Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
Clin Psychol Rev. 2020 Feb;75:101809. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2019.101809. Epub 2019 Dec 11.
Antisocial behavior is harmful, financially costly to society, and hard to treat. Callous-unemotional (CU) traits, which predict greater risk for antisocial behavior, are defined in theoretical and diagnostic models as representing low empathy, guilt, and prosociality. However, no meta-analytic reviews have systematically integrated the findings of studies that have reported associations between measures of CU traits and empathy, guilt, or prosociality, or potential moderators of these associations, including gender, age, severity of antisocial behavior, and informant (i.e., self or other reports of measures). To address this gap in the literature, we conducted three separate meta-analyses exploring the association between CU traits and empathy, guilt, and prosociality. In follow-up analyses, we explored associations between CU traits and affective versus cognitive empathy. The results revealed statistically significant and moderate-to-large negative associations between measures of CU traits and empathy (ρ = -.57), guilt (ρ = -.40), and prosociality (ρ = -.66). The negative association between CU traits and cognitive empathy was stronger when the informant was a parent or teacher rather than the child, and in younger children. CU traits were also more strongly related to cognitive empathy than affective empathy when the informant was a parent or teacher rather than the child, and in younger children. The findings establish that CU traits are moderately-to-strongly correlated with the presence of callous (low empathy), uncaring (low prosociality), and remorseless (low guilt) behaviors.
反社会行为具有危害性，会给社会带来经济成本，并且难以治疗。冷酷无情（CU）特征可预测更高的反社会行为风险，在理论和诊断模型中被定义为代表低同理心、低内疚感和低亲社会性。然而，目前还没有元分析综述系统地整合了那些报告 CU 特征与同理心、内疚感或亲社会行为之间存在关联的研究结果，也没有整合这些关联的潜在调节因素，包括性别、年龄、反社会行为严重程度和信息提供者（即自我报告或他人报告的测量结果）。为了填补文献中的这一空白，我们进行了三项独立的元分析，以探讨 CU 特征与同理心、内疚感和亲社会行为之间的关系。在后续分析中，我们探讨了 CU 特征与情感同理心和认知同理心之间的关联。结果表明，CU 特征与同理心（ρ=-.57）、内疚感（ρ=-.40）和亲社会行为（ρ=-.66）之间存在统计学上显著的、中等至较大的负相关。当信息提供者是父母或老师而不是孩子，并且在年幼的儿童中，CU 特征与认知同理心之间的负相关更强。当信息提供者是父母或老师而不是孩子，并且在年幼的儿童中，CU 特征与认知同理心的相关性强于情感同理心。这些发现表明 CU 特征与无情（低同理心）、冷漠（低亲社会行为）和无情（低内疚感）行为的存在呈中等至强相关。
