Regulating negative emotions of others reduces own stress: Neurobiological correlates and the role of individual differences in empathy

•Not much is known about the effects of regulating others’ emotions on own stress levels.•Facing aversive pictorial stimuli simultaneously with an alleged partner, 62 participants underwent a self and other emotion regulation fMRI task.•Personal distress in response to the pictures was especially high for individuals with high emotional empathy.•Actively regulating another person's negative emotions resulted in lower self-reported distress than non-regulation.•The regulating of other's emotions was mediated by increased activity in parts of the social brain network, i.e., precuneus and the left TPJ.•Our study points to benefits of regulating other's emotions for own stress levels.