Steun ons werk
Decorative header background

Dissociating the ability and propensity for empathy

Onderzoeksgroep Keysers
Publicatiejaar 2014
Gepubliceerd in Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Auteur(s) Christian Keysers, Valeria Gazzola

Neuroimaging suggests psychopaths have reduced vicarious activations when simply witnessing pain but less so when asked to empathize. This inspired us to distinguish the ability from the propensity to empathize. We argue that (i) this ability-propensity distinction is crucial to characterizing empathy in psychiatric disorders such as psychopathy and autism, (ii) that costly helping might be best predicted by the propensity for empathy, and (iii) suggest how social neuroscientists can start exploring this distinction.

Steun ons werk

De Stichting Vrienden van het Herseninstituut ondersteunt baanbrekend hersenonderzoek. U kunt ons daarbij helpen.

Steun ons werk