# The impact of anxiety on affective and cognitive empathy

## TL;DR

This study finds that anxiety reduces women's ability to feel others' emotions but does not affect their ability to understand others' thoughts.

## Contribution

The novel finding is that induced anxiety specifically impairs affective empathy without affecting cognitive empathy in women.

## Key findings

- Induced anxiety impairs affective empathy performance in women.
- Cognitive empathy performance remains unaffected by anxiety induction.
- Trait anxiety and empathy do not moderate the effect of induced anxiety on empathy.

## Abstract

Existing evidence about the way anxiety impacts empathy is mixed, highlighting the complexity of empathy as a construct. The impact of state anxiety on affective and cognitive empathy in women was tested. Seventy-five women underwent an anxiety or relaxation induction, prior to completing measures of affective and cognitive empathy, and trait anxiety. Robust positive correlations were found between trait cognitive and trait affective empathy, and trait and performance affective empathy. Induced anxiety impaired affective empathy performance when controlling for trait empathy, however, was not observed to impact cognitive empathy performance. Trait anxiety and empathy did not moderate the influence of induced anxiety on affective empathy performance. Irrespective of trait levels of anxiety and empathy, women are less affectively empathic when anxious, but do not vary in their cognitive empathy.