Neuroscientists at the TU Dresden and the University of Lübeck demonstrate the importance of differentiating between empathy and perspective-taking

Successful human coexistence depends to a large extent on being able to empathize with the emotional states of our fellow human beings and to put ourselves in their shoes. What exactly enables us to do this is an exciting question for psychological and neuroscientific research into the "social brain". In a new review in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, a team of researchers from the Chair of Clinical Psychology and Behavioural Neuroscience at the TU Dresden, headed by Prof. Philipp Kanske, and in collaboration with the Social Neuroscience Lab at the University of Lübeck, describe that a distinction must be made between empathy and perspective-taking in order to understand these processes.

Empathy is the ability to share the emotional states of others, such as joy or sadness. Empathy develops very early in life and remains with us into old age. Interestingly, neuroscientific research on empathy shows that we activate the same networks in the brain in empathic reactions that are active even when we experience the corresponding emotions ourselves. Empathic feelng is therefore an actual experience of the emotional states of others. This experiencing is more pronounced in some situations than in others, and there are also significant differences between people as well.

The ability to take on perspectives, in the sense of an understanding of the mental states of other people, develops comparatively later (around the age of four) and regresses in old age. When it comes to taking perspectives, our brain uses networks that are involved in various aspects of information processing and mental simulation. The extent to which we adopt the perspective of others depends not only on the existence of cognitive resources but also on our motivation, and can also differ between different people.

The newly published work shows how important it is for further research and its practical application to differentiate between empathy and perspective-taking. "In many mental disorders, altered emotionality is a critical problem, especially for good interactions with others. What motivates me again and again is to use basic scientific understanding in the long term to develop interventions that counteract these problems," Prof. Philipp Kanske describes the significance of his work.

Original publication:

Julia Stietz, Emanuel Jauk, Sören Krach and Philipp Kanske: “Dissociating Empathy From Perspective-Taking: Evidence From Intra- and Inter-Individual Differences Research”. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00126/full

Media inquiries:

Prof. Philipp Kanske
Professor of Clinical Psychology and Behavioural Neuroscience
phone: +49 351 463-42225
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