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Eaton S, Dorrans EM, van Goozen SHM. Impaired Social Attention and Cognitive Empathy in a Paediatric Sample of Children with Symptoms of Anxiety. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 2024:10.1007/s10802-024-01240-7. [PMID: 39292383 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-024-01240-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/12/2024] [Indexed: 09/19/2024]
Abstract
Impairments in social cognition, in particular empathy, have been associated with childhood psychopathology, though previous investigations have yielded inconsistent results. Measures of social attention can reveal processes involved in responses to emotional stimuli and highlight deficits in empathy, or emotional biases in those with anxiety. The current study examined symptoms of anxiety, cognitive and affective empathy scores, and eye-gaze patterns in a pediatric sample of children (n = 178; 51-98 months-old) referred by their teachers for emerging psychopathology symptoms at school. We used eye-tracking metrics to capture gaze patterns during a dynamic video task designed to elicit empathic responses. Anxiety symptomology was reported by parents using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders scale (SCARED). Associations between eye-tracking variables, cognitive and affective empathy, and anxiety scores were analysed dimensionally in accordance with the Research and Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework. Higher levels of anxiety were associated with lower cognitive empathy and shorter first and total fixation durations to the eyes, across emotions (happiness, sadness, fear). No such associations were found between affective empathy and anxiety. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that across emotion conditions, first fixation duration negatively predicted anxiety scores. Our results indicate that children high in anxiety display cognitive empathy impairments and shorter attention to the eyes. These findings could inform early intervention programs for individuals at risk of developing anxiety disorders, as educating those high in anxiety on ways to identify emotions in others through changes in social attention could help to reduce anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steve Eaton
- Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU), Centre for Human Developmental Science (CUCHDS), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 70 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK.
| | - Ellie Mae Dorrans
- Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU), Centre for Human Developmental Science (CUCHDS), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 70 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK
| | - Stephanie H M van Goozen
- Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU), Centre for Human Developmental Science (CUCHDS), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 70 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK
- Department of Clinical Neurodevelopmental Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
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2
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Moffat R, Cross ES. Awareness of embodiment enhances enjoyment and engages sensorimotor cortices. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26786. [PMID: 38994692 PMCID: PMC11240146 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26786] [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: 01/10/2024] [Revised: 06/24/2024] [Accepted: 07/01/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Whether in performing arts, sporting, or everyday contexts, when we watch others move, we tend to enjoy bodies moving in synchrony. Our enjoyment of body movements is further enhanced by our own prior experience with performing those movements, or our 'embodied experience'. The relationships between movement synchrony and enjoyment, as well as embodied experience and movement enjoyment, are well known. The interaction between enjoyment of movements, synchrony, and embodiment is less well understood, and may be central for developing new approaches for enriching social interaction. To examine the interplay between movement enjoyment, synchrony, and embodiment, we asked participants to copy another person's movements as accurately as possible, thereby gaining embodied experience of movement sequences. Participants then viewed other dyads performing the same or different sequences synchronously, and we assessed participants' recognition of having performed these sequences, as well as their enjoyment of each movement sequence. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure cortical activation over frontotemporal sensorimotor regions while participants performed and viewed movements. We found that enjoyment was greatest when participants had mirrored the sequence and recognised it, suggesting that awareness of embodiment may be central to enjoyment of synchronous movements. Exploratory analyses of relationships between cortical activation and enjoyment and recognition implicated the sensorimotor cortices, which subserve action observation and aesthetic processing. These findings hold implications for clinical research and therapies seeking to foster successful social interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryssa Moffat
- Professorship for Social Brain Sciences, ETH ZurichZurichSwitzerland
- School of Psychological SciencesMacquarie UniversitySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
| | - Emily S. Cross
- Professorship for Social Brain Sciences, ETH ZurichZurichSwitzerland
- School of Psychological SciencesMacquarie UniversitySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
- MARCS InstituteWestern Sydney UniversitySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
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3
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Shin WG, Park H, Kim SP, Sul S. Individual differences in gaze-cuing effect are associated with facial emotion recognition and social conformity. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1219488. [PMID: 37711321 PMCID: PMC10499521 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 08/15/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Spontaneous gaze following and the concomitant joint attention enable us to share representations of the world with others, which forms a foundation of a broad range of social cognitive processes. Although this form of social orienting has long been suggested as a critical starting point for the development of social and communicative behavior, there is limited evidence directly linking it to higher-level social cognitive processes among healthy adults. Here, using a gaze-cuing paradigm, we examined whether individual differences in gaze following tendency predict higher-order social cognition and behavior among healthy adults. We found that individuals who showed greater gaze-cuing effect performed better in recognizing others' emotion and had greater tendency to conform with group opinion. These findings provide empirical evidence supporting the fundamental role of low-level socio-attentional processes in human sociality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Won-Gyo Shin
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyoju Park
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
| | - Sung-Phil Kim
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, Republic of Korea
| | - Sunhae Sul
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
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Troncoso A, Soto V, Gomila A, Martínez-Pernía D. Moving beyond the lab: investigating empathy through the Empirical 5E approach. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1119469. [PMID: 37519389 PMCID: PMC10374225 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1119469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 06/05/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Empathy is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that plays a crucial role in human social interactions. Recent developments in social neuroscience have provided valuable insights into the neural underpinnings and bodily mechanisms underlying empathy. This methodology often prioritizes precision, replicability, internal validity, and confound control. However, fully understanding the complexity of empathy seems unattainable by solely relying on artificial and controlled laboratory settings, while overlooking a comprehensive view of empathy through an ecological experimental approach. In this article, we propose articulating an integrative theoretical and methodological framework based on the 5E approach (the "E"s stand for embodied, embedded, enacted, emotional, and extended perspectives of empathy), highlighting the relevance of studying empathy as an active interaction between embodied agents, embedded in a shared real-world environment. In addition, we illustrate how a novel multimodal approach including mobile brain and body imaging (MoBi) combined with phenomenological methods, and the implementation of interactive paradigms in a natural context, are adequate procedures to study empathy from the 5E approach. In doing so, we present the Empirical 5E approach (E5E) as an integrative scientific framework to bridge brain/body and phenomenological attributes in an interbody interactive setting. Progressing toward an E5E approach can be crucial to understanding empathy in accordance with the complexity of how it is experienced in the real world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Troncoso
- Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Adolfo Ibáñez University, Santiago, Chile
| | - Vicente Soto
- Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Adolfo Ibáñez University, Santiago, Chile
| | - Antoni Gomila
- Department of Psychology, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
| | - David Martínez-Pernía
- Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Adolfo Ibáñez University, Santiago, Chile
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Ventura M, Palmisano A, Innamorato F, Tedesco G, Manippa V, Caffò AO, Rivolta D. Face memory and facial expression recognition are both affected by wearing disposable surgical face masks. Cogn Process 2023; 24:43-57. [PMID: 36242672 PMCID: PMC9568966 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-022-01112-2] [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: 02/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Faces are fundamental stimuli for social interactions since they provide significant information about people's identity and emotional states. With the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic, global use of preventive measures, such as disposable surgical face masks (DSFMs), has been imposed. The massive use of DSFMs covering a large part of the face could interfere with identity and emotion recognition. Thus, the main aim of the current study was (i) to assess how DSFMs affect identity recognition (Experiment 1), (ii) how DSFMs affect emotion recognition (Experiment 2), and (iii) whether individual empathy levels correlate with emotion recognition with DSFMs. The potential relation between identity and emotion recognition with and without DSFMs was also investigated. Two tasks were administered to 101 healthy participants: (i) the Old-new face memory task aimed to assess whether the learning context (i.e., DSFMs on/off) affects recognition performance, whereas (ii) the Facial affect task explored DSFMs' effect on emotion recognition. Results from the former showed that the stimuli's features in the learning stage affect recognition performances; that is, faces wearing DSFMs were better recognized if wearing DSFMs at first exposure and vice versa. Results from the Facial affect task showed that DSFMs lead to reduced disgust, happiness, and sadness recognition. No significant correlation emerged between identity and emotion recognition. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was administered to assess affective and cognitive empathy; however, IRI scores did not correlate with either face memory recognition or facial affect recognition. Overall, our results demonstrate (a) a "context effect" for face memory with and without DSFMs; (b) a disruptive effect of DSFMs depending on the expressed emotion; and (c) no correlation between empathy and emotion recognition with DSFMs.
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Affiliation(s)
- M. Ventura
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - A. Palmisano
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - F. Innamorato
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - G. Tedesco
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - V. Manippa
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - A. O. Caffò
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - Davide Rivolta
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
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Wever MC, van Houtum LAEM, Janssen LHC, Spruit IM, Tollenaar MS, aan het Rot M, Elzinga BM. Eyes on you: Ensuring empathic accuracy or signalling empathy? INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2022; 57:743-752. [PMID: 35698286 PMCID: PMC9796408 DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2022] [Accepted: 05/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
The eye region is thought to play an important role in the ability to accurately infer others' feelings, or empathic accuracy (EA), which is an important skill for social interaction. However, most past studies used static pictures, including only visual information, and knowledge about the contribution of the eye region to EA when visual information is presented together with verbal content is lacking. We therefore examined whether eye gazing contributes to EA during videos of emotional autobiographical stories including both visual and verbal content. One hundred seven perceivers watched videos of targets talking about positive and negative life events and continuously rated the targets' feelings during the videos. Simultaneously, perceivers' eyes were tracked. After each video, perceivers reported on their feelings and the extent to which they empathized with and took the perspective of the targets. In contrast to studies using static pictures, we found that gazing to the eyes of targets during the videos did not significantly contribute to EA. At the same time, results on the association between the amount of gaze towards the eye region of targets and perceivers' state and trait empathy ratings suggest that eye gazing might signal empathy and social engagement to others.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mirjam C.M. Wever
- Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Lisanne A. E. M. van Houtum
- Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Loes H. C. Janssen
- Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Iris M. Spruit
- Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Marieke S. Tollenaar
- Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Marije aan het Rot
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands,School of Behavioural and Cognitive NeurosciencesUniversity of GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Bernet M. Elzinga
- Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
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7
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Parra Vargas E, García Delgado A, Torres SC, Carrasco-Ribelles LA, Marín-Morales J, Alcañiz Raya M. Virtual reality stimulation and organizational neuroscience for the assessment of empathy. Front Psychol 2022; 13:993162. [PMID: 36420385 PMCID: PMC9677823 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.993162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the viability of a new procedure based on machine learning (ML), virtual reality (VR), and implicit measures to discriminate empathy. Specifically, eye-tracking and decision-making patterns were used to classify individuals according to their level in each of the empathy dimensions, while they were immersed in virtual environments that represented social workplace situations. The virtual environments were designed using an evidence-centered design approach. Interaction and gaze patterns were recorded for 82 participants, who were classified as having high or low empathy on each of the following empathy dimensions: perspective-taking, emotional understanding, empathetic stress, and empathetic joy. The dimensions were assessed using the Cognitive and Affective Empathy Test. An ML-based model that combined behavioral outputs and eye-gaze patterns was developed to predict the empathy dimension level of the participants (high or low). The analysis indicated that the different dimensions could be differentiated by eye-gaze patterns and behaviors during immersive VR. The eye-tracking measures contributed more significantly to this differentiation than did the behavioral metrics. In summary, this study illustrates the potential of a novel VR organizational environment coupled with ML to discriminate the empathy dimensions. However, the results should be interpreted with caution, as the small sample does not allow general conclusions to be drawn. Further studies with a larger sample are required to support the results obtained in this study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Parra Vargas
- Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
- *Correspondence: Elena Parra Vargas,
| | - Aitana García Delgado
- Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
| | - Sergio C. Torres
- Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
| | - Lucía A. Carrasco-Ribelles
- Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol i Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Cornellà de Llobregat, Spain
| | - Javier Marín-Morales
- Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
| | - Mariano Alcañiz Raya
- Institute for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
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8
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Woodward SH, Jamison AL, Khan C, Gala S, Bhowmick C, Villasenor D, Tamayo G, Puckett M, Parker KJ. Reading the mind in the eyes in PTSD: Limited Moderation by the presence of a service dog. J Psychiatr Res 2022; 155:320-330. [PMID: 36174367 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.09.012] [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: 01/26/2022] [Revised: 08/02/2022] [Accepted: 09/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Persons with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently experience relationship failures in family and occupational domains resulting in loss of social supports. Prior research has implicated impairments in social cognition. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) measures a key component of social cognition, the ability to infer the internal states of other persons based on features of the eyes region of the face; however, studies administering this popular test to persons with PTSD have yielded mixed results. This study assessed RMET performance in 47 male U.S. military Veterans with chronic, severe PTSD. Employing a within-subjects design that avoided selection biases, it aimed specifically to determine whether components of RMET performance, including accuracy, response latency, and stimulus dwell time, were improved by the company of a service dog, an intervention that has improved social function in other populations. RMET accuracies and response latencies in this PTSD sample were in the normal range. The presence of a familiar service dog did not improve RMET accuracy, reduce response latencies, or increase dwell times. Dog presence increased the speed of visual scanning perhaps consistent with reduced social fear.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven H Woodward
- National Center for PTSD, Dissemination and Training Division, VA Palo Alto Healthcare System, 3801 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA.
| | - Andrea L Jamison
- National Center for PTSD, Dissemination and Training Division, VA Palo Alto Healthcare System, 3801 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Christina Khan
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Rd., Stanford, CA, 94305-5485, USA
| | - Sasha Gala
- National Center for PTSD, Dissemination and Training Division, VA Palo Alto Healthcare System, 3801 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Chloe Bhowmick
- National Center for PTSD, Dissemination and Training Division, VA Palo Alto Healthcare System, 3801 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Diana Villasenor
- National Center for PTSD, Dissemination and Training Division, VA Palo Alto Healthcare System, 3801 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Gisselle Tamayo
- National Center for PTSD, Dissemination and Training Division, VA Palo Alto Healthcare System, 3801 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Melissa Puckett
- Trauma Recovery Programs and Recreation Service, VA Palo Alto Healthcare System, 3801 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Karen J Parker
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Rd., Stanford, CA, 94305-5485, USA; Department of Comparative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA, 94305-5342, USA
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Wever MCM, van Houtum LAEM, Janssen LHC, Wentholt WGM, Spruit IM, Tollenaar MS, Will GJ, Elzinga BM. Neural and Affective Responses to Prolonged Eye Contact with One's Own Adolescent Child and Unfamiliar Others. Neuroimage 2022; 260:119463. [PMID: 35830902 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119463] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2022] [Revised: 06/22/2022] [Accepted: 07/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Eye contact is crucial for the formation and maintenance of social relationships, and plays a key role in facilitating a strong parent-child bond. However, the precise neural and affective mechanisms through which eye contact impacts on parent-child relationships remain elusive. We introduce a task to assess parents' neural and affective responses to prolonged direct and averted gaze coming from their own child, and an unfamiliar child and adult. While in the scanner, 79 parents (n = 44 mothers and n = 35 fathers) were presented with prolonged (16-38 s) videos of their own child, an unfamiliar child, an unfamiliar adult, and themselves (i.e., targets), facing the camera with a direct or an averted gaze. We measured BOLD-responses, tracked parents' eye movements during the videos, and asked them to report on their mood and feelings of connectedness with the targets after each video. Parents reported improved mood and increased feelings of connectedness after prolonged exposure to direct versus averted gaze and these effects were amplified for unfamiliar targets compared to their own child, due to high affect and connectedness ratings after videos of their own child. Neuroimaging results showed that the sight of one's own child was associated with increased activity in middle occipital gyrus, fusiform gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus relative to seeing an unfamiliar child or adult. While we found no robust evidence of specific neural correlates of eye contact (i.e., contrast direct > averted gaze), an exploratory parametric analysis showed that dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) activity increased linearly with duration of eye contact (collapsed across all "other" targets). Eye contact-related dmPFC activity correlated positively with increases in feelings of connectedness, suggesting that this region may drive feelings of connectedness during prolonged eye contact with others. These results underline the importance of prolonged eye contact for affiliative processes and provide first insights into its neural correlates. This may pave the way for new research in individuals or pairs in whom affiliative processes are disrupted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mirjam C M Wever
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands.
| | - Lisanne A E M van Houtum
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Loes H C Janssen
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Wilma G M Wentholt
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Iris M Spruit
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Marieke S Tollenaar
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Geert-Jan Will
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Bernet M Elzinga
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands
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Hamada M, Matsubayashi J, Tanaka K, Furuya M, Matsuhashi M, Mima T, Fukuyama H, Mitani A. People with High Empathy Show Increased Cortical Activity around the Left Medial Parieto-Occipital Sulcus after Watching Social Interaction of On-Screen Characters. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:3581-3601. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2021] [Revised: 11/03/2021] [Accepted: 11/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
People with high empathy interpret others’ mental states in daily social interactions. To investigate their characteristics of social cognitive processing, we compared neuromagnetic activities between 20 males with high empathy and 23 males with low empathy while watching social interactions between two characters. Twenty stories of four-panel comic strips were presented; the first three panels described social interactions, and the last panel described empathic/nonempathic behaviors. People with high empathy exhibited increased cortical activity in the right occipital region, medial part of the bilateral superior frontal gyri, and right posterior insula while watching social interaction scenes, which suggests that they paid attention to others’ faces and bodies, and inferred others’ mental states. They also exhibited increased cortical activity in the left superior frontal gyrus while watching empathic behaviors. Moreover, they exhibited increased cortical activity in the region around the left medial parieto-occipital sulcus, which is related to self-projection, while passively watching both empathic and nonempathic endings. Taken together, these results suggest that people with high empathy pay attention to others and actively infer others’ mental states while watching social interactions and that they reconstruct others’ mental states and intentions through self-projection after watching a sequence of others’ behaviors.
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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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Lambert S, Dimitriadis N, Venerucci M, Taylor M. Empathic gaze: a study of human resource professionals. JOURNAL OF WORK-APPLIED MANAGEMENT 2021. [DOI: 10.1108/jwam-06-2021-0044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to explore the fixation of the eyes of human resource (HR) professionals' when identifying emotions in the context of workplace research and to propose measures that might support them in their role.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper combines a contemporary literature review with reflections from practice to develop more nuanced understandings of 39 HR professionals' ability to recognise emotions. This paper used eye-tracking technology more commonly used in laboratory-based students to explore the fixation of the eye when identifying emotions.
Findings
The preliminary findings suggest that HR professionals with higher levels of emotional recognition principally focus on the eyes of the recipient, whereas those with lower levels or emotional recognition focus more so the nose or the randomly across the face, depending on the level of emotional recognition. The data suggest that women are better than men, in the sample group at recognising emotions, with some variations in recognising specific emotions such as disgust.
Research limitations/implications
The viewpoint paper proposes a number of implications for middle leaders and suggests that middle leaders should proactively seek out opportunities to be engaged in activities that support the Default Mode Network (DMN) function of the brain and subsequently the relationship-orientated aspects of leadership, for example, coaching other staff members. However, it has to be recognised that the sample size is small and further work is needed before any generalisations can be made.
Originality/value
This paper offers a contemporary review underpinned by a preliminary study into HR professionals' ability to recognise emotions.
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Bi T, Xie Q, Gao J, Zhang T, Kou H. The Effect of Empathy on the Attentional Processing of Painful and Emotional Stimuli. Psychol Res Behav Manag 2021; 14:1223-1234. [PMID: 34408507 PMCID: PMC8364384 DOI: 10.2147/prbm.s318657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2021] [Accepted: 07/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Empathy is shown to affect the attentional processing of painful stimuli and emotional stimuli. However, whether the attentional effects on emotional stimuli depend on emotional valence and the nature of the relationship between the attentional effects on different stimuli are still unknown. Methods In the present study, 25 high-empathy (HE) participants and 25 low-empathy (LE) participants were recruited to perform dot-probe tasks on painful stimuli and emotional stimuli. Results The results showed that HE individuals had weak attentional disengagement to painful pictures. More importantly, regarding emotional pictures, HE individuals showed attentional avoidance to negative emotion pictures, while LE individuals showed attentional bias to positive emotion pictures. Correlation analysis showed that the attentional bias score and attentional disengagement score were only associated with each other within the same category of stimuli (painful, positive or negative stimuli). Conclusion These results revealed that HE individuals mainly showed attentional avoidance to negative stimuli, while LE individuals mainly showed attentional bias to positive stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Taiyong Bi
- Center for Mental Health Research in School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China
| | - Qinhong Xie
- Center for Mental Health Research in School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China.,School of Criminal Justice, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Jianhui Gao
- Center for Mental Health Research in School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China
| | - Tao Zhang
- Center for Mental Health Research in School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China
| | - Hui Kou
- Center for Mental Health Research in School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China
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14
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Gehrer NA, Zajenkowska A, Bodecka M, Schönenberg M. Attention orienting to the eyes in violent female and male offenders: An eye-tracking study. Biol Psychol 2021; 163:108136. [PMID: 34129874 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2020] [Revised: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Attention to the eyes and eye contact form an important basis for the development of empathy and social competences including prosocial behavior. Thus, impairments in attention to the eyes of an interaction partner might play a role in the etiology of antisocial behavior and violence. For the first time, the present study extends investigations of eye gaze to a large sample (N = 173) including not only male but also female violent offenders and a control group. We assessed viewing patterns during the categorization of emotional faces via eye tracking. Our results indicate a reduced frequency of initial attention shifts to the eyes in female and male offenders compared to controls, while there were no general group differences in overall attention to the eye region (i.e., relative dwell time). Thus, we conclude that violent offenders might be able to compensate for deficits in spontaneous attention orienting during later stages of information processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina A Gehrer
- University of Tübingen, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Tübingen, Germany.
| | - Anna Zajenkowska
- Maria Grzegorzewska University, Department of Psychology, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Marta Bodecka
- Maria Grzegorzewska University, Department of Psychology, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Michael Schönenberg
- University of Tübingen, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Tübingen, Germany; University Hospital Tübingen, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen, Germany
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15
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Le J, Zhao W, Kou J, Fu M, Zhang Y, Becker B, Kendrick KM. Oxytocin facilitates socially directed attention. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13852. [PMID: 34032304 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13852] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2020] [Revised: 04/27/2021] [Accepted: 05/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Socially directed gaze following is an important component of social interaction and communication, allowing us to attend mutually with others to objects or people so that we can share their experience and also learn from them. This type of joint social attention is impaired in disorders such as autism. Previous research has demonstrated that the neuropeptide oxytocin can facilitate attention toward social cues, although to date no study in humans has investigated its influence on socially directed gaze or on associations of the latter with autistic and empathic traits. In a within-subject, randomized, placebo-controlled trial we used eye-tracking to investigate the effects of intranasal oxytocin (24 IU) on socially directed gaze toward one of two objects in 40 adult male subjects. Subjects viewed videos of an actor and actress directing their gaze toward one of two objects by either moving only their eyes, moving both their eyes and head, or moving their eyes and head and pointing with a finger. Results showed that OXT increased the proportion of time subjects viewed the object the actor or actress were looking/pointing at across all three conditions, although unexpectedly we found no associations with trait autism or empathy under either placebo or OXT treatments. These findings demonstrate that OXT can facilitate socially directed gaze following to promote mutual attention toward objects which may be potentially beneficial therapeutically in disorders with impaired social communication and interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiao Le
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Weihua Zhao
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Juan Kou
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Meina Fu
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Yingying Zhang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Benjamin Becker
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Keith M Kendrick
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
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16
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Breil C, Böckler A. Look away to listen: the interplay of emotional context and eye contact in video conversations. VISUAL COGNITION 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2021.1908470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Christina Breil
- Department of Psychology, Leibniz-University Hanover, Hanover, Germany
| | - Anne Böckler
- Department of Psychology, Leibniz-University Hanover, Hanover, Germany
- Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science, Leipzig, Germany
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17
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Look at me: The relation between empathy and fixation on the emotional eye-region in low vs. high social anxiety. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 2021; 70:101610. [PMID: 32861912 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2020.101610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2020] [Revised: 08/11/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Fixation on another person's eye-region may be an effective measure of one's level of empathy. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that this type of empathy measure may not be appropriate for individuals with high levels of social anxiety, since avoidance or hypervigilance attentional biases towards emotional faces are frequent in this condition. METHODS Using eye-tracking, we measured fixation time on the eye-region of another person in participants with low vs. high social anxiety, and we correlated this measure with empathy levels. In a second eye-tracking task, the two groups of participants were presented with pairs of emotional-neutral faces to determine the presence of attentional biases. RESULTS While participants with low social anxiety showed an association between empathy and fixation time on the other person's eyes, the association was null for participants with high social anxiety. Attentional biases towards emotional faces were absent in high social anxiety, but social anxiety correlated negatively with fixation on the eye region. LIMITATIONS Our sample was made up of Psychology undergraduates, and this may have had an influence on gaze behavior towards the eye region. CONCLUSION Fixation on the eye region is not a valid measure of empathy in high social anxiety, possibly due to systematic eye-region avoidance.
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18
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Li Y, Liu C, Ji M, You X. Shape of progress bar effect on subjective evaluation, duration perception and physiological reaction. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ERGONOMICS 2021; 81:103031. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ergon.2020.103031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/13/2023]
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19
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Lecat P, Dhawan N, Hartung PJ, Gerzina H, Larson R, Konen-Butler C. Improving Patient Experience by Teaching Empathic Touch and Eye Gaze: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Medical Students. J Patient Exp 2020; 7:1260-1270. [PMID: 33457574 PMCID: PMC7786748 DOI: 10.1177/2374373520916323] [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] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Empathy is critical for optimal patient experience with health-care providers. Verbal empathy is routinely taught to medical students, but nonverbal empathy, including touch, less so. Our objective was to determine whether instruction encouraging empathic touch and eye gaze at exit can impact behaviors and change patient-perceived empathy. Materials A randomized, controlled, double-blinded trial of 34 first-year medical students was conducted during standardized patient (SP) interviews. A video either encouraging empathic touch and eye gaze at exit or demonstrating proper hand hygiene (control) was shown. Encounter videos were analyzed for touch and eye gaze at exit. The Jefferson Scale of Patient Perceptions of Physician Empathy was used to measure correlations. Intervention students were surveyed regarding patient touch. Results Of this, 23.5% of intervention students touched the SP versus zero controls; 88.2% of intervention students demonstrated eye gaze at exit. Eye gaze at exit positively impacted patient-perceived empathy (correlation = 0.48, P > .001). Survey responses revealed specific barriers to touch. Conclusion Medical students may increase perceived empathy using eye gaze at exit. Instruction on empathic touch and sustained eye gaze at exit at the medical school level may be useful in promoting empathic nonverbal communication. Medical educators should consider providing specific instructions on how to appropriately touch patients during history-taking. This is one of the few studies to explore touch with patients and the first ever to report the positive correlation of a health provider's sustained eye gaze at exit with the patient's perceived empathy. Further studies are needed to explore barriers to empathic touch.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Lecat
- Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), College of Medicine, Rootstown, OH, USA
| | - Naveen Dhawan
- Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), College of Medicine, Rootstown, OH, USA
| | - Paul J Hartung
- Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), College of Medicine, Rootstown, OH, USA
| | - Holly Gerzina
- Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), College of Medicine, Rootstown, OH, USA
| | - Robert Larson
- Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), College of Medicine, Rootstown, OH, USA
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Roitblat Y, Cohensedgh S, Frig-Levinson E, Cohen M, Dadbin K, Shohed C, Shvartsman D, Shterenshis M. Emotional expressions with minimal facial muscle actions. Report 2: Recognition of emotions. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-020-00691-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
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21
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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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22
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Martínez-Velázquez ES, Ahuatzin González AL, Chamorro Y, Sequeira H. The Influence of Empathy Trait and Gender on Empathic Responses. A Study With Dynamic Emotional Stimulus and Eye Movement Recordings. Front Psychol 2020; 11:23. [PMID: 32076413 PMCID: PMC7006438 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2019] [Accepted: 01/07/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have suggested that empathic process involve several components such as cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and prosocial concern. It has also been reported that gender and empathy trait can influence empathic responses such as emotional recognition, which requires an appropriate scanning of faces. However, the degree to which these factors influence the empathic responses, which include emotion recognition, affective empathy, and cognitive empathy, has not yet been specified. Aim: The aim of the present study was to identify the differences between individuals with high and low level of empathy trait, as well as differences between men and women, in an explicit task in order to evaluate the empathic responses. Methods: With this goal in mind, we recorded eye movements during the presentation of dynamic emotional stimuli (joy, anger, fear, and neutral videos). After watching each video, participants had to rate the valence and arousal dimensions of emotional content and explicit empathy responses were assessed. Thirty participants (15 women) were included in a High Empathy group (HE; mean age = 21.0) and 30 participants (16 women) in the Low Empathy group (LE; mean age = 21.2), according to their scores in the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) scale. Results: As expected, the HE group showed higher scores than the LE group in the explicit empathy responses. These differences, based on global scores, were mainly explained by affective empathy and cognitive empathy responses but not by emotional recognition one. No differences were observed by gender in these measures. Regarding eye movements in the dynamic emotional stimuli, HE group had longer fixation duration on the eyes area than LE group. In addition, women spent more time on the eyes area in comparison to men. Discussion: Our findings suggest that both men and women with high empathy trait are more accurate to empathizing but not on the basis of the emotional recognition response. The fact that women spent more time on the eyes area did not seem to affect the empathic responses to the dynamic emotional stimulus. Overall, empathic responses of both men and women are modulated by their empathic trait. In addition, empathic trait and gender seem to impact strategies to deal with emotional facial information.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alma L Ahuatzin González
- Laboratorio de Psicofisiología, Facultad de Psicología, Benemérita Universidad de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
| | - Yaira Chamorro
- Laboratorio de Neuropsicología y Neurolingüística, CUCBA, Mexico Institute of Neuroscience, University of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico
| | - Henrique Sequeira
- University of Lille, CNRS, CHU Lille, UMR 9193 - SCALab - Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Lille, France
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23
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Hunnikin LM, Wells AE, Ash DP, van Goozen SHM. The nature and extent of emotion recognition and empathy impairments in children showing disruptive behaviour referred into a crime prevention programme. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2020; 29:363-371. [PMID: 31154516 PMCID: PMC7056692 DOI: 10.1007/s00787-019-01358-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2018] [Accepted: 05/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Childhood disruptive behaviour has been linked to later antisocial and criminal behaviour. Emotion recognition and empathy impairments, thought to be caused by inattention to the eye region, are hypothesised to contribute to antisocial and criminal behaviour. This is the first study to simultaneously examine emotion recognition and empathy impairments, their relationship, and the mechanism behind these impairments, in children with disruptive behaviour. We hypothesised that children with disruptive behaviour would exhibit negative emotion recognition and cognitive and affective empathy impairments, but that these impairments would not be due to reduced attention to the eye region. We expected these emotion impairments to be driven by disruptive behaviour. We also expected a relationship between emotion recognition and cognitive empathy only. Ninety-two children with disruptive behaviour, who were participating in a police crime prevention programme and rated by their schoolteacher using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (DB; mean age 8.8 years, 80% male), took part. There was a comparison group of 58 typically developing children (TD; mean age 9.7 years, 78% male). All children completed emotion recognition and empathy tasks, both with concurrent eye tracking to assess social attention. Not only were DB children significantly impaired in negative emotion and neutral emotion recognition, and in cognitive and affective empathy compared to the TD children, but severity of disruptive behaviour also predicted intensity of emotion impairments. There were no differences in social attention to the eye region. Negative emotion recognition and empathy impairments are already present in an identifiable group of children displaying disruptive behaviour. These findings provide evidence to encourage the use of targeted interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Amy E. Wells
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales UK
| | - Daniel P. Ash
- Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Northampton, Northampton, UK
| | - Stephanie H. M. van Goozen
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales UK ,Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Israelashvili J, Sauter D, Fischer A. How Well Can We Assess Our Ability to Understand Others' Feelings? Beliefs About Taking Others' Perspectives and Actual Understanding of Others' Emotions. Front Psychol 2019; 10:2475. [PMID: 31824365 PMCID: PMC6882378 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
People vary in their beliefs about their tendency to engage in perspective taking and to understand other's feelings. Often, however, those beliefs are suggested to be poor indicators of actual skills and thus provide an inaccurate reflection of performance. Few studies, however, have examined whether people's beliefs accurately predict their performance on emotion recognition tasks using dynamic or spontaneous emotional expressions. We report six studies (N ranges from 186 to 315; N total = 1,347) testing whether individuals' report of their engagement in perspective taking, as measured by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1983), is associated with accurate emotion recognition. In Studies 1-3, emotion recognition performance was assessed using three standard tests of nonverbal emotion recognition. To provide a more naturalistic test, we then assessed performance with a new emotion recognition test in Studies 4-6, using videos of real targets that share their emotional experiences. Participants' multi-scalar ratings of the targets' emotions were compared with the targets' own emotion ratings. Across all studies, we found a modest, yet significant positive relationship: people who believe that they take the other's perspective also perform better in tests of emotion recognition (r = 0.20, p < 0.001). Beliefs about taking others' perspective thus reflect interpersonal reality, but only partially.
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25
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Animal Images Database: Validation of 120 Images for Human-Animal Studies. Animals (Basel) 2019; 9:ani9080475. [PMID: 31344828 PMCID: PMC6727086 DOI: 10.3390/ani9080475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2019] [Revised: 07/18/2019] [Accepted: 07/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary With the general goal of increasing knowledge about how individuals perceive and evaluate different animals, we provide normative data on an extensive set of open-source animal images, spanning a total of 12 biological categories (e.g., mammals, insects, reptiles, arachnids), on 11 evaluative dimensions (e.g., valence, cuteness, capacity to think, acceptability to kill for human consumption). We found that animal evaluations were affected by individual characteristics of the perceiver, particularly gender, diet and companion animal ownership. Moral attitudes towards animals were predominantly predicted by ratings of cuteness, edibility, capacity to feel and familiarity. We hope this free resource may help advance research into the many different ways we relate to animals. Abstract There has been increasing interest in the study of human-animal relations. This contrasts with the lack of normative resources and materials for research purposes. We present subjective norms for a set of 120 open-source colour images of animals spanning a total of 12 biological categories (e.g., mammals, insects, reptiles, arachnids). Participants (N = 509, 55.2% female, MAge = 28.05, SD = 9.84) were asked to evaluate a randomly selected sub-set of 12 animals on valence, arousal, familiarity, cuteness, dangerousness, edibility, similarity to humans, capacity to think, capacity to feel, acceptability to kill for human consumption and feelings of care and protection. Animal evaluations were affected by individual characteristics of the perceiver, particularly gender, diet and companion animal ownership. Moral attitudes towards animals were predominantly predicted by ratings of cuteness, edibility, capacity to feel and familiarity. The Animal Images Database (Animal.ID) is the largest open-source database of rated images of animals; the stimuli set and item-level data are freely available online.
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26
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Thompson NM, Uusberg A, Gross JJ, Chakrabarti B. Empathy and emotion regulation: An integrative account. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2019; 247:273-304. [PMID: 31196438 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2019.03.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
How we understand and respond to others' emotions (i.e., empathy) may be influenced by the regulatory processes that are used to shape which emotions we and others have (i.e., emotion regulation). Empathy and emotion regulation are complex multidimensional constructs and the relationship between their component processes is not well characterized. To enable future work to examine their relationship more closely, this chapter presents an integrative framework of empathy and emotion regulation. We begin by delineating the component processes that underlie empathy and emotion regulation, and the neural underpinnings of these processes. We then present an integrative framework describing the processes of empathy and how these may be acted upon by distinct regulatory strategies. We conclude with a brief consideration of contextual influences on empathy and emotion regulation using a reward-based heuristic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas M Thompson
- School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
| | - Andero Uusberg
- Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia; Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - James J Gross
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Bhismadev Chakrabarti
- School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom.
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27
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Yan Z, Pei M, Su Y. Physical Cue Influences Children's Empathy for Pain: The Role of Attention Allocation. Front Psychol 2018; 9:2378. [PMID: 30555392 PMCID: PMC6282501 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2018] [Accepted: 11/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Empathy for pain is evolutionally important and context-dependent. The current study explored the effect of physical cue on 4- to 5-year-old children’s empathy for pain with two experiments. Experiment 1 investigated the effect of valid and invalid physical cue as compared to baseline (without cue) in pain evaluation task (evaluating the pain intensity of a facial expression, N = 28). Experiment 2 employed eye-tracking to investigate the attentional process in valid and baseline conditions (evaluating the pain intensity of a body image with an apparently injured arm or leg, N = 65). We found the evaluation of pain intensity was the highest in the valid condition, and higher in baseline condition than invalid. As for eye-tracking results, children fixated more quickly, had more fixations and longer total fixation duration in valid-cue condition. Of attention allocation, compared with baseline condition, children fixated on arm/leg more quickly, more frequently and for longer time in valid condition. Additionally, eye-tracking results were significantly related to their evaluation of pain intensity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhiqiang Yan
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Meng Pei
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yanjie Su
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
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28
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van Rooijen R, Junge CMM, Kemner C. The Interplay between Gaze Following, Emotion Recognition, and Empathy across Adolescence; a Pubertal Dip in Performance? Front Psychol 2018; 9:127. [PMID: 29487555 PMCID: PMC5816800 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2017] [Accepted: 01/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
During puberty a dip in face recognition is often observed, possibly caused by heightened levels of gonadal hormones which in turn affects the re-organization of relevant cortical circuitry. In the current study we investigated whether a pubertal dip could be observed in three other abilities related to social information processing: gaze following, emotion recognition from the eyes, and empathizing abilities. Across these abilities we further explored whether these measurements revealed sex differences as another way to understand how gonadal hormones affect processing of social information. Results show that across adolescence, there are improvements in emotion recognition from the eyes and in empathizing abilities. These improvements did not show a dip, but are more plateau-like. The gaze cueing effect did not change over adolescence. We only observed sex differences in empathizing abilities, with girls showing higher scores than boys. Based on these results it appears that gonadal hormones are not exerting a unified influence on higher levels of social information processing. Further research should also explore changes in (visual) information processing around puberty onset to find a more fitted explanation for changes in social behavior across adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rianne van Rooijen
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.,Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Caroline M M Junge
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.,Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Chantal Kemner
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.,Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.,Brain Centre Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center, Utrecht, Netherlands
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29
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Yan Z, Pei M, Su Y. Children's Empathy and Their Perception and Evaluation of Facial Pain Expression: An Eye Tracking Study. Front Psychol 2017; 8:2284. [PMID: 29312106 PMCID: PMC5744656 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2017] [Accepted: 12/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The function of empathic concern to process pain is a product of evolutionary adaptation. Focusing on 5- to 6-year old children, the current study employed eye-tracking in an odd-one-out task (searching for the emotional facial expression among neutral expressions, N = 47) and a pain evaluation task (evaluating the pain intensity of a facial expression, N = 42) to investigate the relationship between children’s empathy and their behavioral and perceptual response to facial pain expression. We found children detected painful expression faster than others (angry, sad, and happy), children high in empathy performed better on searching facial expression of pain, and gave higher evaluation of pain intensity; and rating for pain in painful expressions was best predicted by a self-reported empathy score. As for eye-tracking in pain detection, children fixated on pain more quickly, less frequently and for shorter times. Of facial clues, children fixated on eyes and mouth more quickly, more frequently and for longer times. These results implied that painful facial expression was different from others in a cognitive sense, and children’s empathy might facilitate their search and make them perceive the intensity of observed pain on the higher side.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhiqiang Yan
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Meng Pei
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yanjie Su
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
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30
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Lee YI, Choi Y, Jeong J. Character drawing style in cartoons on empathy induction: an eye-tracking and EEG study. PeerJ 2017; 5:e3988. [PMID: 29152415 PMCID: PMC5687150 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3988] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2017] [Accepted: 10/13/2017] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
In its most basic form, empathy refers to the ability to understand another person’s feelings and emotions, representing an essential component of human social interaction. Owing to an increase in the use of mass media, which is used to distribute high levels of empathy-inducing content, media plays a key role in individual and social empathy induction. We investigated empathy induction in cartoons using eye movement, EEG and behavioral measures to explore whether empathy factors correlate with character drawing styles. Two different types of empathy-inducing cartoons that consisted of three stages and had the same story plot were used. One had an iconic style, while the other was realistic style. Fifty participants were divided into two groups corresponding to the individual cartoon drawing styles and were presented with only one type of drawing style. We found that there were no significant differences of empathy factors between iconic and realistic style. However, the Induced Empathy Score (IES) had a close relationship with subsequent attentional processing (total fixation length for gaze duration). Furthermore, iconic style suppressed the fronto-central area more than realistic style in the gamma power band. These results suggest that iconic cartoons have the advantage of abstraction during empathy induction, because the iconic cartoons induced the same level of empathy as realistic cartoons while using the same story plot (top-down process), even though lesser time and effort were required by the cartoon artist to draw them. This also means that the top-down process (story plot) is more important than the bottom-up process (drawing style) in empathy induction when viewing cartoons
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Affiliation(s)
- Yong-Il Lee
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Yeojeong Choi
- HE Design Lab, LG Electronics, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jaeseung Jeong
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
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Petrocchi N, Ottaviani C, Couyoumdjian A. Compassion at the mirror: Exposure to a mirror increases the efficacy of a self-compassion manipulation in enhancing soothing positive affect and heart rate variability. JOURNAL OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2016.1209544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Petrocchi
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
- IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
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Enter D, Terburg D, Harrewijn A, Spinhoven P, Roelofs K. Single dose testosterone administration alleviates gaze avoidance in women with Social Anxiety Disorder. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2016; 63:26-33. [PMID: 26402923 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.09.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2015] [Revised: 08/28/2015] [Accepted: 09/08/2015] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Gaze avoidance is one of the most characteristic and persistent social features in people with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). It signals social submissiveness and hampers adequate social interactions. Patients with SAD typically show reduced testosterone levels, a hormone that facilitates socially dominant gaze behavior. Therefore we tested as a proof of principle whether single dose testosterone administration can reduce gaze avoidance in SAD. In a double-blind, within-subject design, 18 medication-free female participants with SAD and 19 female healthy control participants received a single dose of 0.5mg testosterone and a matched placebo, at two separate days. On each day, their spontaneous gaze behavior was recorded using eye-tracking, while they looked at angry, happy, and neutral facial expressions. Testosterone enhanced the percentage of first fixations to the eye-region in participants with SAD compared to healthy controls. In addition, SAD patients' initial gaze avoidance in the placebo condition was associated with more severe social anxiety symptoms and this relation was no longer present after testosterone administration. These findings indicate that single dose testosterone administration can alleviate gaze avoidance in SAD. They support theories on the dominance enhancing effects of testosterone and extend those by showing that effects are particularly strong in individuals featured by socially submissive behavior. The finding that this core characteristic of SAD can be directly influenced by single dose testosterone administration calls for future inquiry into the clinical utility of testosterone in the treatment of SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dorien Enter
- Radboud University Nijmegen, Behavioural Science Institute (BSI), 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, 6525 EN, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Leiden University, Institute of Psychology, 2300 RB, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - David Terburg
- Utrecht University, Department of Psychology, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands; University of Cape Town, Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health, Cape Town 7925, South Africa
| | - Anita Harrewijn
- Leiden University, Institute of Psychology, 2300 RB, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, 2300 RC, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Philip Spinhoven
- Leiden University, Institute of Psychology, 2300 RB, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, 2300 RC, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Karin Roelofs
- Radboud University Nijmegen, Behavioural Science Institute (BSI), 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, 6525 EN, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Empathy: gender effects in brain and behavior. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2014; 46 Pt 4:604-27. [PMID: 25236781 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 431] [Impact Index Per Article: 43.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2014] [Revised: 08/26/2014] [Accepted: 09/08/2014] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Evidence suggests that there are differences in the capacity for empathy between males and females. However, how deep do these differences go? Stereotypically, females are portrayed as more nurturing and empathetic, while males are portrayed as less emotional and more cognitive. Some authors suggest that observed gender differences might be largely due to cultural expectations about gender roles. However, empathy has both evolutionary and developmental precursors, and can be studied using implicit measures, aspects that can help elucidate the respective roles of culture and biology. This article reviews evidence from ethology, social psychology, economics, and neuroscience to show that there are fundamental differences in implicit measures of empathy, with parallels in development and evolution. Studies in nonhuman animals and younger human populations (infants/children) offer converging evidence that sex differences in empathy have phylogenetic and ontogenetic roots in biology and are not merely cultural byproducts driven by socialization. We review how these differences may have arisen in response to males' and females' different roles throughout evolution. Examinations of the neurobiological underpinnings of empathy reveal important quantitative gender differences in the basic networks involved in affective and cognitive forms of empathy, as well as a qualitative divergence between the sexes in how emotional information is integrated to support decision making processes. Finally, the study of gender differences in empathy can be improved by designing studies with greater statistical power and considering variables implicit in gender (e.g., sexual preference, prenatal hormone exposure). These improvements may also help uncover the nature of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in which one sex is more vulnerable to compromised social competence associated with impaired empathy.
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