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Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
Published on: July 5, 2015
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Attentional control both helps and harms empathy
Stephanie C Goodhew1, Mark Edwards1
1Research School of Psychology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Cognition
|November 7, 2020
Summary
Individuals who can shift attention better show more cognitive empathy, while those who focus attention better show less affective empathy. This highlights distinct links between attention and empathy components.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Empathy comprises cognitive and affective components.
- Attentional control involves focusing and shifting.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between individual differences in cognitive and affective empathy and attentional control (focusing vs. shifting).
Main Methods:
- 299 adult participants completed validated questionnaires for empathy and attentional control.
- Correlational analyses examined relationships between empathy facets and attention styles.
Main Results:
- Greater attentional shifting ability correlated with higher cognitive empathy, but not affective empathy.
- Greater attentional focusing ability correlated with lower affective empathy, but not cognitive empathy.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive-attentional processes are selectively linked to distinct aspects of social and emotional functioning.
- Understanding sub-processes of empathy and attention is crucial for social cognition research.
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