in these specific situations. In the second study we conducted exploratory factor analyses (N = 234) of these instruments. Finally, in the third study, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses (N = 345) of both instruments. These results showed how adolescents reported empathy in online contexts and moral disengagement in cyberbullying incidents. Specifically, empathy revealed a bi-dimensional structure including difficulty and self-efficacy in empathizing (Cronbach's α = 0.44, 0.83, respectively), whereas process moral disengagement revealed four unidimensional questionnaires including locus of behavior, agency, outcome, and recipient (Cronbach's α = 0.76, 0.65, 0.77, 0.69, respectively). Furthermore, a correlational analysis was also performed of both constructs, and we also considered the variable sex. Results showed that difficulty in empathizing was negatively associated with sex (with girls revealing more difficulty than boys) and all moral disengagement mechanisms except for behavior. Moral disengagement was positively correlated with sex, suggesting boys morally disengaged more from cyberbullying. The instruments provided new insights on how empathy and moral disengagement can be specific to online contexts and cyberbullying situations, and how they can be used in educational programs to promote empathy and gain insight on moral disengagement within this phenomenon.

Using performance art to promote intergroup prosociality by cultivating the belief that empathy is unlimited

Empathy is important for resolving intergroup conflicts. However, people often tend to feel less empathy toward people who do not belong to their social group (i.e., outgroup members). We propose that this tendency is due, in part, to the belief that empathy is a limited resource. To overcome this issue, we develop an intervention synthesizing psychology and art to increase the belief that empathy is unlimited. In six studies (n = 2118), we find that the more people believe empathy is limited, the less outgroup empathy they experience. Moreover, leading people to believe that empathy is unlimited increase outgroup empathy, leads to greater support for prosocial actions toward outgroup members, and encourages more empathic behaviors toward outgroup members in face-to-face intergroup interactions. These intervention effects are observed across various intergroup contexts involving different ethnic, national, religious, and political groups. Thus, changing beliefs about empathy may improve intergroup relations, and conveying this belief through art may promote social change.

The (un)learning of social functions and its significance for mental health

Social interactions are dynamic, context-dependent, and reciprocal events that influence prospective strategies and require constant practice and adaptation. This complexity of social interactions creates several research challenges. We propose a new framework encouraging future research to investigate not only individual differences in capacities relevant for social functioning and their underlying mechanisms, but also the flexibility to adapt or update one's social abilities. We suggest three key capacities relevant for social functioning: (1) social perception, (2) sharing emotions or empathizing, and (3) mentalizing. We elaborate on how adaptations in these capacities may be investigated on behavioral and neural levels. Research on these flexible adaptations of one's social behavior is needed to specify how humans actually "learn to be social". Learning to adapt implies plasticity of the relevant brain networks involved in the underlying social processes, indicating that social abilities are malleable for different contexts. To quantify such measures, researchers need to find ways to investigate learning through dynamic changes in adaptable social paradigms and examine several factors influencing social functioning within the three aformentioned social key capacities. This framework furthers insight concerning individual differences, provides a holistic approach to social functioning, and may improve interventions for ameliorating social abilities in patients.

Perceptions of Behaviors Associated with ASD in Others: Knowledge of the Diagnosis Increases Empathy and Improves Perceptions of Warmth and Competence

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often exhibit atypical social behaviors that some may perceive as odd or discomforting. Given that ASD is largely invisible, it may be difficult to understand why a person is displaying these atypical behaviors, leading to less favorable attitudes. The current study aimed to examine if having an explanation for an individual exhibiting behaviors associated with ASD could improve perceptions of warmth and competence, as well as the amount of empathy felt towards the individual. Participants (n = 82) were presented with a scenario involving two people, one of whom exhibited behaviors consistent with ASD. ASD diagnosis information was manipulated, such that half of the participants were told that the target was diagnosed with ASD, and the other half were given no diagnostic information. Afterwards, participants rated the target. Results indicated that having an explanation for the ASD-related behaviors led to higher ratings of warmth and competence and greater feelings of empathy. Furthermore, empathy mediated the relationship between having the diagnostic information and target ratings. Thus, having an explanation for someone’s behavior may lead to greater feelings of empathy and improve perceptions and understanding. This has important implications for improving education and awareness about behaviors associated with ASD as well as for making the decision of whether or not to disclose one’s diagnosis.

The role of executive functions, social cognition and intelligence in predicting social adaptation of vulnerable populations

This study sought to evaluate the roles of and interactions between cognitive processes that have been shown to exhibit impact from socioeconomic status (SES) and living conditions in predicting social adaptation (SA) in a population of adults living in socially vulnerable conditions. Participants included 226 people between the ages of 18 and 60 who have been living in vulnerable contexts throughout life in Santiago, Chile. Data was collected through a battery of psychological assessments. A structural equation model (SEM) was implemented to examine the interrelationships among cognitive and social variables. Results indicate a significant relationship between executive function (EF) and SA through both social cognition (SC) and intelligence. Theory of Mind (ToM), a component of SC, was shown to exhibit a significant relationship with affective empathy; interestingly, this was negatively related to SA. Moreover, fluid intelligence (FI) was found to exhibit a positive, indirect relationship with SA through crystallized intelligence (CI). Evaluation of these results in the context of research on the impacts of SES and vulnerable living conditions on psychological function may allow for the development of more effective clinical, political, and social interventions to support psychosocial health among socially vulnerable populations.

Placebo Analgesia Reduces Costly Prosocial Helping to Lower Another Person's Pain

Painkiller administration lowers pain empathy, but whether this also reduces prosocial behavior is unknown. In this preregistered study, we investigated whether inducing analgesia through a placebo painkiller reduced effortful helping. When given the opportunity to reduce the pain of another person, individuals experiencing placebo analgesia (n = 45 adults from Austria; 21 male, 24 female) made fewer prosocial choices at the lowest helping level and exerted less physical effort when helping, compared with controls whose pain sensitivity was unaltered (n = 45; 21 male, 24 female). Self-reported empathic unpleasantness positively correlated with prosocial choices across the whole sample. While not replicating group differences in empathy, a mediation analysis revealed that the level of unpleasantness to other people's pain fully mediated the effect of placebo analgesia on prosocial choices. Given the importance of prosociality for social cohesion, these findings have broad potential implications both for individuals under the influence of painkillers and for society at large.

Closing the empathy gap towards equitable outcomes: gender equity in the medical workforce

Background

Empathy failures lead to equity failures. Women and men physicians experience work differently. Men physicians, however, may be unaware how these differences impact their colleagues. This constitutes an empathy gap; empathy gaps are associated with harm to outgroups. In our previous published work, we found that men had divergent views from women about the experiences of women relating to gender equity; senior men differed most from junior women. Since men physicians hold disproportionately more leadership roles than women, this empathy gap warrants exploration and remediation.

Analysis

Gender, age, motivation and power each seems to influence our empathic tendencies. Empathy, however, is not a static trait. Empathy can be developed and displayed by individuals through their thoughts, words and actions. Leaders can also influence culture by enshrining an empathic disposition in our social and organisation structures.

Conclusions

We outline methods to increase our empathic capacities as individuals and organisations through perspective-taking, perspective-giving and verbal commitments to institutional empathy. In doing so, we challenge all medical leaders to herald an empathic transformation of our medical culture in pursuit of a more equitable and pluralistic workplace for all groups of people.

Cognitive effort for self, strangers, and charities

Effort is aversive and often avoided, even when earning benefits for oneself. Yet, people sometimes work hard for others. How do people decide who is worth their effort? Prior work shows people avoid physical effort for strangers relative to themselves, but invest more physical effort for charity. Here, we find that people avoid cognitive effort for others relative to themselves, even when the cause is a personally meaningful charity. In two studies, participants repeatedly decided whether to invest cognitive effort to gain financial rewards for themselves and others. In Study 1, participants (N = 51; 150 choices) were less willing to invest cognitive effort for a charity than themselves. In Study 2, participants (N = 47; 225 choices) were more willing to work cognitively for a charity than an intragroup stranger, but again preferred cognitive exertion that benefited themselves. Computational modeling suggests that, unlike prior physical effort findings, cognitive effort discounted the subjective value of rewards linearly. Exploratory machine learning analyses suggest that people who represented others more similarly to themselves were more willing to invest effort on their behalf, opening up new avenues for future research.

Cognitive cost of empathizing with mothers and strangers by Chinese college students

Background

Empathy is a choice and the product of a dynamic decision process based on motivation. The value trade-off in empathy is object-specific and people are more likely to empathize with ingroup, especially empathize with whom we are particularly concerned. The mother is an integral part of the self-concept, but the status of the mother in the self-concept of the eastern and western subjects was different. Previous studies have shown that mother is integrated in self-concept and share the same motivational hierarchy with self in Chinese brain.

Objectives

The study's purpose is to investigate the empathic choice for mothers in Chinese culture and its regulatory mechanism.

Methods

Three experiments were conducted to investigate whether Chinese college students would choose to empathize with their mothers. Experiment 1 used the Empathy Selection Task to examine the empathic choices between mother-other and stranger-other conditions with two blocks of 50 trials, and used the NASA Task Load Index to evaluate the cognitive costs for each deck option presented; Experiment 2 induced a disagreeable emotional state and replicate the same conditions of the experiment 1; Experiment 3 induced an agreeable emotional state and replicate the same conditions of the experiment one.

Results and conclusions

The results showed that: (1) participants tended to avoid empathizing with their mothers and strangers for to the cognitive cost; (2) participants were more likely to choose empathy when the target was their mother rather than when the target was a stranger-other, due to the social reward; and (3) participants were more likely to opt to empathize with their mothers when positive emotions towards their mothers were primed. The results suggested that empathy is a choice and the product of a dynamic decision process based on motivation and the value trade-off in empathy is object-specific.

Heavier Lies Her Crown: Gendered Patterns of Leader Emotional Labor and Their Downstream Effects

Women use power in more prosocial ways than men and they also engage in more emotional labor (i.e., self-regulate their emotions to respond and attend to the needs and emotions of other people in a way that advances organizational goals). However, these two constructs have not been previously connected. We propose that gendered emotional labor practices and pressures result in gender differences in the prosocial use of power. We integrate the literature on emotional labor with research on the psychology of power to articulate three routes through which this happens. First, women may be more adept than men at the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes entailed in emotional labor practices—a skill that they can apply at all hierarchical levels. Second, given women’s stronger internal motivation to perform emotional labor, they construe power in a more interdependent manner than men, which promotes a more prosocial use of power. As a result, female powerholders tend to behave in more prosocial ways. Third, when they have power, women encounter stronger external motivation to engage in emotional labor, which effectively constrains powerful women’s behaviors in a way that fosters a more prosocial use of power. We discuss how, by promoting prosocial behavior among powerholders, emotional labor can be beneficial for subordinates and organizations (e.g., increase employee well-being and organizational trust), while simultaneously creating costs for individual powerholders, which may reduce women’s likelihood of actually attaining and retaining power by (a) making high-power roles less appealing, (b) guiding women toward less prestigious and (c) more precarious leadership roles, (d) draining powerful women’s time and resources without equitable rewards, and (e) making it difficult for women to legitimize their power in the eyes of subordinates (especially men). Thus, emotional labor practices can help explain the underrepresentation of women in top leadership positions.

Motivated Down-Regulation of Emotion and Compassion Collapse Revisited

Compassion collapse is a phenomenon where feelings and helping behavior decrease as the number of needy increases. But what are the underlying mechanisms for compassion collapse? Previous research has attempted to pit two explanations: Limitations of the feeling system vs. motivated down-regulation of emotion, against each other. In this article, we critically reexamine a previous study comparing these two accounts published in 2011 and present new data that contest motivated down-regulation of emotion as the primary explanation for compassion collapse.

Socially Assistive Robots as Storytellers That Elicit Empathy

Empathy is the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences; it influences how people interact and relate. Socially assistive robots (SAR) are a promising means of conveying and eliciting empathy toward facilitating human-robot interaction. This work examines factors that influence the amount of empathy elicited by a SAR storyteller and users’ perceptions of that robot. We conducted an empirical mixed-design study (N=46) using an autonomous SAR storyteller that told three stories, each with a different human or robot target of empathy. The robot storyteller used the first-person narrative voice (1PNV) with half of the participants and the third-person narrative voice (3PNV) with the other half. We found that the SAR storyteller elicited significantly more empathy when the story target of empathy matched the SAR narrator, i.e., was also a robot. Additionally, the 1PNV robot elicited significantly more empathy and was perceived as more human-like, easy to interact with, and trustworthy than the 3PNV robot. Finally, participants who empathized more with the robot displayed facial expressions consistent with the emotional story content. These insights inform the design of SAR storytellers capable of eliciting empathy toward creating compelling and effective human-robot interactions.

Why we Should Reject the Restrictive Isomorphic Matching Definition of Empathy

A growing cadre of influential scholars has converged on a circumscribed definition of empathy as restricted only to feeling the same emotion that one perceives another is feeling. We argue that this restrictive isomorphic matching (RIM) definition is deeply problematic because (1) it deviates dramatically from traditional conceptualizations of empathy and unmoors the construct from generations of scientific research and clinical practice; (2) insistence on an isomorphic form undercuts much of the functional value of empathy from multiple perspectives of analysis; and (3) combining the opposing concepts of isomorphic matching and self-other awareness implicitly requires motivational content, causing the RIM definition to implicitly require the kind of non-matching emotional content that it explicitly seeks to exclude.

Decision neuroscience and neuroeconomics: Recent progress and ongoing challenges

In the past decade, decision neuroscience and neuroeconomics have developed many new insights in the study of decision making. This review provides an overarching update on how the field has advanced in this time period. Although our initial review a decade ago outlined several theoretical, conceptual, methodological, empirical, and practical challenges, there has only been limited progress in resolving these challenges. We summarize significant trends in decision neuroscience through the lens of the challenges outlined for the field and review examples where the field has had significant, direct, and applicable impacts across economics and psychology. First, we review progress on topics including reward learning, explore-exploit decisions, risk and ambiguity, intertemporal choice, and valuation. Next, we assess the impacts of emotion, social rewards, and social context on decision making. Then, we follow up with how individual differences impact choices and new exciting developments in the prediction and neuroforecasting of future decisions. Finally, we consider how trends in decision-neuroscience research reflect progress toward resolving past challenges, discuss new and exciting applications of recent research, and identify new challenges for the field. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Reasoning and Decision Making Psychology > Emotion and Motivation.

French drivers' behavior: Do psychological resources and vulnerabilities matter?

INTRODUCTION

Driving is a risky activity, and road users' behavior is one of the many factors that participate in increasing the risk of road-traffic crashes. Drivers must constantly adapt their behavior to the environment and control their vehicles, and must also anticipate the behavior of others, which may pose a threat to their own safety. Interactions between road users can therefore be stressful and elicit strong negative emotions. Psychological resources and vulnerabilities may be important in understanding how drivers perceive and respond to these driving interactions. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of empathy, self-compassion, personal distress, and alexithymia in both dangerous and prosocial driving behaviors.

METHOD

Our sample (N = 550) of French drivers was recruited via snowball sampling. The drivers filled in paper-and-pencil questionnaires including the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ), the French adaptation of the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (Short-FTEQ), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), the Self-Compassion Scale - Short Form (SCS-SF), and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).

RESULTS

After controlling for gender and age, regression analyses revealed that road traffic violations were positively predicted by alexithymia and negatively predicted by cognitive empathy; errors were positively predicted by alexithymia and personal distress, and prosocial driving was positively predicted by emotional and cognitive empathy. A two-step cluster analysis identified three groups of drivers: unsafe and psychologically vulnerable (n = 176), self-focused and less prosocial (n = 151), and safe and resourceful (n = 223).

CONCLUSIONS

Empathy seems to promote safe driving behaviors. Moreover, cognitive empathy appears to safeguard drivers against deliberate violations, whereas psychological vulnerabilities seem to increase the probability of engaging in dangerous behaviors. Practical Applications: These results could open new research avenues for the prevention of dangerous driving behaviors and the promotion of road safety.

Adaptive Empathy: A Model for Learning Empathic Responses in Response to Feedback

Empathy is usually deployed in social interactions. Nevertheless, common measures and examinations of empathy study this construct in isolation from the person in distress. In this article we seek to extend the field of examination to include both empathizer and target to determine whether and how empathic responses are affected by feedback and learned through interaction. Building on computational approaches in feedback-based adaptations (e.g., no feedback, model-free and model-based learning), we propose a framework for understanding how empathic responses are learned on the basis of feedback. In this framework, adaptive empathy, defined as the ability to adapt one's empathic responses, is a central aspect of empathic skills and can provide a new dimension to the evaluation and investigation of empathy. By extending existing neural models of empathy, we suggest that adaptive empathy may be mediated by interactions between the neural circuits associated with valuation, shared distress, observation-execution, and mentalizing. Finally, we propose that adaptive empathy should be considered a prominent facet of empathic capabilities with the potential to explain empathic behavior in health and psychopathology.

Empathic choices for animals versus humans: the role of choice context and perceived cost

People appear to empathize with cases of animal suffering yet to disregard such suffering when it conflicts with human needs. In three studies, we used an empathy regulation measure - the empathy selection task - to test whether people choose or avoid sharing in experiences of animals versus humans. In Study 1, when choosing between sharing experiences of animals or humans, participants preferred humans and rated sharing animal (versus human) experiences as more cognitively costly. In Studies 2a-2b, the choice to share experiences or be objective was done without a forced choice between animals and humans. When empathy opportunities for humans and animals were not contrasted against each other, participants avoided experience sharing for humans but not for animals. Manipulations of prosocial cost in these studies did not consistently moderate choice differences. Freeing people from contexts that pit empathy for animals against empathy for humans may diminish motivated disregard of animals' experiences.