Empathy refers to the ability to share and understand others’ emotions, and it plays an important role in everyday social interactions. Prior studies have revealed empathic abnormalities in both clinical and subclinical samples of schizophrenia in laboratory, yet our understanding of their empathy in real-world contexts remains limited. In order to bridge such a gap, Drs. Wang Yi and Raymond Chan of the Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory (NACN Lab), State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, together with Prof. Wang Yanyu’s team from Shandong Second Medical University, have conducted two independent studies to examine the cognitive and affective empathy in people with schizophrenia and individuals with high social anhedonia using experience sampling methods. 

Study 1 included 46 individuals with high social anhedonia and 53 individuals with low social anhedonia. Each participant reported their emotional states, social pleasure, and cognitive and affective empathy 10 times per day for one week via a smartphone application, with an average completion rate of 77.8%. The results showed that individuals with high social anhedonia exhibited lower cognitive and affective empathy in daily life. Moreover, these reductions in empathy were associated with decreased social pleasure and positive emotional states. This study has been published online in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Study 2 extended the sample to include 31 outpatients with schizophrenia, 31 individuals with high social anhedonia, and 32 healthy controls, with an average survey completion rate of 62.8%. The findings revealed that although people with schizophrenia showed lower empathic accuracy than controls in laboratory-based tasks, their self-reported cognitive and affective empathy in daily life was comparable to controls. In contrast, individuals with high social anhedonia demonstrated normal empathic accuracy in laboratory settings but exhibited significantly reduced empathy in daily life, particularly in affective empathy.

Moreover, Study 2 also examined the dynamic relationships among empathy, social pleasure, and emotional states. Across all three groups, there was a consistent pattern showing that higher social pleasure was associated with higher empathy. The interaction between empathy and positive emotional state differed among the groups: it was unidirectional in controls, bidirectional in individuals with high social anhedonia, and absent in people with schizophrenia. This study has been published online in Schizophrenia Bulletin.

Together, these two studies systematically revealed the characteristics and mechanisms of empathy in daily life among individuals across the schizophrenia spectrum. These findings provide a new perspective for understanding social cognitive changes in schizophrenia and offer valuable insights for developing tailored intervention strategies.

The above studies were supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, the Humanities and Social Science Research Program of the Ministry of Education, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Scientific Research Foundation of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Philip K. H. Wong Foundation. 

Publication information:

Gu, J., Hu, W., Meng, X., Zhang, L., Wang, M., Cao, Y., Barkus, E., Lui, S. S. Y., Wang, Y.*, Wang, Y.*, & Chan, R. C. K. (2026). Altered empathy in daily life of individuals with high social anhedonia: An experience sampling study. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 192, 40–48. 

Gu, J., Ding, X., Yang, J., Meng, X., Hu, W., Li, X., Wang, Y.*, Wang, Y.*, Lui, S. S. Y., & Chan, R. C. K. (2025). Individuals with High Social Anhedonia but not Schizophrenia Exhibited Altered Empathy in Daily Life. Schizophrenia Bulletin, sbaf136.