Do Individuals With Overweight and Obesity Have Reduced Affective and Cognitive Empathy? A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

Abstract Background and Objectives Obesity is associated with various interpersonal difficulties. Previous research on empathy has indicated that weight is negatively correlated with empathic skills in children and adolescents. However, few studies have examined this question in adults, and the existing studies have provided inconsistent results. Methods This systematic review and meta‐analysis aimed to examine empathic skills among people with overweight and obesity. Six databases were searched to find studies based on performance measures and self‐report questionnaires investigating cognitive and affective empathy in adults with overweight and obesity (BMI > 25 kg/m 2 ) compared with normal‐weight individuals. Results Ten studies involving 2648 individuals were included after screening the 6779 references that were initially retrieved from the database. Analyses revealed a significant difference between individuals with overweight/obesity and normal‐weight individuals ( k = 11, Hedge's g = −0.52 [−0.97, −0.07], Z = −2.26, p = 0.024). Subgroup analyses revealed no significant difference between people with overweight and people with obesity ( Q = 0.36, p = 0.546). However, the effect size for cognitive empathy was higher than that for affective empathy ( Q = 7.30, p = 0.007), and the effect size for performances measures was higher than that for self‐report questionnaires ( Q = 6.61, p = 0.010). Conclusion Adults with overweight or obesity present lower scores of empathy, particularly for cognitive empathy. These results emphasize the need to better understand which specific components of cognitive empathy might be affected and to conduct studies to evaluate affective empathy beyond self‐report questionnaires. Future research should also determine the underlying mechanisms and longitudinally test the role of empathy in the onset and maintenance of obesity.