Individual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation

Abstract Empathy - the capacity to understand and resonate with the experiences of other people - is considered an essential aspect of social cognition. However, although empathy is often thought to be automatic, recent theories have argued that there is a key role for motivation in modulating empat...

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Autores principales:	Patricia L. Lockwood, Yuen-Siang Ang, Masud Husain, Molly J. Crockett
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/8e8256606b1448d19a72d6a942f3e657
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:8e8256606b1448d19a72d6a942f3e6572021-12-02T15:05:23ZIndividual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation10.1038/s41598-017-17415-w2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/8e8256606b1448d19a72d6a942f3e6572017-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17415-whttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Empathy - the capacity to understand and resonate with the experiences of other people - is considered an essential aspect of social cognition. However, although empathy is often thought to be automatic, recent theories have argued that there is a key role for motivation in modulating empathic experiences. Here we administered self-report measures of empathy and apathy-motivation to a large sample of healthy people (n = 378) to test whether people who are more empathic are also more motivated. We then sought to replicate our findings in an independent sample (n = 198) that also completed a behavioural task to measure state affective empathy and emotion recognition. Cognitive empathy was associated with higher levels of motivation generally across behavioural, social and emotional domains. In contrast, affective empathy was associated with lower levels of behavioural motivation, but higher levels of emotional motivation. Factor analyses showed that empathy and apathy are distinct constructs, but that affective empathy and emotional motivation are underpinned by the same latent factor. These results have potentially important clinical applications for disorders associated with reduced empathy and motivation as well as the understanding of these processes in healthy people.Patricia L. LockwoodYuen-Siang AngMasud HusainMolly J. CrockettNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Patricia L. Lockwood Yuen-Siang Ang Masud Husain Molly J. Crockett Individual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation
description	Abstract Empathy - the capacity to understand and resonate with the experiences of other people - is considered an essential aspect of social cognition. However, although empathy is often thought to be automatic, recent theories have argued that there is a key role for motivation in modulating empathic experiences. Here we administered self-report measures of empathy and apathy-motivation to a large sample of healthy people (n = 378) to test whether people who are more empathic are also more motivated. We then sought to replicate our findings in an independent sample (n = 198) that also completed a behavioural task to measure state affective empathy and emotion recognition. Cognitive empathy was associated with higher levels of motivation generally across behavioural, social and emotional domains. In contrast, affective empathy was associated with lower levels of behavioural motivation, but higher levels of emotional motivation. Factor analyses showed that empathy and apathy are distinct constructs, but that affective empathy and emotional motivation are underpinned by the same latent factor. These results have potentially important clinical applications for disorders associated with reduced empathy and motivation as well as the understanding of these processes in healthy people.
format	article
author	Patricia L. Lockwood Yuen-Siang Ang Masud Husain Molly J. Crockett
author_facet	Patricia L. Lockwood Yuen-Siang Ang Masud Husain Molly J. Crockett
author_sort	Patricia L. Lockwood
title	Individual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation
title_short	Individual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation
title_full	Individual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation
title_fullStr	Individual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation
title_full_unstemmed	Individual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation
title_sort	individual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/8e8256606b1448d19a72d6a942f3e657
work_keys_str_mv	AT patriciallockwood individualdifferencesinempathyareassociatedwithapathymotivation AT yuensiangang individualdifferencesinempathyareassociatedwithapathymotivation AT masudhusain individualdifferencesinempathyareassociatedwithapathymotivation AT mollyjcrockett individualdifferencesinempathyareassociatedwithapathymotivation
_version_	1718388846303903744

Individual differences in empathy are associated with apathy-motivation

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