Borderline Personality traits linked to lowered Empathy



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“Our results showed that people with BPD traits had reduced activity in brain regions that support empathy,” said the study’s lead author Brian Haas, an assistant professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences psychology department. “This reduced activation may suggest that people with more BPD traits have a more difficult time understanding and/or predicting how others feel, at least compared to individuals with fewer BPD traits.”


In the empathetic processing task, participants would match the emotion of faces to a situation’s context. As a control, Haas and study co-author Joshua Miller also included shapes, like squares and circles, that participants would have to match from emotion of the faces to the situation.

“We found that for those with more BPD traits, these empathetic processes aren’t as easily activated,” said Miller, a psychology professor and director of the Clinical Training Program.


“Oftentimes, borderline personality disorder is considered a binary phenomenon. Either you have it or you don’t,” said Haas, who runs the Gene-Brain-Social Behavioral Lab. “But for our study, we conceptualized and measured it in a more continuous way such that individuals can vary along a continuum of no traits to very many BPD traits.”



“Borderline personality disorder is considered one of the most severe and troubling personality disorders,” Miller said. “BPD can make it difficult to have successful friendships and romantic relationships. These findings could help explain why that is.”


“In this study, we looked at participants who had a relatively high amount of BPD traits. I think it’d be great to study this situation in a real life scenario, such as having people with BPD traits read the emotional states of their partners,” he said.

2 thoughts on “Borderline Personality traits linked to lowered Empathy

  1. luckyotter says:

    Reblogged this on Lucky Otter's Haven and commented:

    A new study found that people with BPD may have lowered or limited empathy, and that it may be biochemical. I sometimes think I’m a bit empathy challenged myself, though not in a general sense. For example, I feel just awful when I see or read about someone’s suffering (especially animals and children) but it’s hard to me to empathize on an interpersonal, emotional level with another person. I do have cognitive empathy (knowing how another feels, as opposed to sharing their feelings) even if its sometimes hard for me to feel WITH someone else. This is something I want to change.

    I’ve known other Borderlines who seem to almost have too much empathy, and very profoundly affected by the moods of those around them. The problem for BPDs, whether they have too much or too little empathy, is that we get so caught up in our own problems we can seem to be oblivious to what others are feeling. Usually when we’re called out on our selfishness though, we feel pretty badly about it and try to make up for it.

    I think a lot more research needs to be done on this matter before any blanket judgments are made. Unlike people with NPD or Antisocial Personality Disorder, I don’t think lack of empathy is a defining characteristic for Borderlines.


    • cherished79 says:

      Thanks for reblogging and sending your knowledge my way which is important when I post on a topic. I really appreciate input from other bloggers, it makes our mental health blogging community invaluable. 🙂 Deb

      Liked by 1 person

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