Empathic people have more friends: Empathic abilities predict social network size and position in social network predicts empathic efforts

Kardos, Péter; Leidner, Bernhard; Pléh, Csaba; Soltész, Péter; Unoka, Zsolt

doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2017.01.004

Cited by 55 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…With an increasingly aging population, it is vital to examine whether social cognition shows the same age-related changes found in other cognitive domains (Hedden & Gabrieli, 2004;Salthouse, 2009). Understanding the impact of age on social cognition is important since social cognition is associated with real-world social functioning such as close social network size (Radecki, Cox, & MacPherson, 2019;Stiller & Dunbar, 2007) and the number of relationships individuals maintain (Kardos, Leidner, Pléh, Soltész, & Unoka, 2017). This is particularly relevant for aging populations due to the high levels of loneliness observed in older adults (Victor & Yang, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Executive Functions do not Underlie Performance on the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

Baksh

Bugeja

MacPherson

2020

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective:Current measures of social cognition have shown inconsistent findings regarding the effects of executive function (EF) abilities on social cognitive performance in older adults. The psychometric properties of the different social cognition tests may underlie the disproportional overlap with EF abilities. Our aim was to examine the relationship between social cognition and EF abilities using the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT; Baksh, R.A., Abrahams, S., Auyeung, B., & MacPherson, S.E. (2018). The Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT): Examining the effects of age on a new measure of theory of mind and social norm understanding. PloS One, 13(4), e0195818.), a test assessing four different aspects of social cognition: cognitive theory of mind (ToM), affective ToM, interpersonal understanding of social norms, and intrapersonal understanding of social norms.Method:We administered the ESCoT, EF measures of inhibition, set shifting, updating, and a measure of processing speed to 30 younger and 31 older adults. We also administered the Visual Perspective Taking task (VPT) as a ToM test thought to be reliant on EF abilities.Results:Better performance on cognitive ToM was significantly associated with younger age and slower processing speed. Better performance on affective ToM and ESCoT total score was associated with being younger and female. Better performance on interpersonal understanding of social norms was associated with being younger. EF abilities did not predict performance on any subtest of the ESCoT. In contrast, on the VPT, the relationship between age group and performance was fully or partially mediated by processing speed and updating.Conclusions:These findings show that the ESCoT is a valuable measure of different aspects of social cognition and, unlike many established tests of social cognition, performance is not predicted by EF abilities.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Executive Functions do not Underlie Performance on the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

Baksh

Bugeja

MacPherson

2020

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Socially valuable others provide high-quality support and minimize others' stress (7)(8)(9)(10). They also tend to be connected to other community members, and close relationships with them can offer a gateway to additional social resources (11,12).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural detection of socially valued community members

Morelli

Leong

Carlson

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As people form social groups, they benefit from being able to detect socially valuable community members-individuals who act prosocially, support others, and form strong relationships. Multidisciplinary evidence demonstrates that people indeed track others' social value, but the mechanisms through which such detection occurs remain unclear. Here, we combine social network and neuroimaging analyses to examine this process. We mapped social networks in two freshman dormitories ( = 97), identifying how often individuals were nominated as socially valuable (i.e., sources of friendship, empathy, and support) by their peers. Next, we scanned a subset of dorm members ("perceivers"; = 50) as they passively viewed photos of their dormmates ("targets"). Perceiver brain activity in regions associated with mentalizing and value computation differentiated between highly valued targets and other community members but did not differentiate between targets with middle versus low levels of social value. Cross-validation analysis revealed that brain activity from novel perceivers could be used to accurately predict whether targets viewed by those perceivers were high in social value or not. These results held even after controlling for perceivers' own ratings of closeness to targets, and even though perceivers were not directed to focus on targets' social value. Overall, these findings demonstrate that individuals spontaneously monitor people identified as sources of strong connection in the broader community.

show abstract

“…Who comes to occupy these central network positions? Recent research suggests that individuals' personalities influence their ability to attract social ties (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11),* but this personality-centrality relationship may vary depending on the type of connection that one uses to define a network. For example, extraverts become more central than introverts in networks defined by friendship (6).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over time, this emotional attunement to others builds trust and intimacy between individuals (24). As such, empathic individuals might gain central positions in networks related to trust (11).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathy and well-being correlate with centrality in different social networks

Morelli

Ong

Makati

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Individuals benefit from occupying central roles in social networks, but little is known about the psychological traits that predict centrality. Across four college freshman dorms (n = 193), we characterized individuals with a battery of personality questionnaires and also asked them to nominate dorm members with whom they had different types of relationships. This revealed several social networks within dorm communities with differing characteristics. In particular, additional data showed that networks varied in the degree to which nominations depend on (i) trust and (ii) shared fun and excitement. Networks more dependent upon trust were further defined by fewer connections than those more dependent on fun. Crucially, network and personality features interacted to predict individuals' centrality: people high in well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and positive emotion) were central to networks characterized by fun, whereas people high in empathy were central to networks characterized by trust. Together, these findings provide network-based corroboration of psychological evidence that well-being is socially attractive, whereas empathy supports close relationships. More broadly, these data highlight how an individual's personality relates to the roles that they play in sustaining their community.social networks | empathy | well-being | centrality | personality I n a community, certain individuals take central roles and are sought out by others for advice, support, fun, and companionship. Central individuals substantially impact the health and well-being of their community (1-4), for example, by reducing stress and generating opportunities for other community members (5). Who comes to occupy these central network positions? Recent research suggests that individuals' personalities influence their ability to attract social ties (6-11),* but this personality-centrality relationship may vary depending on the type of connection that one uses to define a network. For example, extraverts become more central than introverts in networks defined by friendship (6).Past work generally focuses on the relationship between a single personality trait (e.g., extraversion) and centrality in a single network (e.g., friendship networks). However, communities contain multiple networks that are defined by different types of relationships. Individuals might ask for advice from one subset of their community, look for companionship with another subset, and seek emotional support from a third subset (12)(13)(14)(15). This means that an individual could occupy a central role in one type of network, but hold a more peripheral position in a different type of network (2). We study this by first mapping several networks within a community and then by assessing a person's position in a network with respect to a broad array of personality traits. This allows us to identify the features of an individual that predict their centrality in various types of networks.Previous psychological research suggests that an individual's personality might relate t...

show abstract

Empathic people have more friends: Empathic abilities predict social network size and position in social network predicts empathic efforts

Cited by 55 publications

References 40 publications

Executive Functions do not Underlie Performance on the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

Executive Functions do not Underlie Performance on the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

Neural detection of socially valued community members

Empathy and well-being correlate with centrality in different social networks

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About