Are strong empathizers better mentalizers? Evidence for independence and interaction between the routes of social cognition.

ABSTRACT: Although the processes that underlie sharing others' emotions (empathy) and understanding others' mental states (mentalizing, Theory of Mind) have received increasing attention, it is yet unclear how they relate to each other. For instance, are people who strongly empathize with others also more proficient in mentalizing? And (how) do the neural networks supporting empathy and mentalizing interact? Assessing both functions simultaneously in a large sample (N = 178), we show that people's capacities to empathize and mentalize are independent, both on a behavioral and neural level. Thus, strong empathizers are not necessarily proficient mentalizers, arguing against a general capacity of social understanding. Second, we applied dynamic causal modeling to investigate how the neural networks un

SUBMITTER: Kanske P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5015801 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature