New research reveals that secure early attachments are linked to stronger cognitive empathy, influencing social understanding and emotional regulation in adulthood.
A review in the International Journal of Psychology adds to a growing body of evidence that the way people are attached to close caregivers may shape how they understand other people’s feelings and thoughts. Drawing on earlier work in developmental psychology, neuroscience and clinical research, the paper argues that secure attachment is more consistently linked with stronger cognitive empathy – the ability to infer another person’s beliefs, intentions or emotions – than with affective empathy, which is the capacity to share another’s emotional state.
That distinction matters because empathy is not a single skill. Research summarised alongside the review shows that cognitive perspective-taking and affective perspective-taking overlap in some brain regions but also recruit different neural systems. Other studies cited in the review suggest that empathy draws on related yet separable processes, including theory of mind, emotion recognition and perspective-taking, all of which help people navigate social life. In practical terms, that means someone may be good at understanding what another person thinks without necessarily feeling the other person’s emotions as strongly.
The review also points to a pattern seen across newer studies: attachment security appears to support the more reflective, cognitive side of empathy, while insecure attachment is more often associated with weaker performance on tasks involving perspective-taking or emotion understanding. A systematic review published in 2025 reached a similar conclusion, finding that secure attachment was linked to more accurate cognitive empathy, whereas evidence for affective empathy was less consistent. Experimental work has also found that people with insecure-anxious attachment can show stronger physiological reactions, such as heightened skin conductance, when asked to take the perspective of someone in distress.
Taken together, the evidence suggests that early relational experience may help shape the social machinery adults rely on later in life. The authors’ broader message is not that attachment determines empathy in a fixed way, but that it appears to influence how readily people can regulate emotion, read social cues and adopt another person’s point of view. That has implications for parenting, education and clinical work, where improving emotional security may also strengthen the social skills that underpin cooperation, compassion and effective communication.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
