Social cognition and healthy aging: Cross-sectional associations of emotion perception, theory of mind, and emotional empathy

Objective: Older adults are identified to have reduced social cognitive performance compared to younger adults. However, few studies have examined age-associations throughout later life to determine whether these reductions continue with advancing age.

Method: This study assesses cross-sectional associations of emotion perception, cognitive and affective theory of mind (ToM), and emotional empathy in a healthy sample of 157 adults aged 50-89 years (M = 65.31, SD = 9.00, 68% female sex). Emotion perception, cognitive ToM, and affective ToM were measured using The Awareness of Social Inference Test Short Form (TASIT-S), while affective ToM was also measured using Reading the Mind in the Eyes Revised (RME-R). Emotional empathy was measured using the Empathy Quotient.

Results: Multiple regression analyses, adjusting for multiple comparisons, revealed a moderate negative association between age and emotion perception for all emotions combined, as well as for sad and revolted expressions, but not happy, neutral, anxious, or angry expressions. Age had a negative, moderate association with first-order cognitive, second-order cognitive, and affective ToM measured using TASIT-S, but not RME-R. Age was not significantly associated with emotional empathy.

Conclusions: This study contributes to the limited understanding of age-related associations of social cognitive performance throughout later life. This knowledge can inform future research examining the clinical utility of including social cognitive measures in neuropsychological screening and diagnostic tools for later-life neurological disorders.