Empathy and moral judgment: Systematic review and meta-analysis of ERP studies

Although the bidirectional relationship between empathy and moral judgment has been extensively investigated, the underlying neural mechanisms remain elusive. The current study examined 19 event-related potential studies to explore the relationship between empathy and moral judgment, including 60 effect sizes. It was found that individuals with higher levels of empathy exhibited a significantly increased amplitude in the N2 component during moral judgment tasks when presented with moral versus immoral scenarios (r_N2 = 0.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.04, 0.31], p = 0.010). However, the empathy response toward the target person is also influenced by the moral characteristics of the individual, as evidenced by the enhanced amplitude of P3 and LPP components in the empathic response toward high-moral individuals (r_P3 = 0.30, 95% CI [0.16, 0.42], p < 0.001; r_LPP = 0.16, 95% CI [0.04, 0.28], p = 0.011). These results suggest that the effect of empathy on moral judgment involves early attention allocation, while the influence of moral judgment on empathy likely involves top-down cognitive regulation. The findings of the present study reveal distinct neural processes between empathy and moral judgment, extending dual-process theories and aiding in developing programs for moral behavior and empathy intervention.