title: 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 underlying empathy and mentalizing are orchestrated in naturalistic social settings. Results reveal that in highly emotional situations, empathic sharing can inhibit mentalizing-related activity and thereby harm mentalizing performance. Taken together, our findings speak against a unitary construct of social understanding and suggest flexible interplay of distinct social functions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kanske
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany Department of Psychology, Würzburg University, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Böckler
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Fynn-Mathis
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Trautwein
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Franca H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Parianen Lesemann
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany singer@cbs.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Singer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: dynamic causal modeling.; empathy; fMRI; mentalizing; social cognition; theory of mind