Fig 3. Simple slopes depicting the relation between empathy and interpersonal functioning at time 1 for individuals who inhibited (1 SD above the mean) the distracting personally-relevant facial expressions of anger and those who did not (1 SD below the mean).

Note that higher interpersonal functioning scores indicate greater social impairment. For individuals who showed weak inhibition of the distracting angry face of their partner, elevated levels of empathy were associated with poor interpersonal outcomes (b = .057, p = .019). Conversely, for those who showed strong inhibition of the distracting angry face of their partner, high empathy was associated with positive interpersonal outcomes, but the slope was not statistically different from zero (b = -.061, p = .15).