Abstract Book of the 9th World Conference on Social Sciences
Year: 2025
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A Narrative Review of The Interplay Between Empathy, Cognitive Dissonance, And Wellbeing Among Physicians
Florence Jose, Atasi Mohanty, Sudip Misra
ABSTRACT:
Empathy is a cornerstone of effective healthcare, shaping both patient outcomes and physician wellbeing. It comprises two interrelated components: affective empathy, the capacity to share a patient’s emotional state, and cognitive empathy, the ability to understand the patient’s perspective without necessarily experiencing their emotions. Physicians often experience emotional distress in response to patients’ suffering while needing to maintain objectivity to make sound clinical decisions. This tension can give rise to cognitive dissonance, a psychological discomfort resulting from conflicting thoughts. The aim of this narrative review is to synthesize conceptual foundations, theoretical frameworks, and empirical evidence to examine the interplay between empathy, cognitive dissonance, and physician wellbeing. A strategic search of academic databases, including Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and BioMed Central, identified relevant theoretical and empirical studies. This review integrates seminal works such as the Dual-Component Model of Empathy, Emotional Labour Theory, and Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory. Although cognitive dissonance has been explored among medical students, its influence on physicians’ use of empathy particularly the distinction between affective and cognitive empathy remains underexplored. No research to date has investigated whether empathy reduction may result from dissonance in this context. This study maps conceptual relationships between these constructs and highlights the potential of the action-based model of cognitive dissonance theory to explain empathy fluctuations. It calls for further research into how different types of empathy and dissonance management strategies influence physician wellbeing. The findings aim to inform interventions that preserve the benefits of empathy, reduce dissonance, and enhance wellbeing in clinical practice.
Keywords: Action-Based Model; Affective Empathy; Cognitive Empathy; Healthcare; Physician Wellbeing