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Empathic responses to unknown others are modulated by shared behavioural traits.
Silke Anders1, Christian Beck2, Martin Domin3
1Social and Affective Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, Universität zu Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany. silke.anders@neuro.uni-luebeck.de.
Scientific Reports
|February 8, 2020
Summary
Behavioral similarity influences empathy towards strangers. People feel more reward and show greater neural activity when they share traits with others, suggesting an evolutionary basis for social perception.
Area of Science:
- Social Neuroscience
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Behavioral Genetics
Background:
- Empathic responses are influenced by context, individual traits, and interindividual factors.
- Behavioral similarity may serve as a marker for genetic relatedness, potentially modulating empathy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if behavioral similarity influences empathic responses towards unknown others.
- To explore the role of phenotypic similarity in neural processes of social perception.
Main Methods:
- Participants observed two virtual players (LP and NLP) with distinct leadership tendencies in a robot soccer game.
- Empathic responses and neural activity in reward-related brain regions were measured based on participants' behavioral similarity to the observed players.
Main Results:
- Participants showing greater similarity to player LP experienced more reward and neural activity when LP scored.
- Participants exhibiting more similarity to player NLP showed stronger empathic responses when NLP scored.
Conclusions:
- Behavioral similarity significantly modulates empathic responses and associated neural activity.
- Findings suggest an evolutionary role for phenotypic similarity in human social perception and empathy.
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