The relationship between cognitive failures and empathy

Abstract

Cognitive empathy (or theory of mind) is the capacity to understand others' thoughts and feelings, while affective empathy is the tendency to be affected by others' feelings. There is evidence that successful attentional control is related to increased cognitive empathy but reduced affective empathy. Here, we investigated whether empathy relates to real-world cognitive failures, which are associated with attentional control. We examined the relationship between individual differences in the propensity to experience everyday cognitive failures using the widely-validated Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), and cognitive versus affective empathy (using the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy) in a sample of 394 participants. We found qualitatively different relationships between general cognitive failures and the two components of empathy, such that individuals prone to cognitive failures experienced reduced tendency to understand others' perspective, but experienced greater feeling of others' emotions. When we considered the sub-factors of Cognitive Failures (Forgetfulness, Distractibility and False-Triggering), they were equivalently related to Affective Empathy. However, for Cognitive Empathy, Distractibility-related cognitive failures were uniquely negatively associated, while Forgetfulness-related cognitive failures were positively associated. Implications for the interplay between cognitive and socio-emotional factors, and the conceptualization of cognitive failures are discussed.