Emotional reactivity, emotion perception, and emotional empathy.

Objective: Neuropsychological models of emotion posit that we simulate the feelings of others in ourselves as a means to understand them.Accordingly, people who are more emotionally reactive may be better at simulation and responding to the emotions of others.This study aimed to examine the relationship between emotional responsivity and emotion perception in normal adults and to determine whether these factors change with age.Method: A trait measure of emotional reactivity (Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale), a naturalistic video measure of emotion perception (Complex Audio-Visual Emotion Assessment Task-Short), and a trait measure of emotional empathy (Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale) were administered to 369 normal healthy adults 24-83 years of age using a digital research platform.Results: People high in negative reactivity (and low in positive reactivity) were more accurate recognizing negative emotional expressions (small to medium effects: r = -.130 to -.203).People high in positive reactivity tended to selfreport greater emotional empathy (r = .441-.443).There were no differences across age groups, although there was an indication that older adults self-reported fewer negative mood states (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale).Conclusions: We found a relationship between responsivity and emotion perception, consistent with the simulation model of emotion processing, but specifically for negative reactivity.The results suggest that high positive reactivity, likely reflecting good emotion regulation, is aligned with empathy.Older adults do not show a decrement if we use naturalistic video materials to assess emotion perception.These findings require replication in a more culturally diverse sample but have interesting implications for rehabilitation. Key PointsQuestion: Does being emotionally responsive make it easier to recognize emotions in others?Findings: Yes, higher emotional responsivity is associated with better recognition of negative emotions and greater empathy in a group representing young through to older adults.Importance: These findings add to our understanding of how emotional processes are interrelated.They can point to where and why problems in both may coexist in some clinical populations.Next Steps: Given a relationship between emotional responsivity and emotion perception, techniques that improve the one may well improve the other.This leads to a series of testable, important rehabilitation questions.