A-157: Cognitive Flexibility is Not Social Flexibility: A Hierarchical Regression Study of Predictors of Empathy in Young Adults

Abstract

Objective: This study examined whether cognitive flexibility predicts multiple facets of empathy, including perspective taking, empathic concern, fantasy, and personal distress. Method/Data Selection: Participants included 147 younger adults (ages 18–34; 84 females, 63 males; 12–24 years of education) from the Open Science Framework dataset Goal-Directed Cognition in Older and Younger Adults (Spreng, 2024). Cognitive flexibility was assessed using the Trails B–A difference score. Empathy was assessed using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), which conceptualizes empathy as perspective taking, fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses examined whether cognitive flexibility predicted each domain, controlling for age, sex, and education. Results/Data Synthesis: For perspective taking, the model was not significant, F(4, 142) = 1.32, p = .265, R2 = .036, with cognitive flexibility emerging as a non-significant predictor (β = .068, p = .414). Similarly, the model predicting fantasy was not significant, F(4, 142) = 1.46, p = .217, R2 = .040, and cognitive flexibility was not a significant predictor (β = .041, p = .623); however, sex was a significant predictor (β = .179, p = .032). For empathic concern, the model was not significant, F(4, 142) = 0.78, p = .543, R2 = .021, and cognitive flexibility was not significant (β = .024, p = .771). Finally, for personal distress, cognitive flexibility was not a significant predictor and accounted for negligible variance, consistent with a non-significant bivariate association (r = .055, p = .510). Conclusions: These findings suggest that empathic responding may be more strongly influenced by developmental and demographic factors than by executive functioning.