Self-Other Distinction Enhanced Empathic Responses in Individuals with Alexithymia

Although empathy is important for social interactions, individuals with alexithymia have low empathic ability, particularly where advanced empathy is concerned (empathic concern, perspective taking). It has been argued that awareness of the self-other distinction enhances advanced empathy, and alexithymics are thought to inadequately distinguish the self from others. We therefore tested whether the self-other distinction increases advanced empathy in alexithymics. To this end, we presented painful hand images over participants’ own hands, and required participants to estimate felt pain intensity and their affective states. Half of the participants got specific instructions to distinct themselves from the other in the images. Felt pain intensity (perspective taking) and other-oriented affective responses (empathic concern) were increased by the instructions only when participants had high alexithymia scores as measured by questionnaire, although self-oriented affective responses (personal distress) were not affected by the instructions. These findings indicate that enhancing the self-other distinction enhances alexithymics’ ability to use advanced empathy, but not the primitive empathy.