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Empathizing-Systemizing Theory

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Related Terms

Mentalizing; Theory of mind

Definition

Empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory concerns two fundamental cognitive processes known as empathizing and systemizing. It was developed by Simon Baron-Cohen in the early 2000s and endeavors to explain autism and Asperger syndrome as well as sex differences in the general population (Baron-Cohen 2002, 2009, 2010; Baron-Cohen et al. 2005).

Introduction

As with many other empathy researchers, Baron-Cohen describes empathizing as consisting of two components, cognitive and affective empathy. Cognitive empathy means a drive to identify another person’s emotions and thoughts, as well as an ability to put oneself into someone else’s shoes and to imagine their thoughts and feelings. Affective empathy in the E-S theory is a response element, that is to say, having an appropriate emotional reaction to another person’s thoughts and feelings.

Systemizing is defined as a drive to analyze or construct systems. A system is something that follows...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Marjaana Lindeman

Authors
  1. Marjaana Lindeman
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Correspondence to Marjaana Lindeman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Christian Jordan

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Lindeman, M. (2020). Empathizing-Systemizing Theory. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1129

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