Dissociating Empathy From Perspective-Taking: Evidence From Intra- and Inter-Individual Differences Research

Abstract

Humans have the capacity to share others' emotions, be they positive or negative. Elicited by the observed or imagined emotion of another person, an observer develops a similar emotional state herself. This capacity, empathy, is one of the pillars of social understanding and interaction as it creates a representation of another's inner, mental state. Empathy needs to be dissociated from other social emotions and, crucially, also from cognitive mechanisms of understanding others, the ability to take others' perspective. Here, we describe the conceptual distinctions of these constructs and review behavioral and neural evidence that dissociates them. The main focus of the present review lies on the intraindividual changes in empathy and perspective-taking across the lifespan and on interindividual differences on subclinical and clinical levels. The data show that empathy and perspective-taking recruit distinct neural circuits and can be discerned already during early and throughout adult development. Both capacities also vary substantially between situations and people. Differences can be systematically related to situational characteristics as well as personality traits and mental disorders. The clear distinction of affect sharing from other social emotions like compassion and from cognitive perspective-taking, argues for a clear-cut terminology to describe these constructs. In our view, this speaks against using empathy as an umbrella term encompassing all affective and cognitive routes to understanding others. Unifying the way we speak about these phenomena will help to further research on their underlying mechanisms, psychopathological alterations, and plasticity in training and therapy.

Morphology of the criminal brain: gray matter reductions are linked to antisocial behavior in offenders

“…inferior parietal regions) as well as in the middle temporal gyrus. Regions involved in the affective ToM network, that have been reported to be active during the contagion of positive emotions and empathy, such as the supramarginal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal and medial orbito-frontal cortex, anterior insula, ventral striatum and anterior medial cingulate cortex did not correlate significantly with any of the aggression or psychopathy measures in our study (Kanske et al 2015;Stietz et al 2019).…”

“…Above all, a prerequisite for all social behavior is a person’s ability to make assumptions about internal and mental states of another person, to predict others feelings, intentions, ideas and opinions. These social skills are summarized by the concept of “theory of mind” (ToM) and are often impaired in psychopathic or aggressive populations (Raine 2018 ; Stietz et al 2019 ; Wai and Tiliopoulos 2012 ). The two dimensions of this construct, cognitive ToM (i.e.…”

Friendship and romance across the U.S. political divide: Hindrance or help for outgroup political attitudes?

“…Potential perspective-taking outcomes can include the disconfirmation of negative outgroup stereotypes and an increased interest in engagement in future intergroup interactions, ultimately leading to more positive intergroup attitudes (Todd & Galinsky, 2014). In addition, empathy and perspective-taking have been considered as two distinctive concepts (Stietz et al, 2019).…”

“…Potential perspective‐taking outcomes can include the disconfirmation of negative outgroup stereotypes and an increased interest in engagement in future intergroup interactions, ultimately leading to more positive intergroup attitudes (Todd & Galinsky, 2014). In addition, empathy and perspective‐taking have been considered as two distinctive concepts (Stietz et al., 2019). Therefore, both components were modeled as mediators in the relationship between having a cross‐ (versus same‐political) romantic relationship and intergroup attitudes (or ingroup attitudes; see Supplementary material).…”

Put yourself in my wheelchair: Perspective‐taking can reduce prejudice toward people with disabilities and other stigmatized groups

“…It should be distinguished from empathy, which is the ability to connect emotionally with another individual. These abilities—to take others' perspective and empathically share their affect—can be differentiated conceptually, although they might interact in complex situations that require both functions simultaneously (Stietz et al., 2019). Indeed, much research has documented increased empathic responding following perspective‐taking (Batson, 2011).…”