The Role of Motivation in Empathic Accuracy within Romantic Relationships: A Systematic Review

Empathic accuracy (E.A.) in couples refers to partners’ ability to infer each other’s unspoken thoughts and feelings and has been linked to key relational outcomes. Growing evidence indicates that E.A. emerges from motivational processes shaped by partners’ goals as well as the interactional context. The aim of the current systematic review was to identify the motives underlying E.A. documented in previous research. Our results show that motivational influences arise from relationship characteristics (e.g., relationship length) intra-individual factors (e.g., attachment style, gender roles, past experiences), as well as situational factors (e.g., threatening nature of the discussion). Overall, findings highlight the role of relationship-specific motives in guiding how partners regulate empathic (in)accuracy across contexts.