Effects of classical psychedelics on implicit and explicit emotional empathy and cognitive empathy: a meta-analysis of MET task

Introduction

Empathy is a multifaceted social-cognitive capacity encompassing cognitive empathy (understanding another's mental states) and emotional empathy (sharing another's feelings), with the latter often divided into implicit (automatic arousal) and explicit (deliberate self-report) components. Earlier experimental studies reported mixed findings on how classical psychedelics—principally LSD, psilocybin and ayahuasca, all 5-HT2A receptor agonists—affect social cognition: some work found increases in emotional empathy and sociality, while effects on cognitive empathy have been inconsistent. No previous meta-analysis had synthesised results across a single standardised task to clarify the overall pattern of effects across these substances. In response to that gap, Olami and colleagues conducted a PRISMA-guided meta-analysis restricted to studies that used the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), a validated task that provides measures of cognitive empathy (accuracy in identifying emotions from photos), explicit emotional empathy (self-report ratings) and implicit emotional empathy (arousal ratings). By limiting synthesis to one task, the researchers aimed to improve comparability across studies that varied in drug type, dose, setting and timing of assessment, and to estimate the pooled effects of LSD, psilocybin and ayahuasca on the MET-derived empathy outcomes.