Descriptive data (Mean and Standard Deviation) of “pain” responses and reaction times to ambiguous expressions of pain (50%–50%) for each type of prime.

<p><i>Note</i>. The total of responses for each category of prime is 16.</p

Schematic overview of a typical trial.

<p>Schematic overview of a typical trial.</p

One-sample t tests for each type of ambiguous expression of pain (i.e., morphed with happiness, neutral, and fearful expressions) and for each contrast.

<p><i>Note</i>. For Responses, positive values correspond to higher sensitivity to detect pain in ambiguous expressions of pain primed with distress words relative to compassion, neutral or negative primes. For Reaction Times, negative values correspond to quicker detection of pain in ambiguous expressions of pain primed with distress words relative to compassion, neutral or negative primes.</p><p>* <i>p</i><.05;</p><p>*** <i>p</i><.005.</p

Correlations and descriptive statistics (mean and SD) of affective empathy, avoidance, approach and emotion regulation strategies.

<p>Correlations and descriptive statistics (mean and SD) of affective empathy, avoidance, approach and emotion regulation strategies.</p

Mediational models: The effect of CERQ rumination (Fig 1A) and CERQ other-blame (Fig 1B) on avoidance (<i>“Desire to disappear from the situation”</i>) through personal distress and the effect of CERQ rumination on personal distress through avoidance (<i>“Desire to disappear from the situation”</i>) (Fig 1C).

<p>Mediational models: The effect of CERQ rumination (Fig 1A) and CERQ other-blame (Fig 1B) on avoidance (<i>“Desire to disappear from the situation”</i>) through personal distress and the effect of CERQ rumination on personal distress through avoidance (<i>“Desire to disappear from the situation”</i>) (Fig 1C).</p

Behavioral deficits (in percentage) among high alexithymia scorers to process emotional and neutral facial expressions, without controlling for confounding factors.

<p>The deficits refer to the number of studies that found a deficit for the emotion relative to the number of studies that assessed this emotion.</p

Summary of the characteristics of the studies reviewed.

<p>Summary of the characteristics of the studies reviewed.</p

Behavioural deficits among High Alexithymia Scorers to process emotional and neutral facial expressions, without controlling for confounding factors.

<p><i>Note</i>. ‘–’ = deficits; ‘x’ = no deficits; ‘n.i.’ = not investigated; ‘Ø’ = investigated but not assessed.</p