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Bacha-Trams M, Yorulmaz GE, Glerean E, Ryyppö E, Tapani K, Virmavirta E, Saaristo J, Jääskeläinen IP, Sams M. Sisterhood predicts similar neural processing of a film. Neuroimage 2024; 297:120712. [PMID: 38945181 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120712] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2024] [Revised: 06/10/2024] [Accepted: 06/25/2024] [Indexed: 07/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Relationships between humans are essential for how we see the world. Using fMRI, we explored the neural basis of homophily, a sociological concept that describes the tendency to bond with similar others. Our comparison of brain activity between sisters, friends and acquaintances while they watched a movie, indicate that sisters' brain activity is more similar than that of friends and friends' activity is more similar than that of acquaintances. The increased similarity in brain activity measured as inter-subject correlation (ISC) was found both in higher-order brain areas including the default-mode network (DMN) and sensory areas. Increased ISC could not be explained by genetic relation between sisters neither by similarities in eye-movements, emotional experiences, and physiological activity. Our findings shed light on the neural basis of homophily by revealing that similarity in brain activity in the DMN and sensory areas is the stronger the closer is the relationship between the people.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mareike Bacha-Trams
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland; Institute of Research Methods in Psychology - Media-based Knowledge Construction, Computer Science and Applied Cognitive Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
| | - Gökce Ertas Yorulmaz
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Enrico Glerean
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Elisa Ryyppö
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Karoliina Tapani
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Eero Virmavirta
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Jenni Saaristo
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Iiro P Jääskeläinen
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland; Advanced Magnetic Imaging (AMI) Centre, Aalto NeuroImaging, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
| | - Mikko Sams
- Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland; Aalto Studios - MAGICS, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
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2
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The negative impact of xenophobia on compassion with suffering out-group members is attenuated by trait empathy. Sci Rep 2022; 12:18951. [PMID: 36347950 PMCID: PMC9643350 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-23776-8] [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: 05/04/2022] [Accepted: 11/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Empathy enables human beings to understand and share the internal states of others. Studies show that empathy for pain is higher for in-group compared to out-group members. This might be driven by attitudes and biases towards out-groups. In a between subject design, N = 621 participants filled in questionnaires measuring xenophobia and trait empathy and were presented with photos of suffering individuals either from the in-group or an out-group, which had to be rated with respect to negative affect and the willingness to help the depicted persons. Results do not show more compassion with members of the in-group in general, but a negative effect of xenophobia on state empathy in the out-group condition. Additional moderation analyses show that this effect is less evident in presence of high trait empathy scores. Our results highlight the importance of empathy trainings to attenuate the effects of xenophobic attitudes on social cohabitation in our increasingly polarized and culturally diverse societies.
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3
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Perceiving social injustice during arrests of Black and White civilians by White police officers: An fMRI investigation. Neuroimage 2022; 255:119153. [PMID: 35354091 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2021] [Revised: 10/14/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
From social media to courts of law, recordings of interracial police officer-civilian interactions are now widespread and publicly available. People may be motivated to preferentially understand the dynamics of these interactions when they perceive injustice towards those whose communities experience disproportionate policing relative to others (e.g., non-White racial/ethnic groups). To explore these questions, two studies were conducted (study 1 neuroimaging n = 69 and study 2 behavioral n = 58). The fMRI study examined White participants' neural activity when viewing real-world videos with varying degrees of aggression or conflict of White officers arresting a Black or White civilian. Activity in brain regions supporting social cognition was greater when viewing Black (vs. White) civilians involved in more aggressive police encounters. Additionally, although an independent sample of perceivers rated videos featuring Black and White civilians as similar in overall levels of aggression when civilian race was obscured, participants in the fMRI study (where race was not obscured) rated officers as more aggressive and their use of force as less legitimate when the civilian was Black. In study 2, participants who had not viewed the videos also reported that they believe police are generally more unjustly aggressive towards Black compared with White civilians. These findings inform our understanding of how perceptions of conflict with the potential for injustice shape social cognitive engagement when viewing arrests of Black and White individuals by White police officers.
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4
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Lantos D, Molenberghs P. The neuroscience of intergroup threat and violence. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 131:77-87. [PMID: 34534553 PMCID: PMC9620594 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2020] [Revised: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 09/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a global increase in hate crimes and xenophobia. In these uncertain times, real or imaginary threats can easily lead to intergroup conflict. Here, we integrate social neuroscience findings with classic social psychology theories into a framework to better understand how intergroup threat can lead to violence. The role of moral disengagement, dehumanization, and intergroup schadenfreude in this process are discussed, together with their underlying neural mechanisms. We outline how this framework can inform social scientists and policy makers to help reduce the escalation of intergroup conflict and promote intergroup cooperation. The critical role of the media and public figures in these unprecedented times is highlighted as an important factor to achieve these goals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dorottya Lantos
- Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Social Research Institute, University College London, United Kingdom.
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5
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Baltruschat S, Megías-Robles A, Cándido A, Maldonado A, Catena A. Social and Non-social Brain Areas in Risk Behaviour: The Role of Social Context. Neuroscience 2021; 465:177-186. [PMID: 33961961 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.04.029] [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: 10/01/2020] [Revised: 04/21/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
The human brain contains social areas that become active when interacting with another human. These are located in the ventral prefrontal and mediodorsal cortices, adjacent to areas involved in reward processing and cognitive control. Human behaviour is strongly influenced by the social context. This is particularly evident when observing greater risk propensity in the presence of a peer, particularly during adolescence and emerging adulthood. We explored the widely held view that enhanced risk propensity is the consequence of weak cognitive control. We used brain activity, estimated from EEG recordings in a sample of 114 emerging adult dyads whilst performing a risk perception task, to predict risk behaviour in a subsequent driving simulation task. Being with a peer reduced the ability to discriminate riskiness in images of traffic scenes, biased responses towards the perception of no-risk, and increased the rate of accidents in the driving simulation. Risk perception involved three sets of clusters showing activity only when being with a peer, only when being alone, and in both social contexts. Functional connectivity between the clusters accounted for the later driving simulation performance depending on the peer's presence. In the light of our findings, greater risk-taking, when a peer is present, seems to be triggered by the activation of a different, less efficient brain network for risk-processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabina Baltruschat
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC). University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
| | | | - Antonio Cándido
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC). University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Antonio Maldonado
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC). University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Andrés Catena
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC). University of Granada, Granada, Spain
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6
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Kesner L, Fajnerová I, Adámek P, Buchtík M, Grygarová D, Hlinka J, Kozelka P, Nekovářová T, Španiel F, Tintěra J, Alexová A, Greguš D, Horáček J. Fusiform Activity Distinguishes Between Subjects With Low and High Xenophobic Attitudes Toward Refugees. Front Behav Neurosci 2020; 14:98. [PMID: 33061893 PMCID: PMC7518069 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2019] [Accepted: 05/22/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
This study analyzes how people's attitudes to the European refugee crisis (ERC) correspond to selected psychological state and trait measures and impact the neural processing of media images of refugees. From a large pool of respondents, who filled in an online xenophobia questionnaire, we selected two groups (total N = 38) with the same socio-demographic background, but with opposite attitudes toward refugees. We found that a negative attitude toward refugees (high xenophobia - HX) was associated with a significantly higher conscientiousness score and with a higher trait aggression and hostility, but there was no group effect connected with empathy, fear, and anxiety measures. At the neural level we found that brain activity during the presentation of ERC stimuli is affected by xenophobic attitudes—with more xenophobic subjects exhibiting a higher BOLD response in the left fusiform gyrus. However, while the fMRI results demonstrate increased attention and vigilance toward ERC-related stimuli in the HX group, they do not show differentiated patterns of brain activity associated with perception of dehumanized outgroup.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ladislav Kesner
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia.,Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia
| | - Iveta Fajnerová
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia
| | - Petr Adámek
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia.,Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
| | - Martin Buchtík
- Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia
| | - Dominika Grygarová
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia.,Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia
| | - Jaroslav Hlinka
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia.,Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia
| | - Pavel Kozelka
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia
| | - Tereza Nekovářová
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia
| | - Filip Španiel
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia.,Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
| | - Jaroslav Tintěra
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia
| | - Aneta Alexová
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia
| | - David Greguš
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia.,Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
| | - Jiří Horáček
- Applied Neurosciences and Neuroimaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia.,Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
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7
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Workman CI, Yoder KJ, Decety J. The Dark Side of Morality - Neural Mechanisms Underpinning Moral Convictions and Support for Violence. AJOB Neurosci 2020; 11:269-284. [PMID: 33196349 PMCID: PMC7939028 DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2020.1811798] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
People are motivated by shared social values that, when held with moral conviction, can serve as compelling mandates capable of facilitating support for ideological violence. The current study examined this dark side of morality by identifying specific cognitive and neural mechanisms associated with beliefs about the appropriateness of sociopolitical violence, and determining the extent to which the engagement of these mechanisms was predicted by moral convictions. Participants reported their moral convictions about a variety of sociopolitical issues prior to undergoing functional MRI scanning. During scanning, they were asked to evaluate the appropriateness of violent protests that were ostensibly congruent or incongruent with their views about sociopolitical issues. Complementary univariate and multivariate analytical strategies comparing neural responses to congruent and incongruent violence identified neural mechanisms implicated in processing salience and in the encoding of subjective value. As predicted, neuro-hemodynamic response was modulated parametrically by individuals' beliefs about the appropriateness of congruent relative to incongruent sociopolitical violence in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and by moral conviction in ventral striatum. Overall moral conviction was predicted by neural response to congruent relative to incongruent violence in amygdala. Together, these findings indicate that moral conviction about sociopolitical issues serves to increase their subjective value, overriding natural aversion to interpersonal harm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clifford I. Workman
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
- Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Keith J. Yoder
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
| | - Jean Decety
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
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8
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Abstract
What is judged as morally right and wrong in war? I argue that despite many decades of research on moral psychology and the psychology of intergroup conflict, social psychology does not yet have a good answer to this question. However, it is a question of great importance because its answer has implications for decision-making in war, public policy, and international law. I therefore suggest a new way for psychology researchers to study the morality of war that combines the strengths of philosophical just-war theory with experimental techniques and theories developed for the psychological study of morality more generally. This novel approach has already begun to elucidate the moral judgments third-party observers make in war, and I demonstrate that these early findings have important implications for moral psychology, just-war theory, and the understanding of the morality of war.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanne M Watkins
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst
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9
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Molenberghs P, Louis WR. Insights From fMRI Studies Into Ingroup Bias. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1868. [PMID: 30327636 PMCID: PMC6174241 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01868] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2018] [Accepted: 09/12/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Intergroup biases can manifest themselves between a wide variety of different groups such as people from different races, nations, ethnicities, political or religious beliefs, opposing sport teams or even arbitrary groups. In this review we provide a neuroscientific overview of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies that have revealed how group dynamics impact on various cognitive and emotional systems at different levels of information processing. We first describe how people can perceive the faces, words and actions of ingroup and outgroup members in a biased way. Second, we focus on how activity in brain areas involved in empathizing with the pain of others, such as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insula (AI), are influenced by group membership. Third, we describe how group membership influences activity in brain areas involved in mentalizing such as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Fourth, we discuss the involvement of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) in increased moral sensitivity for outgroup threats. Finally, we discuss how brain areas involved in the reward system such as the striatum and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), are more active when experiencing schadenfreude for outgroup harm and when rewarding ingroup (versus outgroup) members. The value of these neuroscientific insights to better understand ingroup bias are discussed, as well as limitations and future research directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pascal Molenberghs
- School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Winnifred R. Louis
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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