情感共情与观点采择：共情双成分结构、社会功能及神经机制综述

Affective Empathy and Perspective-Taking: A Review of the Two-Component Structure, Social Functions, and Neural Mechanisms of Empathy

摘要: 共情是个体理解并回应他人内部状态的重要心理能力，在社会互动、亲社会行为和道德判断中具有重要作用。然而，既有研究对共情的定义和操作化并不一致，常将情绪共享、观点采择、共情关怀和个人痛苦等不同过程混合使用，导致共情的社会后果呈现出不一致甚至相反的结论。本文以情感共情与观点采择为核心线索，梳理共情双成分结构的理论与实证依据，并进一步比较二者在社会功能和神经机制上的差异。已有研究表明，情感共情主要表现为对他人情绪线索的敏感性、情绪卷入和即时反应，其神经基础更多涉及情绪共享、内感受加工和身体状态表征；观点采择则主要表现为对他人信念、意图、情绪原因和处境的理解，其神经基础更多涉及心理状态推断、自他区分和前额叶–颞顶网络。二者既具有相对独立性，又在真实社会互动中动态协同，并受到自他区分、情绪调节和认知控制等因素调节。区分情感共情与观点采择，有助于澄清共情研究中的概念混用，并解释共情在不同社会情境中为何产生不同社会后果。

Abstract: Empathy is an important psychological capacity that enables individuals to understand and respond to others’ internal states, playing a key role in social interaction, prosocial behavior, and moral judgment. However, existing studies have used inconsistent definitions and operationalizations of empathy, often conflating emotional sharing, perspective-taking, empathic concern, and personal distress. This has led to inconsistent, and sometimes even contradictory, findings regarding the social consequences of empathy. Focusing on affective empathy and perspective-taking as two core components, this review summarizes the theoretical and empirical evidence for the two-component structure of empathy and further compares their differences in social functions and neural mechanisms. Existing research suggests that affective empathy is mainly reflected in sensitivity to others’ emotional cues, emotional engagement, and immediate responses, with neural mechanisms more closely related to emotional sharing, interoceptive processing, and bodily state representation. In contrast, perspective-taking is mainly reflected in the understanding of others’ beliefs, intentions, emotional causes, and situations, with neural mechanisms more closely associated with mental-state inference, self-other distinction, and the prefrontal-temporoparietal network. The two components are relatively independent, yet dynamically coordinated in real social interactions, and are modulated by self-other distinction, emotion regulation, and cognitive control. Distinguishing affective empathy from perspective-taking helps clarify conceptual ambiguities in empathy research and explains why empathy may lead to different social consequences across contexts.