The role of empathy in inhibiting aggression

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the limitations and discussion and future work and future-work section and stated challenges and stated research gap of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 1972 and 2026, spanning 6 journals. Those papers have been cited 3,030 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 7 representative gaps

• Cognitive Empathy, Affective Empathy and Empirical Research on the Double Empathy Problem: A Critical Methodology Review (2026) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi

  Whilst this author hopes future research will consider how the double empathy prob- lem relates to cognitive and affective empathy, they also believe that there is very strong value in specific studies pro- viding a more specific definition of cognitive and affective empathy and that effort is made to ensure the measurements employed are suitable for that particular definition (see Bol- len, 2023b; Harrison et al. Limitations of this study will now be stated.

  generallimitations
  Keywords: empathy cognitive affective specific definition whilst author hopes future consider double prob relates believe there
• Ego depletion and empathy: exploring self-regulatory resource depletion in hostage and crisis negotiators (2026) · Journal of Experimental Criminology · doi

  , 2019; Galla & Duckworth, 2015), the extent to which empathic responding in crisis negotiators operates in this manner remains an open empirical question. While the findings raise the possibility that trained empathic responding may be relatively robust under conditions of reduced self-reg- ulatory capacity, further research is required before drawing conclusions for training or practice.

  generaldiscussion
  Keywords: empathic responding galla duckworth extent crisis negotiators operates manner remains open empirical question raise possibility
• Downsides to the empathic brain? A review of neural correlates of empathy in major depressive disorder (2024) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · cited 4× · doi

  Since empathic responding does not evolve in a vacuum but is most probably significantly influenced in its emergence and outcomes depending on a specific composition of various moderators, future studies should take those moderators into consideration. Further affective and cognitive mechanisms that might come into play in real life social interactions and should be amongst others comprise cognitive empathy, emotion regulation (Tully et al., 2016; Guendelman et al., 2022), or executive functioning (Thoma et al., 2011). Particularly neural correlates of cognitive empathy should be integrated in future studies due to their potentially interacting effects with affective empathy on the emergence of MDD. Importantly, a well-regulated interplay between cognitive and affective mechanisms has been suggested to show the most adaptive outcomes by allowing for understanding another’s emotions and being affectively involved without becoming overwhelmed (Tully et al., 2016; Calandri et al., 2019). Since empathy can be constrained by information-processing biases channeling certain environmental input, cognitive empathy could be crucial to reduce these biases (Decety, 2021). Building upon previous findings on cross-network interactions during socio-affective and -cognitive processing (Schurz et al., 2020), research on potential changes in these interactions throughout the course of MDD could be of particular relevance. Lastly, in order to elucidate the time-wise dynamics in the association between empathy and MDD, future studies should apply longitudinal approaches, that furthermore not only include patients with acute MDD and remitted MDD but also at-risk individuals before disorder onset. Based on this study design, it is to be investigated whether altered empathy is the antecedent or the consequence of MDD: While aberrations in empathy might be a vulnerability factor before the onset of MDD, depressive

  generalfuture work
  Keywords: empathy cognitive ective future interactions emergence outcomes moderators mechanisms tully processing biases onset empathic responding
• A measure of emotional empathy1 (1972) · Journal of Personality · cited 1,502× · doi

  Future research should investigate the role of empathy in inhibiting aggression in different contexts. The study suggests that increasing empathy can be an effective way to reduce aggression, and future research should explore the implications of this finding. Future research should also investigate the relation between emotional empathy and helping behavior.

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 5/5
  Keywords: future research investigate role empathy inhibiting aggression different
• Modulating empathy with tDCS: dissociable roles of rTPJ and lDLPFC (2026) · Psychological Medicine · doi

  Investigate the effects of different types of tDCS (e.g., cathodal, bilateral) on empathy. Examine the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of rTPJ and lDLPFC stimulation on empathy. Explore the potential of tDCS as a therapeutic tool for enhancing empathy in clinical populations. Investigate the effects of tDCS on empathy in different contexts and modalities

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 5/5
  Keywords: investigate effects different types tdcs cathodal bilateral empathy
• (State) empathy: how context matters (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · cited 22× · doi

  the complexity of empathy as a capacity with expressions that are situated within and influenced by contextual factors; the difficulty of disentangling trait and state empathy; the challenge of developing standardized measures of empathy that integrate both trait and state aspects; the need to consider the interaction between trait capacities and state-related factors for individual empathic responses.

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: complexity empathy capacity expressions situated within influenced contextual
• A measure of emotional empathy1 (1972) · Journal of Personality · cited 1,502× · doi

  The paper identifies a gap in the literature on the role of empathy in inhibiting aggression. Prior work has shown that subjects are more likely to help someone they like more, someone who is more similar to themselves, and someone who is more dependent, but the role of empathy in inhibiting aggression is not well understood.

  generalstated research gapevidence 4/5
  Keywords: paper identifies gap literature role empathy inhibiting aggression

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