Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Empathy in Conflict and Morally Challenging Contexts: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Empathy in conflictual and morally challenging situations is not a simple response to others’ suffering, but is shaped by affective resonance under conditions of perceived harm, responsibility and norm violation. Previous research has often examined these processes in isolation, for example in studies on empathy for pain or in moral dilemma paradigms. The aim of this scoping review is to systematically map the neurocognitive mechanisms of empathy in morally challenging contexts. In accordance with the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, 60 empirical studies using neuroimaging, EEG or psychophysiological methods were included. The findings were organised into five clusters: affective resonance, moral attribution and perspective taking, empathy in decision-making processes, top-down modulation, and dispositional and atypical profiles. Across all clusters, empathic distress was primarily associated with strong affective activation and salience processing, whereas compassion was linked to stronger engagement of cognitive and prefrontal networks. In morally challenging contexts, this imbalance reflects different patterns of integration between affective resonance and cognitive components of empathy.