The development of cognitive empathy and concern in preschool children: A behavioral neuroscience investigation

This developmental neuroscience study examined the electrophysiological responses (EEG and ERPs) associated with perspective taking and empathic concern in preschool children, as well as their relation to parental empathy dispositions and children's own prosocial behavior. Consistent with a body of previous studies using stimuli depicting somatic pain in both children and adults, larger early (~200 ms) ERPs were identified when perceiving painful versus neutral stimuli. In the slow wave window (~800 ms), a significant interaction of empathy condition and stimulus type was driven by a greater difference between painful and neutral images in the empathic concern condition. Across early development, children exhibited enhanced N2 to pain when engaging in empathic concern. Greater pain‐elicited N2 responses in the cognitive empathy condition also related to parent dispositional empathy. Children's own prosocial behavior was predicted by several individual differences in neural function, including larger early LPP responses during cognitive empathy and greater differentiation in late LPP and slow wave responses to empathic concern versus affective perspective taking. Left frontal activation (greater alpha suppression) while engaging in affective perspective taking was also related to higher levels of parent cognitive empathy. Together, this multilevel analysis demonstrates the important distinction between facets of empathy in children; the value of examining neurobehavioral processes in development. It provides provoking links between children's neural functioning and parental dispositions in early development.     

自恋与攻击行为的关系:观点采择和共情关注的调节作用

为考察自恋对攻击行为的影响以及观点采择和共情关注在其中的调节效应,采用自恋人格问卷、人际反应指针量表和简版Buss-Perry攻击问卷,对562名大学生进行调查。结果发现:(1)自恋显著正向预测攻击行为;(2)观点采择和共情关注均可负向调节自恋与攻击行为的关系,两者都能显著抑制高自恋者的攻击行为,却无法影响低自恋者的攻击行为。因此,提高观点采择和增强共情关注是减少高自恋者攻击行为的重要途径。     

The role of hope in conflict management and relational maintenance

Rooted in hope theory, this study examined how dispositional and relationship‐specific hope influence communication in romantic relationships. In Study 1a, dispositional hope was positively associated with active and constructive conflict responses and negatively associated with passive and destructive conflict responses. In Study 1b, dispositional hope was mainly a positive predictor of active and constructive responses. Hope was also found to predict certain relational maintenance behaviors. Study 2 then examined the influence of hope in specific relational conflict episodes. Dispositional and relationship‐specific hope predicted unique variance in conflict goals and styles. High‐ relative to low‐hope individuals reported more prorelationship goals and fewer hostility‐domination goals. They also reported greater integrative problem solving and less personal attacking, withdrawal, and third‐party assistance.     

Empathic distress and concern predict aggression in toddlerhood: The moderating role of sex

Impaired empathy is an important risk factor of aggression, but results are contradictory in toddlerhood. The association between empathy and aggression may differ for empathic distress and empathic concern in response to empathy-evoking situations, and for boys and girls. Therefore, the current study investigated whether empathic distress and empathic concern at age 20 months (N = 133, 69 boys) predicted aggression at ages 20 and 30 months (N = 119, 62 boys), while taking a potential moderating effect of sex into account. Empathic behavior was observed during a distress simulation task 20 months post-partum. Physical aggression was assessed through maternal report, using the Physical Aggression Scale for Early Childhood. Linear regression analyses revealed sex differences in the associations between empathic distress and concern on the one hand and physical aggression at age 20 months on the other. Furthermore, physical aggression at age 30 months was predicted by the interaction of sex with empathic distress at age 20 months, while controlling for aggression at age 20 months. More empathic distress and concern were associated with less physical aggression in girls, but not in boys. The findings indicate that the prediction of physical aggression by empathic distress was more robust over time than for empathic concern. This study sheds new light on the intricate relationship between empathy, aggression, and sex from a developmental perspective.     

Avoiding affect in intergroup relations: The roles of dispositional and intergroup empathy in the relationship between alexithymia and prejudice

Alexithymia, that is, difficulties in recognizing, communicating, and processing one's own emotions, is associated with poorer interpersonal relations. Emotional processes are key drivers and mechanisms of prejudice and its reduction, and alexithymia is thought to influence individuals' empathic responses. This research examined the relationship between alexithymia and prejudice, and the role of empathy in this relationship. Three studies were conducted in three intergroup contexts to test whether alexithymia is also associated with poorer intergroup relations with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender+ individuals (Study 1, N = 126 heterosexual late adolescents) and Asian British people (Study 3, N = 300 White adults) in the United Kingdom, and immigrants in Italy (Study 2, N = 381 Italian adults). Participants completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), measures on dispositional and intergroup empathic concern (EC) and perspective taking (PT) as well as measures of prejudice (anti-outgroup hostility, anti-outgroup attitudes, and anti-outgroup behavioral intentions). Lower dispositional EC (Studies 1, marginal effect in Study 2) and intergroup EC and PT (Study 3) mediated the relationship between the Externally Oriented Thinking subscale of the TAS-20 (i.e., avoiding emotions and affective thinking) and greater prejudice. The findings are important for understanding the challenges of late adolescents and adults with alexithymia in intergroup relations, highlighting the role of dispositional and intergroup empathy for individual differences such as alexithymia in endorsing prejudice.     

The Relationship Between Perspective-Taking and Nonaggressive Responding in the Face of an Attack

Perspective-taking functions as an inhibitor of interpersonal aggression and as a facilitator of prosocial behavior. The present study examined the extent to which perspective-taking enhances nonaggressive responses in a situation in which people typically make aggressive responses. It also examined the relationship between perspective-taking and response to interpersonal context. Subjects participated in a reaction-time task in which they could respond either aggressively or nonaggressively in two different interpersonal contexts (i.e., the target either increased or decreased provocation during the interaction). As predicted, perspective-taking was related to the inhibition of aggressive responding and the facilitation of nonaggressive responding. In general, perspective-taking was associated with less aggression, including relatively more positive and fewer negative responses. This was especially the case in the interpersonal context in which the target had increased provocation across the trials of the task.     

Why Narcissists are Unwilling to Apologize: The Role of Empathy and Guilt

We hypothesized that narcissists would be unwilling to apologize for their interpersonal transgressions, and that reduced levels of self‐reported empathy and guilt would serially mediate this effect. Narcissism is characterized by little empathy for the victim, which reduces guilt about one's transgressions. Low guilt, in turn, is associated with unwillingness to apologize. In Study 1, we assessed dispositional narcissism, empathy, guilt, and willingness to apologize. In Study 2, we assessed dispositional narcissism and obtained state measures of empathy, guilt, and willingness to apologize. In Study 3, we manipulated narcissism and collected state measures of empathy, guilt, and willingness to apologize. Narcissism was negatively associated with (Studies 1–2) and decreased (Study 3) willingness to apologize, with this link being explained (i.e., serially mediated) by low empathy and guilt. Finally, in Study 4, we showed that antagonistic narcissism (i.e., narcissistic rivalry), but not agentic narcissism (i.e., narcissistic admiration), was negatively associated with willingness to apologize and apologizing behaviour. In all, narcissists are unwilling to apologize for their transgressions, as they experience little empathy for their victims and lower guilt. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Prosocial behaviour mediates the relation between empathy and aggression in primary school children

ABSTRACT

The negative association between empathy and aggression has been widely investigated in the literature. However, the role of potential mediators and the extent to which their effects are gender-specific have been given considerably less attention. The present cross-sectional study was therefore aimed at examining the direct and indirect relations between empathy (differentiated into perspective taking and empathic concern), prosocial behaviour and aggression in a sample of 240 primary school children between 8 and 12 years of age. The results showed that perspective taking and empathic concern had indirect (rather than direct) negative effects on aggression by enhancing prosocial behaviour. These indirect paths applied equally well to boys and girls, although significant gender differences were observed in empathic concern, prosocial behaviour and aggression. Possible explanations and differences with previous studies are discussed.     

Exhausting or exhilarating? Conflict as threat to interests,relationships and identities

Some conflicts are experienced as depleting and exhausting whereas others are experienced as stimulating and invigorating. We explored the possibility that the focus of perceived threat in conflict determines whether it produces taxing stress or vitalizing arousal. Studies 1 and 2 established that attending to threats to interests, relationships, and identities during interpersonal conflict differentially relates to motivational goals, empathy and perspective-taking, femininity, and a collectivistic self-construal. Study 2 also found that perceived threats to relationships are associated with lower challenge appraisals and energy mobilization. Studies 3 and 4 experimentally manipulated threats to different targets and demonstrated causal effects of threat perceptions on self-reported energy mobilization and the consumption of comfort foods. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that conflicts which threaten relationships are experienced as significantly more depleting than conflicts that threaten either tangible interests or elements of individuals' identities, and explain when, why and for whom conflict is exhausting.     

观点采择对高中教师共情反应的影响:共情倾向的中介作用

为了探讨观点采择与共情倾向对高中教师共情反应的影响,164名高中教师完成了人际反应指数量表,并在三种不同的观点采择指导语下完成共情反应问卷。结果表明:(1)观点采择通过指导语操作检验有效;(2)情感观点采择下的共情反应显著高于认知观点采择下的共情反应;认知观点采择下的共情反应显著高于技术观点采择下的共情反应;(3)情感观点采择通过共情倾向的部分中介作用对共情反应产生影响,认知观点采择通过共情倾向的完全中介作用对共情反应产生影响。     

Empathy, Shame, Guilt, and Narratives of Interpersonal Conflicts: Guilt-Prone People Are Better at Perspective Taking

Both guilt and empathic perspective taking have been linked to prosocial, relationship-enhancing effects. Study 1 found that shame was linked to personal distress, whereas guilt was linked to perspective taking. In Studies 2 and 3, subjects were asked to describe a recent experience of interpersonal conflict, once from their own perspective, and once from the perspective of the other person. Guilt-prone people and guilt-dominated stories were linked to better perspective taking (measured by changes between the two versions of the story) than others. Shame had no effect. Guilt improved relationship outcomes but shame harmed them. Path analysis suggested that trait guilt-proneness leads to perspective taking, which leads to actual guilt feelings, which produces beneficial relationship outcomes. Guilt feelings may mediate the relationship-enhancing effects of empathy.     

Embarrassment and empathy before helping: How internal working models come into play

Prior research has described embarrassment and empathy as predictors of social helping and as self-conscious emotions involving reasoning about the self and others. It remains unclear how cognitive representations of the self and others relate to the two emotions as precursors of social helping. We examined 136 participants’ self-report measures of internal working models as well as dispositional embarrassability, empathic concern, personal distress, and perspective taking. Controlling all the other variables, embarrassability was primarily associated with the model of self and personal distress, whereas empathic concern was primarily associated with the model of others and perspective taking. Moreover, the association between personal distress and embarrassability was moderated by the interaction between models of others and perspective taking. The general proneness to distress arousal was also predicted by the interaction between models of self and others. The findings extended prior research linking internal working models and socio-cognitive emotions associated with helping.     

Lashing Out after Stewing over Public Insults: The Effects of Public Provocation,Provocation Intensity,and Rumination on Triggered Displaced Aggression

Four studies present the first evidence showing that public (vs. private) provocation augments triggered displaced aggression by increasing the perceived intensity of the provocation. This effect is shown to be independent of face‐saving motivation. Following a public or private provocation, Study 1 participants were induced to ruminate or were distracted for 20 min. They then had an opportunity to aggress against another person who either acted in a neutral or mildly annoying fashion (viz. triggering event). As expected, the magnitude of the greater displaced aggression of those who ruminated before the triggering event compared with those distracted was greater under public than private provocation. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 and confirmed that public provocations are experienced as more intense. Studies 3 and 4 both manipulated provocation intensity directly to show that it mediated the moderating effect of public/private provocation found in Study 1. The greater intensity of a public provocation increases reactivity to a subsequent trigger, which in turn, augments triggered displaced aggression. Aggr. Behav. 39:13‐29, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Relational aggression in college students: Examining the roles of social anxiety and empathy

This study examined the unique contributions of social anxiety and empathy to relational aggression in 300 19–to–25–year–old (M=21.25; SD=1.32) male (n=97) and female (n=203) college students using hierarchical linear regression analysis. The interactive relations between gender and social anxiety, and between gender and empathy, were also assessed. In addition to the gender and overt aggression covariates, fear of negative evaluation and perspective taking were unique predictors of relational aggression. Males, students who were more overtly aggressive, and those who reported greater fear of negative evaluation were more relationally aggressive than were peers. Students with higher levels of perspective taking reported using less relational aggression than did peers. A gender x empathetic concern interaction indicated that for males only, lower levels of empathetic concern were associated with higher levels of relational aggression. Results are discussed within a social information‐processing perspective. Aggr. Behav. 29:430–439, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

"I help because I want to, not because you tell me to": empathy increases autonomously motivated helping

Empathetic arousal has been found to be a strong predictor of helping behavior. However, research has neglected the motivational mechanisms whereby empathetic concern elicits help giving. Three studies examined the extent to which autonomous and controlled motives for helping mediated the relationship between empathy and helping. Study 1 found that state empathy predicted willingness to offer time and money to help a person in need, with this relationship mediated by autonomous motivation for helping. Study 2 demonstrated that dispositional, empathetic concern predicted prosocial intentions and behavior via the mediation of autonomous motivation. Study 3 revealed that participants who focused on the emotions of another person in distress reported greater willingness to help than did participants who remained emotionally detached, with this effect mediated by autonomous motivation to help. Controlled motivation had no positive effects on helping in any of the studies. The results suggest that empathy encourages prosocial behavior by increasing autonomous motivation to help.     

Gender Moderates the Relationship Between Empathy and Aggressiveness in Sport: The Mediating Role of Anger

This research investigated whether gender moderates, and anger mediates, the relationship between empathy (i.e., perspective taking and empathic concern) and aggressiveness in sport. In Study 1, perspective taking and empathic concern were negatively associated with aggressiveness, and this effect was stronger in women compared to men. In Study 2, perspective taking was a negative predictor of aggressiveness and antisocial behavior in sport, and anger mediated these relationships in women but not in men. Our findings suggest that empathy and emotion-based strategies targeted at reducing aggressiveness in sport need to be tailored for male and female athletes.     

Effects of alcohol intoxication and aggressivity on aggressive verbalizations during anger arousal

We examined the moderating effect of dispositional aggressivity on the relationship between alcohol intoxication and aggressive verbalizations. Using a laboratory anger-induction task that simulated an interpersonal conflict as a method to assess aggressive verbalizations (the articulated thoughts in simulated situations paradigm), 70 participants (33 women, 37 men) consumed either an alcoholic or a placebo beverage, and then imagined a series of audiorecorded interpersonal scenarios. Two blind-to-condition raters assessed the frequency of participants' aggressive verbalizations (insults, aggressive threats, belligerent provocations) articulated during anger arousal. Aggressivity was assessed using a standard measure of dispositional aggression. Results supported the aggressivity moderation hypothesis: intoxicated participants high in aggressivity responded with significantly more aggressive verbalizations relative to low-aggressivity participants regardless of beverage condition, and three times more aggressive verbalizations relative to the high-aggressivity/placebo group. There were no gender effects. These data support the hypothesis that alcohol potentiates aggression primarily among individuals at dispositional risk for engaging in such a behavior. Aggr. Behav. 34:428-436, 2008. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Effects of sex,status, and mating cues on expected aggressive responses

The effect of sex, status, and mating cues on expected aggression was examined via three scenario‐based studies in which participants imagined themselves in a situation with a same‐sex instigator of a provocation. Participants were randomly assigned to receive a scenario, which included one of two levels of status of instigator (high, low), one of two levels of attractiveness of the instigator (unattractive, attractive), and one of two levels of provocation (apology, insult). Sex and dispositional aggressivity were also included in a full factorial design. Based on evolutionary psychology ideas, we anticipated that status and attractiveness would differentially influence expected aggression for men vs. women. Participants in Experiment 1 were instructed to imagine that they were alone, whereas participants in Experiments 2 and 3 imagined themselves in a situation that included mating‐related primes. In general expected aggression was greater for aggression‐prone participants and under conditions of provocation and/or a high‐status instigator. Experiments 2 and 3 found that, in the context of mate competition, sex differences in the effects of instigator provocation, status, and attractiveness emerged: greater aggressivity now only predicted more aggression for males but not females who were insulted; aggression was highest for females confronting an unattractive, high‐status instigator and for males confronting an attractive, high‐status instigator; females were more likely to aggress against a high‐status instigator, regardless of being in a steady relationship or a first date situation, but males were only more likely to aggress against a high‐status instigator in a first date situation. Aggr. Behav. 35:259–273, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Cross‐Cultural Misunderstandings Reduce Empathic Responding1

An experiment was conducted with American college students to determine whether differences in cultural perspectives might act as an impediment to empathic responding. Participants read about targets who experienced distress in a social context and who assumed a perspective that was consistent or inconsistent with norms typical of U.S. culture. When evaluating targets with a dissimilar as opposed to similar cultural perspective, participants exhibited a lack of perspective taking, perceiving those responses as inappropriate, atypical, and dissimilar to their own likely response in that situation. They also tended to attribute dissimilar targets' distress to dispositional as opposed to situational forces, essentially assigning them more blame. Further, emotional empathy, including feelings of compassion and sympathy were lessened with respect to targets whose responses reflected unfamiliar cultural norms. Path analyses indicated that inadequate appreciation of the different cultural perspective could account for much of the reduction in empathic concern. Results suggest that lack of perspective taking with regard to divergent cultural norms may compromise cross‐cultural exchanges of tolerance and compassion.     

An additional antecedent of empathic concern: valuing the welfare of the person in need

Two experiments examined the role of valuing the welfare of a person in need as an antecedent of empathic concern. Specifically, these experiments explored the relation of such valuing to a well-known antecedent--perspective taking. In Experiment 1, both perspective taking and valuing were manipulated, and each independently increased empathic concern, which, in turn, increased helping behavior. In Experiment 2, only valuing was manipulated. Manipulated valuing increased measured perspective taking and, in part as a result, increased empathic concern, which, in turn, increased helping. Valuing appears to be an important, largely overlooked, situational antecedent of feeling empathy for a person in need.