The self to other model of empathy: providing a new framework for understanding empathy impairments in psychopathy, autism, and alexithymia
Abstract
Despite increasing empirical and theoretical work on empathy, particularly on the content of empathic representations, there is a relative lack of consensus regarding the information processing necessary for empathy to occur. Here we attempt to delineate a mechanistic cognitive model of empathy in order to provide a framework within which neuroimaging work on empathy can be located, and which may be used in order to understand various disorders characterised by atypical levels of empathy. To this end data from individuals with psychopathy, autism, and alexithymia inform the model, and the model is used to provide a unifying framework for any empathy impairments seen in these disorders. The model adopts a developmental framework and tries to address the four difficult questions of empathy: How do we know what another is feeling? What is the role of theory of mind in empathy? How does the state of another cause a corresponding state in the self? How do we represent another's emotion once emotional contagion has taken place?
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Intact ability to distinguish between the self and other allows the observer to attribute the emotional state to the observed individual, thereby reducing personal distress and giving rise to empathic concern.
“Intact ability to distinguish between the self and other then allows the observer to attribute the emotional state to the observed individual, thereby reducing personal distress, and giving rise to empathic concern (Bird and Viding, 2014; Coll, Viding, et al., 2017; Davis, 1980; Decety and Lamm, 2006; Moriguchi et al., 2007b).”
From Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review (2021) · cites this paper as Bird and Viding, 2014
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Bird, G., & Viding, E.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Bird, Geoffrey
- Viding, Essi
- Venue
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-11
- Volume
- 47
- Pages
- 520-532
- ISSN
- 0149-7634 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1981060433
- Cited by
- 472
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 32 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 91 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 14
- FWCI
- 33.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/H007059/1)
- 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, psychopathy, autism spectrum disorder, alexithymia, theory of mind, emotional contagion, emotion representation
- MeSH terms
- Affective Symptoms, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Autistic Disorder, Empathy, Humans, Models, Psychological, Self Concept, Recognition, Psychology, Theory of Mind
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