Abstract
<p>Empathy is often conceptualized as an inferential process in which perceivers estimate another’s internal state by integrating observable cues with referential models. Because psychophysiological states are accompanied by changes in both behavior and physiology, interoceptive accuracy may support inferences about another’s internal state. We tested whether interoceptive accuracy predicts alteroceptive accuracy: the ability to estimate another person’s bodily state. In Experiment 1 (n = 67), participants completed the Heartbeat Counting task and a structurally homologous alteroceptive task in which they estimated a co-participant’s heartbeats by observation alone. Alteroceptive performance exceeded empirical chance and interoceptive accuracy predicted alteroceptive accuracy. Experiment 2 (n = 75) showed that this association was not explained by interval timing, heart rate beliefs, or heart rate similarity. Exploratory analyses suggested that alteroceptive accuracy uniquely predicted alexithymia, decision making under uncertainty, and emotion recognition. A theory of body may provide a tractable substrate upon which a theory of mind is constructed.</p>