The dark side of affective empathy in cognitive control: A Moderated Mediation Model

The present study aims to explore whether attentional control mediates the association between affective empathy and cognitive flexibility and whether neurobiological indicator delta power moderates the relationship between affective empathy and attentional control. Based on the above literature review, this study proposed three hypotheses: (1) Affective empathy is negatively related to cognitive flexibility. (2) Attentional control mediates the relationship between affective empathy and cognitive flexibility. (3) Delta power moderates the relationship between affective empathy and attentional control. The results show that affective empathy is significantly negatively correlated with cognitive flexibility, and this relationship is partially mediated by attentional control. Furthermore, delta power moderates the relation between affective empathy and attentional control.