Exploring Actual and Presumed Links between Accurately Inferring Contents of Other People’s Minds and Prosocial Outcomes

Abstract

The term “empathic accuracy” has been applied to people’s ability to infer the contents of other people’s minds—that is, other people’s varying feelings and/or thoughts over the course of a social interaction. However, despite the ease of intuitively linking this skill to competence in helping professions such as counseling, the “empathic” prefix in its name may have contributed to overestimating its association with prosocial traits and behaviors. Accuracy in reading others’ thoughts and feelings, like many other skills, can be used toward prosocial—but also malevolent or morally neutral—ends. Prosocial intentions can direct attention towards other people’s thoughts and feelings, which may, in turn, increase accuracy in inferring those thoughts and feelings, but attention to others’ thoughts and feelings does not necessarily heighten prosocial intentions, let alone outcomes.

Keywords

• interpersonal sensitivity
• empathic accuracy
• mentalizing
• prosocial behavior