More empathy for others, more hurt for oneself? Empathy for pain is related to poor mental health and negative emotion regulation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Empathy for pain refers to a simulation of pain experiences evoked when seeing others in pain. Empathy for pain (vicarious pain) responders make up 27% of the healthy population, and are divided into two subsets: Sensory/Localized responders who feel localized physical pain and Affective/General responders who experience diffuse emotional pain. Empathy for pain is linked to pro-social behavior but can increase mental health symptoms.

Methods

Multivariate analysis of variance and latent variable mediation model were used to investigate the relationship between empathy for pain, mental health, and emotion regulation based on a university student dataset (mainly Caucasian) from 2020 to 2021.

Results

(1) Responders express significantly higher anxiety and somat

SUBMITTER: Li M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11905657 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature