The Effects of Cognitive Load on Intergroup Empathy Biases

Accurate and quick judgments of others' mental and emotional states are crucial for social interaction. However, these judgments can be compromised by social biases, especially while cognitive demands are high and cognitive resources are low. Empathy is not always allocated to everyone equally, especially when the target is considered an outgroup member. One factor that may exacerbate such empathy biases is cognitive load, as cognitive load has been shown to increase ingroup biases and impair empathizing. This study investigates whether high cognitive load and racial outgroup membership interact, potentially worsening behavioral and self-reported indicators of empathy bias. To our knowledge, the present work is the first to directly manipulate cognitive load during intergroup empathizing, examining its effects on two distinct, yet interacting, routes of empathy—experience sharing and mentalizing. Mentalizing (cognitive empathy) and affective experience sharing (emotional empathy) activate different brain networks but interact during social situations, necessitating separate examination within the same paradigm. Using an empathy task designed to test racial empathy biases, we integrate behavioral and self-report measures to capture empathy dynamics in response to naturalistic stimuli. This approach allows us to test how group biases and cognitive load independently and jointly affect mentalizing and experience sharing.