How heritable is empathy? Differential effects of measurement and subcomponents

Empathy is an important psychological concept influencing social interaction. However, knowledge about its etiological components is still scarce. Estimates for the heritability of empathy range between 0 and 70 % depending on the sample, method of measurement, and level of aggregation. In this study, we investigated the heritability of empathy using an extended twin design. We employed the self-report questionnaire Interpersonal Reactivity Index and an emotion recognition task (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test). N = 742 twins and non-twin siblings were investigated. For affective empathy and the behavioral paradigm, we found heritability estimates between 52 and 57 %. For cognitive empathy, genetic variance was smaller (27 %), indicating that the heritability of empathy depends on the measured subcomponent, which could be relevant for intervention programs like empathy or compassion trainings. Environmental influences on empathy are mainly effects of non-shared environment, which is an important finding for our understanding of the development of empathy.     

Action Type-Based Factorial Structure of Brief COPE among Hong Kong Chinese

Brief COPE (Carver in International journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4(1), 92–100, 1997) is a multidimensional scale that measures situational and dispositional coping responses. This study evaluated its factor structure and psychometric properties using two Hong Kong college samples (Sample 1; n = 204 & Sample 2; n = 221). Results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that an eleven-factor model, based on action goals (Skinner et al. in Psychological Bulletin, 129(2), 216, 2003), demonstrated a good fit across the two samples. The eleven-factor model fit the data better than five alternative models. We also validated a Traditional Chinese translation of the scale. Multiple-groups CFAs indicated partial scalar invariance across the English and Chinese versions in Hong Kong participants. Nonetheless, convergent validity was supported by the associations between the scores of some, but not all, of the dimensions and related psychological constructs, including psychological distress, optimism, and locus of control. Such associations might help differentiate conceptually distinct coping dimensions. Likewise, our results provided support for the reliability of some, but not all, of the subscale scores. In sum, our results support the multidimensionality of Brief COPE and the use of some of the measure’s factors and subscales. Moreover, Brief COPE and its translated version demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in Hong Kong Chinese.     

Aberrant Parasympathetic Stress Responsivity in Pure and Co-Occurring Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) are highly comorbid; we know little, however, about the shared physiological features of these disorders. In the present study, we examined whether aberrant parasympathetic stress responsivity represents a transdiagnostic process in MDD, GAD, and co-occurring MDD-GAD. Adult women diagnosed with MDD only, GAD only, and co-occurring MDD-GAD and never-disordered controls (CTLs) completed a standardized laboratory task that involved anticipating, confronting, and recovering from a social stressor. Participants’ levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured to index parasympathetic responses. The three clinical groups combined (participants with MDD only, GAD only, and co-occurring MDD-GAD) exhibited a similar pattern of RSA responsivity that differed significantly from that of the CTL group. Specifically, whereas CTL participants exhibited a sharp decrease in RSA when confronting the stressor and a sharp increase in RSA when recovering immediately following the stressor, the clinical participants exhibited a blunted response pattern that involved weaker fluctuations in RSA when confronting and recovering from the stressor. There were no significant differences among the three clinical groups in RSA responses. Interestingly, clinical and CTL participants did not differ in self-reported fluctuations in negative emotional arousal. Finally, for clinical participants patterns of RSA reactivity to the acute stressor were associated differentially with trait rumination and worry as maladaptive forms of emotion regulation. These findings support the formulation that aberrant parasympathetic stress responsivity is a shared feature of MDD, GAD, and co-occurring MDD-GAD that is characterized by diminished reactivity to and recovery from stress.     

Uncovering Uncertainty through Disagreement

This study explored the association between different types of brief disagreements and subsequent levels of expressed psychological uncertainty, a fundamental cognitive aspect of complex problem solving. We examined 11 hours (11 861 utterances) of conversations in expert science teams, sampled across the first 90 days of the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Utterances were independently coded for micro‐conflicts and expressed psychological uncertainty. Using time‐lagged hierarchical linear modeling applied to blocks of 25 utterances, we found that micro‐conflicts regarding rover planning were followed by greater uncertainty. Brief disagreements about science issues were followed by an increase in expressed uncertainty early in the mission. Examining the potential reverse temporal association, uncertainty actually predicted fewer subsequent disagreements, ruling out indirect, third variable associations of conflict and uncertainty. Overall, these findings suggest that some forms of disagreement may serve to uncover important areas of uncertainty in complex teamwork, perhaps via revealing differences in mental models.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Believing in a personal just world helps maintain well-being at work by coloring organizational justice perceptions

Justice is a core fundamental theme for individuals in organizations. This study suggests that believing the world is just where one gets what one deserves, and deserves what one gets, is an important personal resource that helps maintain well-being at work. Further, it suggests that personal belief in a just world, but not general belief in a just world, exerts its influence on well-being through increasing overall justice perceptions of the work environment. Using two waves of data drawn from a large random sample of working adults in Switzerland, results showed that personal belief in a just world at time 1 indeed augmented perceptions of overall organizational justice, and this in turn increased job satisfaction at time 2, that is, 1 year later. As expected, this effect was only evident for personal and not general belief in a just world, highlighting personal belief in a just world as an important yet largely overlooked resource for the work context, and suggesting the need to consider individual’s beliefs about justice as drivers of overall organizational justice perceptions.     

Altered behavioral and neural responsiveness to counterfactual gains in the elderly

Counterfactual information processing refers to the consideration of events that did not occur in comparison to those actually experienced, in order to determine optimal actions, and can be formulated as computational learning signals, referred to as fictive prediction errors. Decision making and the neural circuitry for counterfactual processing are altered in healthy elderly adults. This experiment investigated age differences in neural systems for decision making with knowledge of counterfactual outcomes. Two groups of healthy adult participants, young (N = 30; ages 19–30 years) and elderly (N = 19; ages 65–80 years), were scanned with fMRI during 240 trials of a strategic sequential investment task in which a particular strategy of differentially weighting counterfactual gains and losses during valuation is associated with more optimal performance. Elderly participants earned significantly less than young adults, differently weighted counterfactual consequences and exploited task knowledge, and exhibited altered activity in a fronto-striatal circuit while making choices, compared to young adults. The degree to which task knowledge was exploited was positively correlated with modulation of neural activity by expected value in the vmPFC for young adults, but not in the elderly. These findings demonstrate that elderly participants’ poor task performance may be related to different counterfactual processing.     

Effects of mineralocorticoid receptor blockade on empathy in patients with major depressive disorder

Background

The mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) is highly expressed in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex and is involved in social cognition. We recently found that pharmacological stimulation of the MR enhances emotional empathy but does not affect cognitive empathy. In the current study, we examined whether blockade of the MR impairs empathy in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy individuals.

Methods

In a placebo-controlled study, we randomized 28 patients with MDD without psychotropic medication and 43 healthy individuals to either placebo or 300 mg spironolactone, a MR antagonist. Subsequently, all participants underwent two tests of social cognition, the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) and the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC), measuring cognitive and emotional facets of empathy.

Results

In the MET, we found no significant main effect of treatment or main effect of group for cognitive empathy but a highly significant treatment by group interaction (p < 0.01). Patients had higher cognitive empathy scores compared to controls in the placebo condition but not after spironolactone. Furthermore, in the spironolactone condition reduced cognitive empathy was seen in MDD patients but not in controls. Emotional empathy was not affected by MR blockade. In the MASC, no effect of spironolactone could be revealed.

Conclusion

Depressed patients appear to exhibit greater cognitive empathy compared to healthy individuals. Blockade of MR reduced cognitive empathy in MDD patients to the level of healthy individuals. Future studies should further clarify the impact of MR functioning on different domains of social cognition in psychiatric patients.

     

Social and personal determinants of workplace aggression: Evidence for the impact of perceived injustice and the Type A Behavior Pattern

Four hundred fifty‐two employed persons rated the frequency with which they had been the victims of a wide range of aggressive actions at work. In addition, they also rated the frequency with which they themselves had aggressed against others in their workplaces. Three hypotheses were investigated: (1) covert forms of aggression, in which aggressors seek to conceal their identity from target persons, are significantly more frequent in workplaces than overt forms of aggression; (2) the greater the perceived injustice reported by employees, the greater their tendency to engage in workplace aggression; and (3) the higher individuals' scores on a measure of the Type A Behavior Pattern, the greater their reported frequency of engaging in various forms of workplace aggression. Results offered support for all three hypotheses. In addition, several demographic variables (participants' age and gender; the physical location of their workplaces) were also found to play a role in the occurrence of workplace aggression. Together, these findings were interpreted as underscoring the importance of establishing close conceptual links between research on workplace aggression and basic research on human aggression. Aggr. Behav. 25:281–296, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.