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Chiang YC, Chien SHL, Lyu JL, Chang CK. Recognition of Dynamic Emotional Expressions in Children and Adults and Its Associations with Empathy. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2024; 24:4674. [PMID: 39066071 PMCID: PMC11281223 DOI: 10.3390/s24144674] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2024] [Revised: 07/12/2024] [Accepted: 07/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/28/2024]
Abstract
This present study investigates emotion recognition in children and adults and its association with EQ and motor empathy. Overall, 58 children (33 5-6-year-olds, 25 7-9-year-olds) and 61 adults (24 young adults, 37 parents) participated in this study. Each participant received an EQ questionnaire and completed the dynamic emotion expression recognition task, where participants were asked to identify four basic emotions (happy, sad, fearful, and angry) from neutral to fully expressed states, and the motor empathy task, where participants' facial muscle activity was recorded. The results showed that "happy" was the easiest expression for all ages; 5- to 6-year-old children performed equally well as adults. The accuracies for "fearful," "angry," and "sad" expressions were significantly lower in children than in adults. For motor empathy, 7- to 9-year-old children exhibited the highest level of facial muscle activity, while the young adults showed the lowest engagement. Importantly, individual EQ scores positively correlated with the motor empathy index in adults but not in children. In sum, our study echoes the previous literature, showing that the identification of negative emotions is still difficult for children aged 5-9 but that this improves in late childhood. Our results also suggest that stronger facial mimicry responses are positively related to a higher level of empathy in adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu-Chen Chiang
- School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan;
| | - Sarina Hui-Lin Chien
- Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan; (J.-L.L.)
- Center for Neuroscience and Brain Disease, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan
| | - Jia-Ling Lyu
- Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan; (J.-L.L.)
| | - Chien-Kai Chang
- Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan; (J.-L.L.)
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2
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Rabl L, Maerz J, Viviani R, Labek K. The dark side of personality functioning: associations between antisocial cognitions, personality functioning (AMPD), empathy and mentalisation. Front Psychiatry 2024; 15:1377177. [PMID: 38863611 PMCID: PMC11165144 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1377177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction With the introduction of the new psychiatric diagnostic manuals, personality functioning has gained new prominence. Several studies have reported consistent findings that individual showing high levels of antisocial features are associated with alterations in interpersonal functioning domains such as empathy and mentalisation. The focus of the current study (N = 198) is to examine antisocial cognitions, as measured by the Scrambled Sentences Task (SST), and to what extent this approach can help to better understand the relationship between antisocial traits and personality functioning/empathy. Method We implemented a hypothesis-driven approach using logistic regression and a data-driven approach using machine learning to examine distinct but related measures of personality functioning as predictors of antisocial cognitions. Results Antisocial cognitions were associated with low interpersonal functioning as expected, but only when not adjusting for antisocial traits, which accounted for almost all the association. The data-driven analysis revealed that individual items assessing empathic concern in personality functioning scales (as opposed to the whole scores) explained low antisocial cognitions even when adjusting for antisocial traits. Discussion Antisocial cognitions appear to be associated to two distinct traits, the antisocial and a specific type of personality functioning. This finding is discussed in terms of the possible distinction between two motivational forces: to harm others/prioritize one's advantage, and to help suffering others.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luna Rabl
- Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Jeff Maerz
- Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Roberto Viviani
- Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
- Dept. of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy III, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
| | - Karin Labek
- Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
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3
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Ben Adiva Y, Genzer S, Perry A. Beyond physical sensations: investigating empathy and prosocial behavior in vicarious pain responders. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2024; 19:nsae039. [PMID: 38910333 PMCID: PMC11220461 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsae039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2024] [Revised: 05/21/2024] [Accepted: 06/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Empathy, the capacity to share others' emotional experiences, has been proposed as a key motivation for altruistic behavior in both humans and animals. Sharing another's emotional experience may generate a self-embodied simulation of their emotional state, fostering understanding and promoting prosocial behavior. Vicarious pain responders report sensing physical pain when observing others in pain. Whether this ability extends to emotional experiences remains unexplored. Using both questionnaires and ecologically valid behavioral tasks, we explored whether vicarious pain responders differ from nonresponders in empathic abilities and prosocial behavior. Participants watched video clips of people describing a negative emotional life event. We operationalized several empathic abilities and responses (empathic accuracy, affective synchrony, emotional reaction, and empathic motivation) based on participants' and targets' responses during and after watching the videos. Participants were also engaged in a donation task measuring tendency for prosocial behavior. Findings reveal that compared to nonresponders, vicarious pain responders exhibit enhanced empathic accuracy, intensified emotional reactions to others' emotional pain, and a greater motivation to communicate with the target. This study marks the first behavioral evidence showcasing vicarious pain responders' empathic abilities, reactions, and motivation in response to nonphysical pain of others, expanding our knowledge of this phenomenon and its association with broader empathic abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoad Ben Adiva
- Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel
| | - Shir Genzer
- Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel
| | - Anat Perry
- Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel
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Salles BM, Fadel JV, Mograbi DC. Moderate similarity leads to empathic concern, but high similarity can also induce personal distress towards others' pain. Psych J 2024; 13:322-334. [PMID: 38105597 PMCID: PMC10990819 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2023] [Accepted: 11/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Empathic concern and personal distress are common vicarious emotional responses that arise when witnessing someone else's pain. However, the influence of perceived similarity on these responses remains unclear. In this study, we examined how perceived similarity with an injured target impacts vicarious emotional responses. A total of 87 participants watched a video of an athlete in pain preceded by a clip describing the athlete's trajectory, which indicated either high, moderate, or low similarity to the participants. Emotional self-reports, facial expressions, gaze behavior, and pupil diameter were measured as indicators of the participants' emotional responses. Participants in the moderate- and high-similarity groups exhibited greater empathic concern, as evidenced by their display of more sadness compared with those in the low-similarity group. Furthermore, those in the moderate-similarity group exhibited less avoidance by displaying reduced disgust, indicating lower personal distress compared with those in the low-similarity condition. Nevertheless, the high-similarity group displayed just as much disgust as the low-similarity group. These findings suggest that perceived similarity enhances empathic concern to others' suffering, but that high similarity can also lead to personal distress. Future studies on empathy should explore distinct vicarious states using multimodal measurements to further advance our understanding of these processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno M. Salles
- Department of PsychologyPontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC‐Rio)Rio de JaneiroBrazil
| | - João V. Fadel
- Department of PsychologyPontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC‐Rio)Rio de JaneiroBrazil
| | - Daniel C. Mograbi
- Department of PsychologyPontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC‐Rio)Rio de JaneiroBrazil
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and NeuroscienceKing's College LondonLondonUK
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5
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Israelashvili J, Dijk C, Fischer AH. Social anxiety is associated with personal distress and disrupted recognition of negative emotions. Heliyon 2024; 10:e24587. [PMID: 38317896 PMCID: PMC10839860 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 11/29/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Past research investigating the relation between social anxiety (SA), empathy and emotion recognition is marked by conceptual and methodological issues. In the present study, we aim to overcome these limitations by examining whether individuals with high (n = 40) vs. low (n = 43) social anxiety differed across these two facets of empathy and whether this could be related to their recognition of emotions. We employed a naturalistic emotion recognition paradigm in which participants watched short videos of individuals (targets) sharing authentic emotional experiences. After each video, we measured self-reported empathic concern and distress, as well as their ability to recognize the emotions expressed by the targets in the videos. Our results show that individuals with high social anxiety recognized the targets' emotions less accurately. Furthermore, high socially anxious individuals reported more personal distress than low socially anxious individuals, whereas no significant difference was found for empathic concern. The findings suggest that reduced recognition of emotions among SA individuals can be better explained by the negative effects of social stress than by a general deficit in empathy.
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Delgado MR, Fareri DS, Chang LJ. Characterizing the mechanisms of social connection. Neuron 2023; 111:3911-3925. [PMID: 37804834 PMCID: PMC10842352 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2023] [Revised: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 10/09/2023]
Abstract
Understanding how individuals form and maintain strong social networks has emerged as a significant public health priority as a result of the increased focus on the epidemic of loneliness and the myriad protective benefits conferred by social connection. In this review, we highlight the psychological and neural mechanisms that enable us to connect with others, which in turn help buffer against the consequences of stress and isolation. Central to this process is the experience of rewards derived from positive social interactions, which encourage the sharing of perspectives and preferences that unite individuals. Sharing affective states with others helps us to align our understanding of the world with another's, thereby continuing to reinforce bonds and strengthen relationships. These psychological processes depend on neural systems supporting reward and social cognitive function. Lastly, we also consider limitations associated with pursuing healthy social connections and outline potential avenues of future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauricio R Delgado
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University-Newark, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
| | - Dominic S Fareri
- Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530, USA
| | - Luke J Chang
- Consortium for Interacting Minds, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
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Bulling LJ, Hilpert P, Bertschi IC, Ivic A, Bodenmann G. Associations Between Vocal Arousal and Dyadic Coping During Couple Interactions After a Stress Induction. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2023; 8:187-204. [PMID: 38162834 PMCID: PMC10754724 DOI: 10.1007/s41042-023-00087-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/14/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
It is well known that although relationship external stressors can harm couples, dyadic coping behavior can buffer the negative effects of stress. Thus far, however, less is known about how vocally encoded stress (i.e., f0) might affect the stress-coping process in couples during an interaction. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to compare two different stress hypotheses (i.e., paraverbal communication stress hypothesis and emotional resonance hypothesis). We observed 187 mixed-gender couples (N = 374 participants) interacting naturally after an experimental stress induction (Trier Social Stress Test), for which couples were randomly allocated into three groups (women stressed, men stressed, and both stressed). Results of a multi-group actor-partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) show that either the paraverbal communication stress hypothesis or the emotional resonance hypothesis could be confirmed, depending on whether the man, the woman, or both partners were stressed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisanne J. Bulling
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology for Children/Adolescents & Couples/Families, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/23, Zürich, CH – 8050 Switzerland
| | - Peter Hilpert
- Department of Psychology, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Isabella C. Bertschi
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology for Children/Adolescents & Couples/Families, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/23, Zürich, CH – 8050 Switzerland
| | - Ana Ivic
- Family Translational Research Group, New York University, New York, United States
| | - Guy Bodenmann
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology for Children/Adolescents & Couples/Families, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/23, Zürich, CH – 8050 Switzerland
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8
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Li Z, Fong TCT, Yip PSF. Helping intentions toward suicidal people among young adults: Patterns, transitions, and influencing factors. J Affect Disord 2023; 325:611-617. [PMID: 36669569 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.01.058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Revised: 01/10/2023] [Accepted: 01/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Public involvement is an essential element of effective suicide prevention. However, few studies have investigated laypeople's intentions and behaviors in supporting suicidal people, especially within Chinese contexts. This study was conducted among young adults in Hong Kong to identify categories of helping intentions toward suicidal people, and to understand whether, and why, youth transitioned over time between helping intention categories. METHODS A total of 807 Hong Kong young adults (18-35 years) participated in this two-wave study across 2018 (W1) and 2019 (W2). Latent class analyses were conducted to identify categories of helping intentions toward suicidal people. A latent transition analysis was applied to explore the stability of the categories over time, and the factors that influenced stability. RESULTS Three categories were identified in both waves: 1) dedicated helpers (W1: 28.38 %, W2: 28.50 %), 2) willing helpers (W1: 30.24 %, W2: 33.83 %), and 3) inconsistent helpers (W1: 41.39 %, W2: 37.67 %). 73.48 % of the young adults stayed in the same category across two years. Gender, and attitudes toward suicide victims were related to category membership and transitions between categories. LIMITATIONS Measurement of helping intentions may not be thorough. Further studies are required to examine whether the findings can be generalized to the other population. CONCLUSIONS Effective community engagement is essential for suicide prevention. Young adults in Hong Kong exhibited different helping intentions toward suicidal people, that were moderately stable over a two-year period. Understanding how and why young adults behave differently toward suicidal people is important when planning effective suicide prevention programs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zixu Li
- Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Ted C T Fong
- Centre on Behavioral Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Paul S F Yip
- Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Research Institute of Social Development, South Western University of Finance and Economics, China.
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9
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Trach J, Garandeau CF, Malamut ST. Peer victimization and empathy for victims of bullying: A test of bidirectional associations in childhood and adolescence. Child Dev 2023. [PMID: 36794348 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13907] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/17/2023]
Abstract
Anti-bullying interventions often assume that knowing how it feels to be bullied increases empathy for victims. However, longitudinal research on actual experiences of bullying and empathy is lacking. This study investigated whether within-person changes in victimization predicted changes in empathy over 1 year using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models. Self- and peer-reported victimization, and cognitive and affective empathy for victims were measured in a sample of 15,713 Finnish youth (Mage = 13.23, SDage = 2.01, 51.6% female; 92.5% had Finnish-speaking parents; data was collected in 2007-2009 when information about participants' race/ethnicity was not available due to ethical guidelines for the protection of personal information). Results indicated small, positive longitudinal associations from victimization to cognitive empathy. Implications for empathy-raising interventions are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Trach
- INVEST Research Flagship, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Claire F Garandeau
- INVEST Research Flagship, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Sarah T Malamut
- INVEST Research Flagship, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Israelashvili J, Fischer A. Recognition of Emotion from Verbal and Nonverbal Expressions and Its Relation to Effective Communication: A Preliminary Evidence of a Positive Link. J Intell 2022; 11:jintelligence11010006. [PMID: 36662136 PMCID: PMC9862275 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence11010006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2022] [Revised: 12/14/2022] [Accepted: 12/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous work has shown that emotion recognition is positively related to effective social interactions, but the mechanism underlying this relationship has remained largely unclear. Here, we examined the possibility that people who understand others' emotions also talk to them using similar language. In the current study participants (N = 106) listened to emotional stories people shared from their own lives. They were later asked to recognize the storytellers' feelings and finally provide written support messages. Perceivers' ability to accurately recognize others' feelings was assessed using the Emotional Accuracy Test (EAT), which uses naturalistic verbal and nonverbal emotional cues, and using two standard tests of nonverbal emotion recognition (GERT, RMET). The language of the expressor (target) was compared to the language of the supporter (participant) to quantify Language Style Matching, a proxy for effective communication. People who perform better in emotion recognition with verbal cues (EAT) also communicate their understanding and support using language similar to the expresser (r = .22, p = .02). This relation was insignificant for tests without verbal information (RMET, GERT). The result provides additional construct validation for the EAT and supports the view that understanding the emotions of others and communicating with them are two manifestations of a broader interpersonal skill.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob Israelashvili
- Psychology Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91905, Israel
- Correspondence:
| | - Agneta Fischer
- Department of Psychology, Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129, 1018 WS Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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11
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Maisonneuve C, Taillandier-Schmitt A. Empathy arousal and emotional reactions to victims of the gender pay gap. THE JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2022:1-22. [PMID: 36357359 DOI: 10.1080/00224545.2022.2136058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2021] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Men and women are well aware of the gender pay gap. The present study involved four experiments (N = 341, student sample, N = 203 general population sample) in which we indirectly measured empathy by asking participants to rate the non-complex and complex emotions they felt when reading a scenario in which a woman described her pay situation. Experiments 1 (equal pay vs. unequal pay) and 2, 3 & 4 (angry vs. depressed reaction to pay inequality) investigate differences in empathy arousal between men and women by assessing their emotions. Globally, both men and women identified correctly emotions expressed by the women victim of pay inequity. On complex emotions, women express more other suffering emotions than men, only in Experiment 4. Coupled with expression of guilt/shame for men only, these results are discussed in the perspective of future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christelle Maisonneuve
- LP3C (Laboratory of Psychology: Cognition, Behavior and Communication), Univ Rennes, Rennes, France
| | - Anne Taillandier-Schmitt
- LP3C (Laboratory of Psychology: Cognition, Behavior and Communication), Univ Rennes, Rennes, France
- PAVEA (Psychology of life ages and adaptation), Univ Tours, Tours, France
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12
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Erle TM, Funk F. Visuospatial and Affective Perspective-Taking. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Abstract. Perspective-taking is the ability to intuit another person’s mental state. Historically, cognitive and affective perspective-taking are distinguished from visuospatial perspective-taking because the content these processes operate on is too dissimilar. However, all three share functional similarities. Following recent research showing relations between cognitive and visuospatial perspective-taking, this article explores links between visuospatial and affective perspective-taking. Data of three preregistered experiments suggest that visuospatial perspective-taking does not improve emotion recognition speed and only slightly increases emotion recognition accuracy (Experiment 1), yet visuospatial perspective-taking increases the perceived intensity of emotional expressions (Experiment 2), as well as the emotional contagiousness of negative emotions (Experiment 3). The implications of these findings for content-based, cognitive, and functional taxonomies of perspective-taking and related processes are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thorsten M. Erle
- Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
| | - Friederike Funk
- Faculty of Arts and Sciences, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, PR China
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Jospe K, Genzer S, Mansano L, Ong D, Zaki J, Soroker N, Perry A. Impaired empathic accuracy following damage to the left hemisphere. Biol Psychol 2022; 172:108380. [PMID: 35714840 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2022] [Revised: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/10/2022] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Failing to understand others accurately can be extremely costly. Unfortunately, events such as strokes can lead to a decline in emotional understanding. Such impairments have been documented in stroke patients and are widely hypothesized to be related to right-hemisphere lesions, as well as to the amygdala, and are thought to be driven in part by attentional biases, for example, less fixation on the eyes. Notably, most of the previous research relied on measurements of emotional understanding from simplified cues, such as facial expressions or prosody. We hypothesize that chronic damage to the left hemisphere could hinder empathic accuracy and emotion recognition in naturalistic social settings that require complex language comprehension, even after a patient regains core language capacities. To assess this notion, we use an empathic accuracy task and eye-tracking measurements with chronic stroke patients with either right (N = 13) or left (N = 11) hemispheric damage-together with aged-matched controls (N = 15)-to explore the patients' understanding of others' affect inferred from stimuli that separates audio and visual cues. While we find that patients with right-hemisphere lesions showed visual attention bias compared to the other two groups, we uncover a disadvantage for patients with left-hemisphere lesions in empathic accuracy, especially when only auditory cues are present. These results suggest that patients with left-hemisphere damage have long-lasting difficulties comprehending real-world complex emotional situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karine Jospe
- Department of Psychology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
| | - Shir Genzer
- Department of Psychology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Lihi Mansano
- Loewenstein Rehabilitation Medical Center, Raanana, Israel
| | - Desmond Ong
- Department of Information Systems and Analytics, National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Jamil Zaki
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, California, USA
| | - Nachum Soroker
- Loewenstein Rehabilitation Medical Center, Raanana, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
| | - Anat Perry
- Department of Psychology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
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Nebi E, Altmann T, Roth M. The influence of emotional salience on gaze behavior in low and high trait empathy: an exploratory eye-tracking study. The Journal of Social Psychology 2021; 162:109-127. [PMID: 34935601 DOI: 10.1080/00224545.2021.2001410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that situational factors like emotional salience are associated with higher subjective levels of state empathy. The present eye-tracking study explored whether gaze behavior varies as a function of emotional salience between individuals with low and high self-reported trait empathy. In a between-subjects design, we presented three social scene images in the context of different emotion conditions (Scene 1: neutral versus positive; Scene 2: neutral versus negative; Scene 3: positive versus negative) and assessed the dwell times of individuals with low versus high self-reported empathy (measured with the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire; TEQ). Analyses revealed that whereas low- and high-TEQ participants differed in their gaze behavior after receiving neutral information, they did not differ after receiving positive or negative information. Our preliminary results suggest that gaze behavior may be more indicative of self-reported trait empathy in situations with low emotional salience than in situations with high emotional salience.
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15
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Schumann K, Dragotta A. Empathy as a predictor of high‐quality interpersonal apologies. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
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16
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Siem B. The relationship between empathic concern and perceived personal costs for helping and how it is affected by similarity perceptions. The Journal of Social Psychology 2021; 162:178-197. [PMID: 34850671 DOI: 10.1080/00224545.2021.1996321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
One explanation for the positive effect of state empathic concern on helping is that such other-focused feelings reduce helpers' perceptions of their personal costs for helping. Results from an experiment (N = 186) supported these assumptions and showed further that self-focused feelings of personal distress, another form of affective empathy, were a positive predictor of perceived costs. Moreover, I examined whether the strength of the negative relationship between empathic concern and personal costs depends on two forms of perceived similarity between the helper and the target, person similarity and experience similarity. For this purpose, I manipulated person similarity by portraying the target as either similar or dissimilar with regard to essential characteristics, and assessed experience similarity by asking whether or not participants share the target's negative experience. As predicted, the negative relationship between empathic concern and perceived personal costs was strongest when person similarity was high and experience similarity low.
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Zamoscik V, Schmidt SNL, Bravo R, Ugartemendia L, Plieger T, Rodríguez AB, Reuter M, Kirsch P. Tryptophan-enriched diet or 5-hydroxytryptophan supplementation given in a randomized controlled trial impacts social cognition on a neural and behavioral level. Sci Rep 2021; 11:21637. [PMID: 34737364 PMCID: PMC8568973 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-01164-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding of emotions and intentions are key processes in social cognition at which serotonin is an important neuromodulator. Its precursor is the essential amino acid tryptophan (TRP). Reduced TRP availability leads to weaker impulse control ability and higher aggression, while TRP supplementation promotes confidence. In a double-blind placebo-controlled fMRI study with 77 healthy adults, we investigated the influence of a 4 week TRP enriched diet and an acute 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) intake on two social-cognitive tasks, a moral evaluation and an emotion recognition task. With 5-HTP, immoral behavior without negative consequences was rated as more reprehensible. Additionally, during story reading, activation in insula and supramarginal gyrus was increased after TRP intake. No significant effects of TRP on emotion recognition were identified for the whole sample. Importantly, emotion recognition ability decreased with age which was for positive emotions compensated by TRP. Since the supramarginal gyrus is associated with empathy, pain and related information integration results could be interpreted as reflecting stricter evaluation of negative behavior due to better integration of information. Improved recognition of positive emotions with TRP in older participants supports the use of a TRP-rich diet to compensate for age related decline in social-cognitive processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- V Zamoscik
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, J 5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany. .,Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
| | - S N L Schmidt
- Research Group of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - R Bravo
- Chrononutrition Laboratory, Neuroimmunephysiology and Chrononutrition Research Group, Faculty of Science, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain
| | - L Ugartemendia
- Chrononutrition Laboratory, Neuroimmunephysiology and Chrononutrition Research Group, Faculty of Science, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain
| | - T Plieger
- Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - A B Rodríguez
- Chrononutrition Laboratory, Neuroimmunephysiology and Chrononutrition Research Group, Faculty of Science, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain
| | - M Reuter
- Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - P Kirsch
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, J 5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
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18
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Israelashvili J, Perry A. Nuancing Perspective. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Abstract. Two experiments manipulated participants’ familiarity with another person and examined their performance in future understanding of that person’s emotions. To gain familiarity, participants watched several videos of the target sharing experiences and rated her emotions. In the Feedback condition, perceivers learned about the actual emotions the target felt. In the Control condition, perceivers completed identical recognition tasks but did not know the target’s own emotion ratings. Studies ( Ntotal = 398; one preregistered) found that the Feedback group was more accurate than the Control in future understanding of the target’s emotions. Results provide a proof-of-concept demonstration that brief preliminary learning about past emotional experiences of another person can give one a more accurate understanding of the person in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Anat Perry
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
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19
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Israelashvili J, Pauw LS, Sauter DA, Fischer AH. Emotion Recognition from Realistic Dynamic Emotional Expressions Cohere with Established Emotion Recognition Tests: A Proof-of-Concept Validation of the Emotional Accuracy Test. J Intell 2021; 9:25. [PMID: 34067013 PMCID: PMC8162550 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence9020025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2020] [Revised: 02/25/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Individual differences in understanding other people's emotions have typically been studied with recognition tests using prototypical emotional expressions. These tests have been criticized for the use of posed, prototypical displays, raising the question of whether such tests tell us anything about the ability to understand spontaneous, non-prototypical emotional expressions. Here, we employ the Emotional Accuracy Test (EAT), which uses natural emotional expressions and defines the recognition as the match between the emotion ratings of a target and a perceiver. In two preregistered studies (Ntotal = 231), we compared the performance on the EAT with two well-established tests of emotion recognition ability: the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test (GERT) and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). We found significant overlap (r > 0.20) between individuals' performance in recognizing spontaneous emotions in naturalistic settings (EAT) and posed (or enacted) non-verbal measures of emotion recognition (GERT, RMET), even when controlling for individual differences in verbal IQ. On average, however, participants reported enjoying the EAT more than the other tasks. Thus, the current research provides a proof-of-concept validation of the EAT as a useful measure for testing the understanding of others' emotions, a crucial feature of emotional intelligence. Further, our findings indicate that emotion recognition tests using prototypical expressions are valid proxies for measuring the understanding of others' emotions in more realistic everyday contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob Israelashvili
- Psychology Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel
| | - Lisanne S. Pauw
- Department of Psychology, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany;
| | - Disa A. Sauter
- Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1001 NK Amsterdam, The Netherlands; (D.A.S.); (A.H.F.)
| | - Agneta H. Fischer
- Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1001 NK Amsterdam, The Netherlands; (D.A.S.); (A.H.F.)
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20
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Pauw LS, Hoogeveen S, Breitenstein CJ, Meier F, Rauch-Anderegg V, Neysari M, Martin M, Bodenmann G, Milek A. Spillover Effects When Taking Turns in Dyadic Coping: How Lingering Negative Affect and Perceived Partner Responsiveness Shape Subsequent Support Provision. Front Psychol 2021; 12:637534. [PMID: 33746855 PMCID: PMC7970130 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.637534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
When experiencing personal distress, people usually expect their romantic partner to be supportive. However, when put in a situation to provide support, people may at times (still) be struggling with issues of their own. This interdependent nature of dyadic coping interactions as well as potential spillover effects is mirrored in the state-of-the-art research method to behaviorally assess couple's dyadic coping processes. This paradigm typically includes two videotaped 8-min dyadic coping conversations in which partners swap roles as sharer and support provider. Little is known about how such dyadic coping interactions may feed back into one another, impacting the motivation and ability to be a responsive support provider. In three behavioral studies, we examined how sharers' experiences may spill over to affect their own support provision in a subsequent dyadic coping interaction. We hypothesized that the extent to which sharers perceive their partner as responsive to their self-disclosure increases the quality of their own subsequent support provision (Hypothesis 1), whereas sharers' lingering negative affect reduces the quality of their own subsequent support provision (Hypothesis 2). In line with our first hypothesis, perceived partner responsiveness predicted the provision of higher-quality support, though primarily as perceived by the partner. Sharers who perceived their partner to have been more responsive were somewhat more likely to subsequently engage in positive dyadic coping and were rated as more responsive by their partners. Negative dyadic coping behavior was unaffected. Evidence for our second hypothesis was mixed. While lingering negative affect did not affect positive dyadic coping behavior or perceived support, it did increase the chances of negative dyadic coping behavior. However, given the very low occurrences of negative affect and negative dyadic coping, these findings should be interpreted with caution. Taken together, these findings suggest that support interactions may feed back into one another, highlighting the complex and interdependent nature of dyadic coping. The strongest and most consistent findings concerned the spillover effect of perceived partner responsiveness on subsequent perceived support quality, speaking to the key role of believing that one's partner is responsive to one's needs in promoting healthy relationship functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisanne S Pauw
- Couple and Family Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Münster University, Münster, Germany
| | - Suzanne Hoogeveen
- Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Christina J Breitenstein
- Clinical Psychology for Children/Adolescents and Couples/Families, Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Fabienne Meier
- Clinical Psychology for Children/Adolescents and Couples/Families, Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Valentina Rauch-Anderegg
- Clinical Psychology for Children/Adolescents and Couples/Families, Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Mona Neysari
- University Research Priority Program Dynamics of Healthy Aging, Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Mike Martin
- University Research Priority Program Dynamics of Healthy Aging, Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Guy Bodenmann
- Clinical Psychology for Children/Adolescents and Couples/Families, Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Anne Milek
- Couple and Family Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Münster University, Münster, Germany
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21
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Blanco-Ruiz M, Sainz-de-Baranda C, Gutiérrez-Martín L, Romero-Perales E, López-Ongil C. Emotion Elicitation Under Audiovisual Stimuli Reception: Should Artificial Intelligence Consider the Gender Perspective? INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2020; 17:ijerph17228534. [PMID: 33213064 PMCID: PMC7698584 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17228534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2020] [Revised: 11/02/2020] [Accepted: 11/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Identification of emotions triggered by different sourced stimuli can be applied to automatic systems that help, relieve or protect vulnerable groups of population. The selection of the best stimuli allows to train these artificial intelligence-based systems in a more efficient and precise manner in order to discern different risky situations, characterized either by panic or fear emotions, in a clear and accurate way. The presented research study has produced a dataset of audiovisual stimuli (UC3M4Safety database) that triggers a complete range of emotions, with a high level of agreement and with a discrete emotional categorization, as well as quantitative categorization in the Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance Affective space. This database is adequate for the machine learning algorithms contained in these automatic systems. Furthermore, this work analyses the effects of gender in the emotion elicitation under audiovisual stimuli, which can help to better design the final solution. Particularly, the focus is set on emotional responses to audiovisual stimuli reproducing situations experienced by women, such as gender-based violence. A statistical study of gender differences in emotional response was carried out on 1332 participants (811 women and 521 men). The average responses per video is around 84 (SD = 22). Data analysis was carried out with RStudio®.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marian Blanco-Ruiz
- University Institute on Gender Studies, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28903 Getafe, Spain; (M.B.-R.); (L.G.-M.); (E.R.-P.); (C.L.-O.)
- Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28943 Fuenlabrada, Spain
| | - Clara Sainz-de-Baranda
- University Institute on Gender Studies, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28903 Getafe, Spain; (M.B.-R.); (L.G.-M.); (E.R.-P.); (C.L.-O.)
- Department of Communication and Media Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Communication and Library and Science, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Getafe, 28903 Madrid, Spain
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +34-916249737
| | - Laura Gutiérrez-Martín
- University Institute on Gender Studies, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28903 Getafe, Spain; (M.B.-R.); (L.G.-M.); (E.R.-P.); (C.L.-O.)
- Electronic Technology Department, School of Engineering. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganés, 28911 Madrid, Spain
| | - Elena Romero-Perales
- University Institute on Gender Studies, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28903 Getafe, Spain; (M.B.-R.); (L.G.-M.); (E.R.-P.); (C.L.-O.)
- Electronic Technology Department, School of Engineering. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganés, 28911 Madrid, Spain
| | - Celia López-Ongil
- University Institute on Gender Studies, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28903 Getafe, Spain; (M.B.-R.); (L.G.-M.); (E.R.-P.); (C.L.-O.)
- Electronic Technology Department, School of Engineering. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganés, 28911 Madrid, Spain
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22
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Hagan CA, Halberstadt AG, Cooke AN, Garner PW. Teachers' Beliefs About Children's Anger and Skill in Recognizing Children's Anger Expressions. Front Psychol 2020; 11:474. [PMID: 32265790 PMCID: PMC7107660 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00474] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Accepted: 02/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Everyday beliefs often organize and guide motivations, goals, and behaviors, and, as such, may also differentially motivate individuals to value and attend to emotion-related cues of others. In this way, the beliefs that individuals hold may affect the socioemotional skills that they develop. To test the role of emotion-related beliefs specific to anger, we examined an educational context in which beliefs could vary and have implications for individuals’ skill. Specifically, we studied 43 teachers’ beliefs about students’ anger in the school setting as well as their ability to recognize expressions of anger in children’s faces in a dynamic emotion recognition task. Results revealed that, even when controlling for teachers’ age and gender, teachers’ belief that children’s anger was useful and valuable in the school setting was associated with teachers’ accuracy at recognizing anger expressions in children’s faces. The belief that children’s anger was harmful and not conducive to learning, however, was not associated with teachers’ accuracy at recognizing children’s anger expressions. These findings suggest that certain everyday beliefs matter for predicting skill in recognizing specific emotion-related cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Courtney A Hagan
- Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Amy G Halberstadt
- Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Alison N Cooke
- Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Pamela W Garner
- School of Integrative Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States
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23
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Israelashvili J, Sauter D, Fischer A. Two facets of affective empathy: concern and distress have opposite relationships to emotion recognition. Cogn Emot 2020; 34:1112-1122. [DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2020.1724893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Jacob Israelashvili
- Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Disa Sauter
- Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Agneta Fischer
- Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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