Heart Rate Variability reveals the fight between racially biased and politically correct behaviour

Area of Science:

• Psychophysiology
• Social Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Empathic responses are crucial for social cohesion.
• Vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) serves as a psychophysiological index of cognitive self-regulatory control.
• Understanding empathic responses towards out-group members is vital for addressing social biases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate vmHRV dynamics during empathic responses to pain in an out-group member.
• To explore the interplay between implicit racial attitudes and empathic self-regulation.
• To test the 'Contrasting Forces Model' of attitude regulation.

Main Methods:

• Caucasian participants rated pain intensity experienced by African and Caucasian actors.
• Vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) was measured using RMSSD, Log-HF-HRV, and HF-HRV n.u.
• Implicit racial attitudes were assessed, and a concurrent task was introduced during video presentations.

Main Results:

• Participants rated pain intensity and took longer to judge stimuli involving African actors compared to Caucasian actors.
• These behavioral differences correlated with increased vmHRV (RMSSD, Log-HF-HRV, HF-HRV n.u.).
• Resting HF-HRV predicted judgment lag-time for African actors, and these effects were linked to implicit racial attitudes and diminished with a concurrent task.

Conclusions:

• Self-regulating empathic responses towards out-group members requires cognitive effort, as evidenced by vmHRV changes.
• The findings support the 'Contrasting Forces Model' by demonstrating the effortful modulation of implicit biases in empathy.
• vmHRV serves as a valuable marker for understanding the psychophysiology of intergroup empathy and bias reduction.