Why does this matter? Beyond understanding social difficulties, empathic disequilibrium could be a stable behavioral marker for schizophrenia—helping advance diagnosis, treatment, and stigma reduction.

This effect is highly consistent across studies, much more than empathy.

In a meta-analysis of 10 studies (N=1,080 participants), we found:

Emotional empathy dominance (feeling more than understanding) strongly predicts schizophrenia.

Empathic disequilibrium refers to the imbalance between emotional empathy (feeling others' emotions) and cognitive empathy (understanding others' emotions) and was previously related to autism, depression, and self-harm.