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Perspectives on Neuroscience
Published on: July 31, 2007
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The neuroscience of intergroup emotion
Marius C Vollberg1, Mina Cikara1
1Harvard University, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Current Opinion in Psychology
|May 28, 2018
Summary
Group identity influences empathy, impacting emotional experiences. Episodic simulation, the ability to imagine events, may explain this in-group bias in empathy by shaping how we process emotions in social contexts.
Area of Science:
- Social and affective neuroscience
- Cognitive psychology
Background:
- Emotions and brain activity are influenced by group memberships versus individual experiences.
- In-group bias in empathy is well-documented but underlying mental processes remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review advances in social and affective neuroscience regarding empathy in intergroup contexts.
- To explore potential mechanisms, specifically episodic simulation, that contribute to in-group empathy bias.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent research in social neuroscience and memory research.
- Analysis of input variables and processing mechanisms in intergroup empathy.
Main Results:
- Group membership significantly shapes emotional experiences, particularly empathy.
- Episodic simulation emerges as a key, underexplored process in generating empathy biases.
Conclusions:
- Episodic simulation is a likely candidate for explaining how emotional experiences are shaped in intergroup settings.
- Further research into episodic simulation can illuminate the mechanisms behind in-group empathy bias.
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