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On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind
Open accessAbstract
Empathy, compassion and Theory of Mind (ToM) are central topics in social psychology and neuroscience. While empathy enables the sharing of others’ emotions and may result in empathic distress, a maladaptive form of empathic resonance, or compassion, a feeling of warmth and concern for others, ToM provides cognitive understanding of someone else's thoughts or intentions. These socio-affective and socio-cognitive routes to understanding others are subserved by separable, independent brain networks. Nonetheless they are jointly required in many complex social situations. A process that is critical for both, empathy and ToM, is self-other distinction, which is implemented in different temporoparietal brain regions. Thus, adaptive social behavior is a result of dynamic interplay of socio-affective and socio-cognitive processes.
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TL;DR
This narrative review argues that empathy, compassion, and Theory of Mind (ToM) are separable socio-affective and socio-cognitive functions supported by distinct brain networks, yet they interact dynamically in complex social situations. Self-other distinction, implemented in temporoparietal regions, is proposed as a process critical to both empathy and ToM.
Key findings
- Empathy (sharing others' feelings) and ToM (inferring others' mental states) are separable on conceptual, behavioral, and neural levels: "strong empathizers are not necessarily proficient mentalizers," and each domain can be selectively impaired — ToM in autism, empathy propensity in psychopathy/chronic aggression.
- Empathy for pain recruits shared activations in anterior insula (AI) and anterior middle cingulate cortex (aMCC); compassion instead engages reward/affiliation networks (ventral striatum, nucleus accumbens, VTA, mOFC, sgACC); ToM engages ventral TPJ, STS, temporal poles, MPFC, and precuneus/PCC.
- The networks interact: when confronted with others' distress, AI activity inhibits TPJ activity, and this reduction in TPJ activity is related to impaired ToM performance.
- Self-other distinction relies on distinct temporoparietal regions — right TPJ for overcoming cognitive egocentricity and right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG) for emotional egocentricity; TMS disruption of rSMG increases emotional egocentricity.
- Empathic distress is described as a maladaptive outcome of empathy, whereas compassion acts as an emotion-regulation strategy that buffers negative affect by up-regulating positive affect via reward- and affiliation-related circuitry.
Methods
- Design: narrative review of social psychology and neuroscience literature on empathy, compassion, and ToM, with no new empirical data reported.
- The review describes the EmpaToM task (Kanske et al.), a 2 (emotionality of video) × 2 (ToM requirements) design in which each actor presented emotional negative/neutral videos and videos with ToM or factual-reasoning demands, followed by valence, compassion, and confidence ratings.
- Cited supporting evidence includes a structural covariance analysis in 270 healthy adults and a charitable donation task linking AI activity to empathy-based giving and TPJ activity to perspective-taking-based giving.
Limitations
- The paper states no limitations; its only declaration is "Conflict: Nothing declared."
- Evident from the text: as a narrative review it reports no systematic search strategy or formal quality appraisal, and the empirical claims (e.g., AI–TPJ inhibition, rSMG causality) are drawn from cited primary studies rather than re-analyzed here.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“When activated together in complex social situations, the two networks may also directly influence each other.”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesNone of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Meta-analyses have later identified these regions as a core network that is activated whenever we witness the suffering of others [8,9].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Defining and neurally characterizing empathy, compassion and Theory of Mind
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIn the paper
“Indeed, when confronted with others' distress, the AI, which is activated for negative affect sharing, inhibits activity in TPJ, an important hub of the mentalizing network [27 ].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [27] source
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesNone of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“A process that is critical for both, empathy and ToM, is self-other distinction, which is implemented in different temporoparietal brain regions.”
- Also stated in: § Self-other distinction · plain
“The distinction of self and other constitutes an important element of both empathy and ToM, as it enables the differentiation between one's own emotional or mental states and the states shared with others.”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Abstract
What the sources say
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Also stated in: § Self-other distinction · plain
In the paper
“Common activations were observed in the typical empathy related core network.”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8] source
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesNone of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Furthermore, this network is modulated by individual differences in experienced negative affect and empathy [6,10].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Defining and neurally characterizing empathy, compassion and Theory of Mind
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:correlational· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesA conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Congruently with these activations in reward-associated and affiliation-associated networks, compassion generates positive affect towards others' suffering.”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Defining and neurally characterizing empathy, compassion and Theory of Mind
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIn the paper
“An indirect source of evidence for such co-activation is a meta-analysis on different empathy for pain paradigms, which suggests that the core region of the ToM network is coactivated in empathy paradigms when additional inferring from a cue is required to understand the other's state.[8].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Interactions of social affect and social cognition
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8] source
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesNone of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“In contrast to compassion, empathic distress, which is an alternative outcome of empathy, may be detrimental to the experiencer as well as to the suffering other [15,18].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Defining and neurally characterizing empathy, compassion and Theory of Mind
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIn the paper
“The two networks associated with empathy and ToM are also jointly activated for complex evaluations of someone else's feelings such as empathic accuracy, the ability to infer what someone else is feeling [38].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [38] source
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes
- It may state two separate claims as one. 15
- Probably not a substantial claim. 3
In the paper
“Nonetheless they are jointly required in many complex social situations.”
- Also stated in: § Concluding remarks · plain
“Despite the separability of socio-affective and socio-cognitive functions, these social capacities are jointly activated and interact in complex social situations.”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8] source
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § Concluding remarks · plain
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The EmpaToM clearly activates separable brain networks that can be replicated in resting state functional connectivity [25 ] and on a brain structural level [26 ].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Interactions of social affect and social cognition
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [25]
- Not checked yetcites [26]
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Emotional egocentricity occurs when one's own emotional state influences the judgment of someone else's affective state [41].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Self-other distinction
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [41]
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“In autism, ToM is deficient [28][29][30][31], while no empathy deficits are observed when controlling for alexithymia [32][33][34][35].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Interactions of social affect and social cognition
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [28]
- Not checked yetcites [32] source
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“These socio-affective and sociocognitive routes to understanding others are subserved by separable, independent brain networks.”
- Also stated in: § Concluding remarks · plain
“Sharing affective states with another person (empathy), feeling concern for another (compassion) and reasoning about another person's mental state (ToM) are separable on a conceptual, behavioral and neural level; strong empathizers are not necessarily proficient mentalizers and each domain may be selectively impaired in psychopathologies such as autism or psychopathy.”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [25]
- Not checked yetcites [27]
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § Concluding remarks · plain
In the paper
“The adaptive value of this inhibitory mechanism in salient, emotional situations may be to prepare for immediate action in the external world [39].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [39] source
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“In psychopathy or chronic aggression, in contrast, ToM is intact, but the propensity to empathize with others is reduced [36,37].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Interactions of social affect and social cognition
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [36]
- Not checked yetcites [37]
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“As the cue-based paradigms require additional inference of the other's affective state from an abstract cue, the ToM related network is co-active [8].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8] source
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Cognitive egocentricity occurs when the own knowledge about a situation influences the reasoning about what someone else thinks about the situation [42], but can also affect simple decisions about the visual perspective of another [44].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Self-other distinction
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [42]
- Not checked yetcites [44]
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Crucially, individual differences in empathy and ToM are unrelated on a behavioral and neural level, that is, strong empathizers are not necessarily proficient mentalizers [27 ].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Interactions of social affect and social cognition
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [27]
Load-bearingStrength:boosted· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Furthermore, an original adaptive empathic response to the suffering of others can lead to a maladaptive response, that is, empathic distress which can be reversed by learning how to turn empathy into compassion.”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Concluding remarks
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes? Based: unclearIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The direct comparison of compassion to the most widely investigated emotion regulation strategy -reappraisal showed that in well-trained long-term meditators, cognitive reappraisal was most efficient in reducing negative affect, but compassion induction worked through up-regulation of positive affect and associated networks in the brain [14 ].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Social behavior
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [14]
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Remarkably, empathy and ToM measurements from an independent task, were also related to these functions' role in donation decisions, suggesting that stable individual propensities are involved in prosocial behavior.”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Social behavior
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [48]
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“While empathy may be related to prosociality, a particular outcome of empathy -empathic distress -describes the intense sharing of other's emotions and may be detrimental, because it can result in own suffering as well as in asocial or even antisocial effects, such as aggressive verbal behavior [18].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Social behavior
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [18]
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Specifically, AI activity predicted generous donations when participants reported empathic feelings for the charity's goal before, while TPJ activity predicted donations, when participants took the perspective of the organization's cause [48 ].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Social behavior
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [48]
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The critical property of compassion may be that it counteracts negative emotion elicited by experiencing others' suffering through positive emotion generation, thereby acting as an emotion regulation strategy [14 ,15,53].”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Social behavior
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [14]
- Not checked yetcites [15] source
- Not checked yetcites [53]
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Thus, temporoparietal regions seem to play a crucial role in overcoming egocentricity, possibly contributing to self-other distinction.”
§ On the interaction of social affect and cognition: empathy, compassion and theory of mind > Self-other distinction
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
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In the citing paper
“Empathy is central to prosocial interactions, understanding the suffering of others, and attenuates the propensity to maladaptive aggressive behavior (1).”
From Empathy at the heart of darkness: empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. (2019) · cites this paper as [1]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Preckel, K., Kanske, P., & Singer, T.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Preckel, Katrin
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-02
- Volume
- 19
- Pages
- 1-6
- ISSN
- 2352-1546 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2740027066
- Semantic Scholar
- 79c151866cf07f384ba5d29d8665adff0c22052b
- Cited by
- 348
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 37 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 17
- FWCI
- 3.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Keywords
- empathy, compassion, theory of mind, social affect, socio-cognitive processes, self-other distinction, temporoparietal cortex, empathic distress, empathic resonance, social cognition, social behavior
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