The empathic mind's focus: The mediating role of alexithymia in the relationship between attentional control and empathy

Empathy is the ability to identify or experience others' feelings and to respond appropriately to their emotions. Attentional control refers to the ability to flexibly allocate attention and cognitive resources. Previous studies have suggested an association between different components of empathy and attentional control, however it is possible that the relationship between attention and empathy is mediated by alexithymia, because this trait includes a tendency to pay less attention to internal emotional states. Therefore, in the current study, we used both self-report and task-based measures of empathy to examine the relationship between empathy and attention, and explored whether this was related to alexithymia. A total of 296 participants completed the Attentional Control Scale, the TAS-20 measure of alexithymia, and both self-report and task-based measures of empathy. Greater self-reported Attention Shift ability was associated with higher Cognitive Empathy, however this effect was fully mediated by alexithymia. When controlling for alexithymia, greater Attention Focus ability was associated with lower Affective Empathy, but this pattern reflected a suppression-type effect whereby alexithymia partially suppressed this negative association. These findings highlight that alexithymia may help explain the distinct relationships between different attentional processes and empathy.