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Influs M, Pratt M, Masalha S, Zagoory-Sharon O, Feldman R. A social neuroscience approach to conflict resolution: Dialogue intervention to Israeli and Palestinian youth impacts oxytocin and empathy. Soc Neurosci 2018; 14:378-389. [PMID: 29799332 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2018.1479983] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
The rapid increase in terror-related activities, shift of battlefield into civilian locations, and participation of youth in acts of violence underscore the need to find novel frameworks for youth interventions. Building on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and social neuroscience models we developed an eight-week dialogue group-intervention for youth growing up amidst intractable conflict. Eighty-eight Israeli-Jewish and Arab-Palestinian adolescents (16-18years) were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Before (T1) and after (T2) intervention, one-on-one conflict interaction with outgroup member were videotaped, oxytocin levels assayed, attitudes self-reported, and youth interviewed regarding national conflict. We tested the hypothesis that dialogue intervention would enhance empathic behavior and increase oxytocin levels following interaction with outgroup member. Intervention increased youth perspective-taking on national conflict. Oxytocin increased from T1 to T2 only for adolescents undergoing intervention who improved perspective taking in the process. Structural equation modelling charted three pathways to behavioral empathy toward outgroup member at T2; via endogenous oxytocin, empathic cognitions, and dialogue intervention; however, an alternative model without the intervention arm was non-significant. Our findings highlight the important role of empathy in programs for inter-group reconciliation and support evolutionary models on the precarious balance between the neurobiology of affiliation and the neurobiology of outgroup derogation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moran Influs
- a Department of Psychology , Bar Ilan University , Ramat Gan , Israel.,b Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology , Interdisciplinary Center , Herzlia , Isreal
| | - Maayan Pratt
- a Department of Psychology , Bar Ilan University , Ramat Gan , Israel.,b Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology , Interdisciplinary Center , Herzlia , Isreal
| | - Shafiq Masalha
- c Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research , Tel Aviv University , Tel Aviv , Israel
| | - Orna Zagoory-Sharon
- b Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology , Interdisciplinary Center , Herzlia , Isreal
| | - Ruth Feldman
- b Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology , Interdisciplinary Center , Herzlia , Isreal.,d Child Study Center , Yale University , New Haven , CT , USA
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Hasson Y, Tamir M, Brahms KS, Cohrs JC, Halperin E. Are Liberals and Conservatives Equally Motivated to Feel Empathy Toward Others? PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN 2018; 44:1449-1459. [DOI: 10.1177/0146167218769867] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Do liberals and conservatives differ in their empathy toward others? This question has been difficult to resolve due to methodological constraints and common use of ideologically biased targets. To more adequately address this question, we examined how much empathy liberals and conservatives want to feel, how much empathy they actually feel, and how willing they are to help others. We used targets that are equivalent in the degree to which liberals and conservatives identify with, by setting either liberals, conservatives, or ideologically neutral members as social targets. To support the generalizability of our findings, we conducted the study in the United States, Israel, and Germany. We found that, on average and across samples, liberals wanted to feel more empathy and experienced more empathy than conservatives did. Liberals were also more willing to help others than conservatives were, in the United States and Germany, but not in Israel. In addition, across samples, both liberals and conservatives wanted to feel less empathy toward outgroup members than toward ingroup members or members of a nonpolitical group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yossi Hasson
- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
- The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel
| | - Maya Tamir
- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
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Han S. Neurocognitive Basis of Racial Ingroup Bias in Empathy. Trends Cogn Sci 2018; 22:400-421. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.02.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2017] [Revised: 02/21/2018] [Accepted: 02/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
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Terris ET, Beavin LE, Barraza JA, Schloss J, Zak PJ. Endogenous Oxytocin Release Eliminates In-Group Bias in Monetary Transfers With Perspective-Taking. Front Behav Neurosci 2018; 12:35. [PMID: 29556181 PMCID: PMC5845013 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2017] [Accepted: 02/15/2018] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Oxytocin (OT) has been shown to facilitate trust, empathy and other prosocial behaviors. At the same time, there is evidence that exogenous OT infusion may not result in prosocial behaviors in all contexts, increasing in-group biases in a number of studies. The current investigation seeks to resolve this inconsistency by examining if endogenous OT release is associated with in-group bias. We studied a large group of participants (N = 399) in existing groups and randomly formed groups. Participants provided two blood samples to measure the change in OT after a group salience task and then made computer-mediated monetary transfer decisions to in-group and out-group members. Our results show that participants with an increase in endogenous OT showed no bias in monetary offers in the ultimatum game (UG) to out-group members compared to in-groups. There was also no bias in accepting UG offers, though in-group bias persisted for a unilateral monetary transfer. Our analysis shows that the strength of identification with one's group diminished the effects that an increase in OT had on reducing bias, but bias only recurred when group identification reached 87% of its maximum value. Our results indicate that the endogenous OT system appears to reduce in-group bias in some contexts, particularly those that require perspective-taking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth T. Terris
- Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, United States
| | - Laura E. Beavin
- Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, United States
| | - Jorge A. Barraza
- Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, United States
| | - Jeff Schloss
- Department of Biology, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
| | - Paul J. Zak
- Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, United States
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Levy J, Goldstein A, Pratt M, Feldman R. Maturation of Pain Empathy from Child to Adult Shifts from Single to Multiple Neural Rhythms to Support Interoceptive Representations. Sci Rep 2018; 8:1810. [PMID: 29379042 PMCID: PMC5788915 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-19810-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2017] [Accepted: 01/05/2018] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
While empathy to the pain of conspecific is evolutionary-ancient and is observed in rodents and in primates, it also integrates higher-order affective representations. Yet, it is unclear whether human empathy for pain is inborn or matures during development and what neural processes underpin its maturation. Using magnetoencephalography, we monitored the brain response of children, adolescents, and adults (n = 209) to others' pain, testing the shift from childhood to adult functioning. Results indicate that children's vicarious empathy for pain operates via rudimentary sensory predictions involving alpha oscillations in somatosensory cortex, while adults' response recruits advanced mechanisms of updating sensory predictions and activating affective empathy in viceromotor cortex via higher-level representations involving beta- and gamma-band activity. Our findings suggest that full-blown empathy to others' pain emerges only in adulthood and involves a shift from sensory self-based to interoceptive other-focused mechanisms that support human altruism, maintain self-other differentiation, modulate feedback to monitor other's state, and activate a plan of action to alleviate other's suffering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Levy
- Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, 46150, Israel.
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel.
| | - Abraham Goldstein
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel
- Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel
| | - Maayan Pratt
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel
- Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel
| | - Ruth Feldman
- Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, 46150, Israel.
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel.
- Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel.
- Yale University, Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
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Kavaliers M, Choleris E. Out-Group Threat Responses, In-Group Bias, and Nonapeptide Involvement Are Conserved across Vertebrates: (A Comment on Bruintjes et al., "Out-Group Threat Promotes Within-Group Affiliation in a Cooperative Fish"). Am Nat 2017; 189:453-458. [PMID: 28350495 DOI: 10.1086/690838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
The challenges and threats posed by out-groups have major effects on human social behavior and how individuals interact with one another. We briefly review evidence here that out-group threat similarly affects nonhuman animal behavior. Actual and potential threats posed by out-group individuals (unfamiliar and genetically nonrelated individuals of the same species) affect social behavior promoting "out-group" avoidance and "in-group" bias and enhancing in-group (familiar and/or genetically related individuals) affiliation and interactions. Individuals from out-groups present risks of pathogen exposure as well as being threats to resources, territory, and offspring. All of these threats function to promote in-group bias in humans and nonhumans. There are also striking similarities in the underlying neurobiological mechanisms mediating the responses to out-group threat and the expression of in-group bias. In particular, the evolutionarily conserved, hormone-regulated nonapeptide systems (oxytocin, arginine-vasopressin, and homologous neuropeptides and their receptors) are involved in the mediation of the detection and avoidance of out-groups and response to in-groups and facilitation of in-group responses across multiple vertebrate species. Consequently, comparative investigations of both the behavioral expression of and the mechanism underlying out-group avoidance and in-group bias are necessary for a full understanding of the evolution of social behavior and responses to in- and out-groups.
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The Neurobiology of Human Attachments. Trends Cogn Sci 2017; 21:80-99. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 380] [Impact Index Per Article: 54.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2016] [Revised: 11/14/2016] [Accepted: 11/22/2016] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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