Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010, Vienna, Austria.
Sci Rep. 2023 Feb 24;13(1):3201. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-30323-6.
Empathy enables us to understand the emotions of others and is an important determinant of prosocial behavior. Investigating the relationship between mindfulness and empathy could therefore provide important insights into factors that promote interpersonal understanding and pathways that contribute to prosocial behavior. As prior studies have yielded only inconsistent results, this study extended previous findings and investigated for the first time the associations of two important factors of mindfulness (Self-regulated Attention [SRA] and Orientation to Experience [OTE]) with two commonly proposed components of empathy (cognitive empathy and affective empathy). Using a community sample of N = 552 German-speaking adults, the two mindfulness factors were differentially associated with cognitive and affective empathy. SRA correlated positively with cognitive empathy (r = 0.44; OTE: r = 0.09), but OTE correlated negatively with affective empathy (r = - 0.27; SRA: r = 0.11). This negative association was strongest for one specific aspect of affective empathy, emotional contagion. Revisiting previously reported mediating effects of emotion regulation, we found that emotional awareness mediated the associations with both components of empathy, but only for SRA. Together, these findings imply that mindfulness benefits the cognitive understanding of others' emotions via two distinct pathways: by promoting emotional awareness (SRA) and by limiting the undue impact of others' emotions on oneself (OTE).
同理心使我们能够理解他人的情绪，是亲社会行为的重要决定因素。因此，研究正念与同理心之间的关系可以为促进人际理解的因素和促进亲社会行为的途径提供重要的见解。由于先前的研究结果不一致，本研究扩展了先前的发现，首次调查了正念的两个重要因素（自我调节注意力[SRA]和体验定向[OTE]）与同理心的两个常见组成部分（认知同理心和情感同理心）之间的关联。使用一个由 552 名讲德语的成年人组成的社区样本，这两个正念因素与认知同理心和情感同理心呈不同相关。SRA 与认知同理心呈正相关（r=0.44；OTE：r=0.09），但 OTE 与情感同理心呈负相关（r=-0.27；SRA：r=0.11）。这种负相关在情感同理心的一个特定方面——情绪传染上最强。重新审视先前报告的情绪调节的中介效应，我们发现情绪意识中介了与同理心两个组成部分的关联，但仅适用于 SRA。总的来说，这些发现意味着正念通过两种不同的途径有益于对他人情绪的认知理解：通过促进情绪意识（SRA）和限制他人情绪对自身的不当影响（OTE）。
