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We are used to dividing people into “us” and “them”. At the same time, it is often difficult for us to sympathize and empathize with “strangers”, which ultimately becomes one of the causes of numerous conflicts. Is it possible to learn to feel empathy for “strangers” in the same way as for “ours”?
Dr. Grit Hein from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) is trying to answer this question. A few years ago, she and her colleagues conducted a study involving football fans. During the experiment, they observed how the fans of their favorite team or the fans of the opposing team were hurt. Participants were given the opportunity to reduce the pain caused to others by “taking” some of it on themselves.
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At the same time, the researchers tracked activity in the subjects’ brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They found that activity in a region of the brain called the anterior insula predicted a subject’s willingness to help a team fan. On the contrary, hostility towards the supporter of the opposing team and unwillingness to help him was accompanied by activity in a region of the brain called the nucleus accumbens.
Now Greet Hein, along with colleagues, conducted a new study in which she decided to find out whether it is possible to teach people to empathize with “strangers”. In this case, the participants in the experiment were warned that they would receive a nasty electric shock to their arm. However, they knew that other members could pay a certain amount to spare them the painful electric shock. At the same time, some of the subjects were “friends” for each other, and some were “strangers” (members of another social group, which the former did not like).
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Brain scans showed that activity in a region associated with empathy and empathy was significantly lower when the subjects watched the “foreign” (compared to “their”) experience pain. However, if they have already had positive experiences with outsiders (for example, if they knew that the “outsider” had paid money earlier in the experiment to save them from pain), the activity associated with empathy towards the “outsiders” is significantly rose.
The authors of the study argue that the positive experience of communication and interaction with members of other social and ethnic groups helps to develop the ability to empathize with them. They conclude that empathy can (and should) be learned.
Подробнее см. G. Hein et al. «Neural Responses to Ingroup and Outgroup Members’ Suffering Predict Individual Differences in Costly Helping», Neuron, 2010, vol. 68, № 1.