Are strong empathizers better mentalizers? Evidence for independence and interaction between the routes of social cognition

Abstract

Although the processes that underlie sharing others' emotions (empathy) and understanding others' mental states (mentalizing, Theory of Mind) have received increasing attention, it is yet unclear how they relate to each other. For instance, are people who strongly empathize with others also more proficient in mentalizing? And (how) do the neural networks supporting empathy and mentalizing interact? Assessing both functions simultaneously in a large sample (N = 178), we show that people's capacities to empathize and mentalize are independent, both on a behavioral and neural level. Thus, strong empathizers are not necessarily proficient mentalizers, arguing against a general capacity of social understanding. Second, we applied dynamic causal modeling to investigate how the neural networks underlying empathy and mentalizing are orchestrated in naturalistic social settings. Results reveal that in highly emotional situations, empathic sharing can inhibit mentalizing-related activity and thereby harm mentalizing performance. Taken together, our findings speak against a unitary construct of social understanding and suggest flexible interplay of distinct social functions.

Effects of compassion training on brain responses to suffering others

“…These supports the view that CM induces changes in affective and motivational processes. At the same time, cognitive and affective processes interact in empathy (Ashar, Andrews-Hanna, Dimidjian, et al, 2016; Kanske, Bockler, Trautwein, Lesemann, & Singer, 2016), and, our results cannot disambiguate between processes that are activated during the practice of CM vs. the outcome of CM (Dahl et al, 2016). Further, since CM represents a family of meditation practices, there may be substantial variability among different CM implementations (e.g., Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (Pace et al, 2009) may preferentially impact more cognitive processes).…”

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) item analysis of empathy and theory of mind

“…Importantly, even though both functions are essential elements of higher‐level social processing, they are not directly related. The independence of empathy and ToM processing was demonstrated on the behavioral and the neural level (Kanske, Böckler, Trautwein, Parianen Lesemann, & Singer, ).…”

Empathic Care and Distress: Predictive Brain Markers and Dissociable Brain Systems

“…Distinctions among multiple systems are central to recent conceptualizations of empathy and compassion (Ashar, Andrews-Hanna, Dimidjian, & Wager, 2016; de Waal, 2008; Kanske, Böckler, Trautwein, Lesemann, & Singer, 2016; Shamay-Tsoory, Aharon-Peretz, & Perry, 2009; Singer & Klimecki, 2014; Zaki & Ochsner, 2012). An ‘affective empathy’ system is believed to support the sharing or simulation of others’ affective experiences, often leading to personal distress for the empathizer.…”