ArticleBiological psychology2023
Is there a cost to caring? Dispositional affective empathy interacts with depressive symptoms to predict higher C-reactive protein 8 years later.
Article in Biological psychology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Investigating psychosocial factors and systemic inflammation using dried blood spots: a scoping review.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Children's empathy moderates the association between perceived interparental conflict and child health.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Affective empathy, including the tendency to vicariously experience the emotions of others, is a highly-valued prosocial trait, but has been previously found to be associated with higher chronic inflammation cross-sectionally and to interact with the levels of depressive symptoms in important social partners. The current study utilized prospective longitudinal data from a nationally representative study of adults in the United States to assess whether dispositional affective empathy interacted with one's own depressive symptoms to predict C-reactive protein (CRP) approximately eight years later. Results revealed that higher ratings of empathy predicted higher CRP, but only among individuals with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Higher depressive symptoms related to greater inflammation regardless of dispositional empathy and perceived stress did not account for observed associations. Taken together, these findings suggest that vicariously experiencing others' emotions may come at a biological cost, which, if sustained, may place individuals at greater risk for inflammatory diseases.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.