Social Anxiety and Empathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Merle-Marie Pittelkow; Marije Aan Het Rot; Lea Jasmin Seidel; Nils Feyel; Annelieke M Roest

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102357

Social Anxiety and Empathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

J Anxiety Disord. 2021 Mar:78:102357. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102357. Epub 2021 Jan 20.

Authors

Merle-Marie Pittelkow¹, Marije Aan Het Rot², Lea Jasmin Seidel³, Nils Feyel³, Annelieke M Roest⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Netherlands. Electronic address: m.pittelkow@rug.nl.
² Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Netherlands; School Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Groningen, Netherlands; Interdisciplinary Centre for Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE), University of Groningen, Netherlands.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Netherlands; Interdisciplinary Centre for Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE), University of Groningen, Netherlands.

PMID: 33588287
DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102357

Abstract

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to clarify the association between social anxiety and affective (AE) and cognitive empathy (CE).

Methods: 1442 studies from PsycINFO, Medline, and EMBASE (inception-January 2020) were systematically reviewed. Included studies (N = 48) either predicted variance in empathy using social anxiety scores or compared empathy scores between socially anxious individuals and a control group.

Results: Social anxiety and AE were statistically significantly positively associated, k = 14, r = .103 (95%CI [.003, .203]), z = 2.03, p = .043. Sex (Q_M (2) = 18.79, p < .0001), and type of measures (Q_M (1 = 7.34, p = .007) moderated the association. Correlations were significant for male samples (r_male = .316, (95%CI [.200, .432])) and studies using self-report measures (r_self-report = .162 (95%CI [.070, .254])). Overall, social anxiety and CE were not significantly associated, k = 52, r =-.021 (95%CI [-.075, .034]), z= -0.74, p = .459. Sample type moderated the association (Q_M (1) = 5.03, p < .0001). For clinical samples the association was negative (r_clinical= -.112, (95%CI [-.201, -.017]).

Conclusion: There was evidence for a positive association between social anxiety and AE, but future studies are needed to verify the moderating roles of sex and type of measure. Besides, low CE might only hold for patients with SAD.

Keywords: affective empathy; cognitive empathy; meta-analysis; social anxiety; systematic review.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Review
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Anxiety
Empathy*
Fear*
Humans
Male
Self Report