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Kiviharju MJ, Gulash SK, Balsom AA, Gordon JL. Testing the efficacy of a narrative short film in educating the public about providing emotional support to individuals with fertility problems. J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol 2024; 45:2378330. [PMID: 39007900 DOI: 10.1080/0167482x.2024.2378330] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2024] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/16/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND To educate the public on how best to support people with fertility problems, a narrative short film "Ten Things Not to Say to Someone Struggling with Infertility" was created, depicting the impact that helpful versus unhelpful dialogue has on someone with fertility problems. METHODS Before and after watching the video, 419 participants from the public were presented with a hypothetical vignette describing a woman experiencing fertility problems and asked about the likelihood that they would endorse a series of helpful and unhelpful statements when communicating with the protagonist. Pre and post endorsement of helpful versus unhelpful statements were compared, as were self-perceived knowledge about the mental health aspects of fertility problems, confidence in providing emotional support to someone with fertility problems, and empathy for the protagonist. RESULTS Participants endorsed fewer unhelpful statements after the video relative to before (M(SD) = 2.2(2.3) vs. 1.3(2.3), p < .001) and fewer participants endorsed at least one unhelpful statement (72% to 47%, p < .001). Self-perceived knowledge of fertility problems, confidence in providing support, and empathy increased at post-test (ps < .001; Cohen's d = .56-.83) indicating medium-large effects. CONCLUSIONS A narrative short film appears to be an effective dissemination strategy for sensitizing the public to the emotional struggles of individuals experiencing fertility problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maija J Kiviharju
- Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
| | - Sarah K Gulash
- Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
| | - Ashley A Balsom
- Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
| | - Jennifer L Gordon
- Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
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Saulin A, Ma Y, Hein G. Empathy incites a stable prosocial decision bias. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae272. [PMID: 38970361 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae272] [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: 12/07/2023] [Revised: 06/12/2024] [Accepted: 06/13/2024] [Indexed: 07/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Empathy toward suffering individuals serves as potent driver for prosocial behavior. However, it remains unclear whether prosociality induced by empathy for another person's pain persists once that person's suffering diminishes. To test this, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a binary social decision task that involved allocation of points to themselves and another person. In block one, participants completed the task after witnessing frequent painful stimulation of the other person, and in block two, after observing low frequency of painful stimulation. Drift-diffusion modeling revealed an increased initial bias toward making prosocial decisions in the first block compared with baseline that persisted in the second block. These results were replicated in an independent behavioral study. An additional control study showed that this effect may be specific to empathy as stability was not evident when prosocial decisions were driven by a social norm such as reciprocity. Increased neural activation in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was linked to empathic concern after witnessing frequent pain and to a general prosocial decision bias after witnessing rare pain. Altogether, our findings show that empathy for pain elicits a stable inclination toward making prosocial decisions even as their suffering diminishes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Saulin
- Department of Psychiatry, Center of Mental Health, Psychosomatic and Psychotherapy, Translational Social Neuroscience Unit, University Hospital Würzburg, Margarete-Höppel-Platz 1, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Yina Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning; IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Xinjiekouwai St, Haidan District, Beijing 100875, China
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Yike Rd, Changping District, Beijing 102206, China
| | - Grit Hein
- Department of Psychiatry, Center of Mental Health, Psychosomatic and Psychotherapy, Translational Social Neuroscience Unit, University Hospital Würzburg, Margarete-Höppel-Platz 1, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
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van der Meulen M, Dobbelaar S, van Drunen L, Heunis S, van IJzendoorn MH, Blankenstein NE, Crone EA. Transitioning from childhood into adolescence: A comprehensive longitudinal behavioral and neuroimaging study on prosocial behavior and social inclusion. Neuroimage 2023; 284:120445. [PMID: 37939890 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Revised: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 11/04/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Acting prosocially and feeling socially included are important factors for developing social relations. However, little is known about the development of neural trajectories of prosocial behavior and social inclusion in the transition from middle childhood to early adolescence. In this pre-registered study, we investigated the development of prosocial behavior, social inclusion, and their neural mechanisms in a three-wave longitudinal design (ages 7-13 years; NT1 = 512; NT2 = 456; NT3 = 336). We used the Prosocial Cyberball Game, a ball tossing game in which one player is excluded, to measure prosocial compensating behavior. Prosocial compensating behavior showed a linear developmental increase, similar to parent-reported prosocial behavior, whereas parent-reported empathy showed a quadratic trajectory with highest levels in late childhood. On a neural level we found a peak in ventral striatum activity during prosocial compensating behavior. Neural activity during social inclusion showed quadratic age effects in anterior cingulate cortex, insula, striatum, and precuneus, and a linear increase in temporo-parietal junction. Finally, changes in prosocial compensating behavior were negatively associated with changes in ventral striatum and mPFC activity during social inclusion, indicating an important co-occurrence between development in brain and social behavior. Together these findings shed a light on the mechanisms underlying social development from childhood into adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mara van der Meulen
- Leiden Consortium on Individual Development, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands
| | - Simone Dobbelaar
- Leiden Consortium on Individual Development, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Lina van Drunen
- Leiden Consortium on Individual Development, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Stephan Heunis
- Leiden Consortium on Individual Development, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Marinus H van IJzendoorn
- Leiden Consortium on Individual Development, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; Research Department of Clinical, Education and Health Psychology, UCL, University of London, United Kingdom
| | - Neeltje E Blankenstein
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands
| | - Eveline A Crone
- Leiden Consortium on Individual Development, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands
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McDonald B, Kanske P. Gender differences in empathy, compassion, and prosocial donations, but not theory of mind in a naturalistic social task. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20748. [PMID: 38007569 PMCID: PMC10676355 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47747-9] [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: 06/07/2023] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 11/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite broad interest, experimental evidence for gender differences in social abilities remains inconclusive. Two important factors may have limited previous results: (i) a lack of clear distinctions between empathy (sharing another's feelings), compassion (a feeling of concern toward others), and Theory of Mind (ToM; inferring others' mental states), and (ii) the absence of robust, naturalistic social tasks. Overcoming these limitations, in Study 1 (N = 295) we integrate three independent, previously published datasets, each using a dynamic and situated, video-based paradigm which disentangles ToM, empathy, and compassion, to examine gender differences in social abilities. We observed greater empathy and compassion in women compared to men, but found no evidence that either gender performed better in ToM. In Study 2 (n = 226) we extend this paradigm to allow participants to engage in prosocial donations. Along with replicating the findings of Study 1, we also observed greater prosocial donations in women compared to men. Additionally, we discuss an exploratory, novel finding, namely that ToM performance is positively associated with prosocial donations in women, but not men. Overall, these results emphasize the importance of establishing experimental designs that incorporate dynamic, complex stimuli to better capture the social realities that men and women experience in their daily lives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brennan McDonald
- Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Chemnitzer Straße 46, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
| | - Philipp Kanske
- Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Chemnitzer Straße 46, 01187, Dresden, Germany
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Schulreich S, Tusche A, Kanske P, Schwabe L. Higher subjective socioeconomic status is linked to increased charitable giving and mentalizing-related neural value coding. Neuroimage 2023; 279:120315. [PMID: 37557972 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120315] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2023] [Revised: 07/03/2023] [Accepted: 08/06/2023] [Indexed: 08/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Socioeconomic status (SES), a concept related to an individual's economic and social position relative to others, can shape social interactions like altruistic behaviors. However, little is known about the exact neurocognitive mechanisms that link SES with altruism. Our study aimed to provide a comprehensive account of the sociocognitive and neural mechanisms through which SES affects charitable giving - an important variant of human altruism. To this end, participants completed a charitable donation task while their brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also assessed participants' socio-cognitive ability to infer other people's mental states (i.e., mentalizing) - a driver of prosocial behavior - in an independent social task. Behaviorally, we found that both charitable giving and social cognition were status-dependent, as subjective SES positively predicted donations and mentalizing capacity. Moreover, the link between SES and charitable giving was mediated by individuals' mentalizing capacity. At the neural level, a multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data revealed that higher subjective SES was associated with stronger value coding in the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ). The strength of this value representation predicted charitable giving and was linked to mentalizing. Furthermore, we observed an increased negative functional coupling between rTPJ and left putamen with higher SES. Together, increased charitable giving in higher-status individuals could be explained by status-dependent recruitment of mentalizing-related value coding and altered functional connectivity in the brain. Our findings provide insights into the socio- and neurocognitive mechanisms explaining why and when higher SES leads to prosociality, which might ultimately inform targeted interventions to promote prosocial behavior in human societies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Schulreich
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg 20146, Germany; Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria.
| | - Anita Tusche
- Queen's Neuroeconomics Laboratory, Departments of Psychology and Economics, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada
| | - Philipp Kanske
- Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden 01187, Germany
| | - Lars Schwabe
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg 20146, Germany
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van Drunen L, Toenders YJ, Wierenga LM, Crone EA. Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on structural brain development in early adolescence. Sci Rep 2023; 13:5600. [PMID: 37019914 PMCID: PMC10075168 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-32754-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Accepted: 04/01/2023] [Indexed: 04/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a global health crisis with large behavioral effects and serious stress and social consequences. Particularly, teenagers suffered pandemic-related social restrictions including school closures. This study examined whether and how structural brain development was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and whether pandemic length was associated with accumulating or resilience effects of brain development. We investigated structural changes in social brain regions (medial prefrontal cortex: mPFC; temporoparietal junction: TPJ) as well as the stress-related hippocampus and amygdala, using a longitudinal design of 2 MRI waves. We selected two age-matched subgroups (9-13 years old), one was tested before (n = 114) and the other during (peri-pandemic group, n = 204) the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicated that teenagers in the peri-pandemic group showed accelerated development in the mPFC and hippocampus compared to the before-pandemic group. Furthermore, TPJ growth showed immediate effects followed by possibly subsequent recovery effects that returned to a typical developmental pattern. No effects were observed for the amygdala. The findings of this region-of-interest study suggest that experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic measures had accelerating effects on hippocampus and mPFC development but the TPJ showed resilience to negative effects. Follow-up MRI assessments are needed to test acceleration and recovery effects over longer periods.
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Affiliation(s)
- L van Drunen
- Leiden Consortium of Individual Development (L-CID), 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3062 PA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Brain and Development Research Center, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Y J Toenders
- Leiden Consortium of Individual Development (L-CID), 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3062 PA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Brain and Development Research Center, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - L M Wierenga
- Leiden Consortium of Individual Development (L-CID), 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - E A Crone
- Leiden Consortium of Individual Development (L-CID), 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3062 PA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Is Singing Under the Christmas Tree Psychologically Recommended? A Scientific Evaluation. CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY IN EUROPE 2022; 4:e10841. [PMID: 36762349 PMCID: PMC9881124 DOI: 10.32872/cpe.10841] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
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