Previous studies have shown that the race of a face can modulate neural empathic responses for pain. An early electrophysiological response is selectively observed for own-race faces, whereas a late response is of comparable size for both own- and other-race faces, as indexed by the effect of pain on the amplitude of the P3 component. As it might be expected, neural empathic responses can be shaped also by the affective/social relationship between the observer and the suffering person. Previous studies have also shown that even in the absence of information on the personality and social behaviour of an individual, empathy is modulated by the ‘first impression’ derived from other’s physical facial features, such as perceived trustworthiness. It has been shown that the trustworthiness of a face is a very relevant dimension, which is implicitly processed even when task-irrelevant, similarly to the race of a face. We conjectured that the trustworthiness of a face might be critical in the context of empathy towards own- and other-race individuals’ pain. By means of event-related potentials technique, we monitored the neural empathic responses of 17 White participants exposed to faces perceived as either trustworthy or untrustworthy of both White (own-race) and Black (other-race) individuals, displayed in painful and in non-painful contexts. Previous studies have reported more positive deflections when observing others in a painful condition vs. a non-painful condition. We observed that both White and Black individuals looking untrustworthy induced neural empathic reactions reduced almost to nil. Interestingly, an early empathic reaction to pain was still selectively observed for trustworthy own-race faces. Most importantly, the pain effect on the P3 component was modulated as a function of trustworthiness independently of the race of the faces, indexing that both White and Black individuals perceived as trustworthy induced in the observers comparable P3 empathic reactions. Moreover, this P3 effect was associated with individual scores of implicit racial prejudice such that high prejudiced participants showed a neural empathic response of greater magnitude for White when compared to Black individuals perceived as trustworthy. Taken together this pattern of results suggest that when an observer is exposed to a face of an individual in pain, perceived (un)trustworthiness is such a relevant dimension that goes beyond its race.
Perceived untrustworthiness of a face goes beyond its race when it comes to empathizing with others' pain: An event-related potentials study
MECONI, FEDERICA;SESSA, PAOLA
2014
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that the race of a face can modulate neural empathic responses for pain. An early electrophysiological response is selectively observed for own-race faces, whereas a late response is of comparable size for both own- and other-race faces, as indexed by the effect of pain on the amplitude of the P3 component. As it might be expected, neural empathic responses can be shaped also by the affective/social relationship between the observer and the suffering person. Previous studies have also shown that even in the absence of information on the personality and social behaviour of an individual, empathy is modulated by the ‘first impression’ derived from other’s physical facial features, such as perceived trustworthiness. It has been shown that the trustworthiness of a face is a very relevant dimension, which is implicitly processed even when task-irrelevant, similarly to the race of a face. We conjectured that the trustworthiness of a face might be critical in the context of empathy towards own- and other-race individuals’ pain. By means of event-related potentials technique, we monitored the neural empathic responses of 17 White participants exposed to faces perceived as either trustworthy or untrustworthy of both White (own-race) and Black (other-race) individuals, displayed in painful and in non-painful contexts. Previous studies have reported more positive deflections when observing others in a painful condition vs. a non-painful condition. We observed that both White and Black individuals looking untrustworthy induced neural empathic reactions reduced almost to nil. Interestingly, an early empathic reaction to pain was still selectively observed for trustworthy own-race faces. Most importantly, the pain effect on the P3 component was modulated as a function of trustworthiness independently of the race of the faces, indexing that both White and Black individuals perceived as trustworthy induced in the observers comparable P3 empathic reactions. Moreover, this P3 effect was associated with individual scores of implicit racial prejudice such that high prejudiced participants showed a neural empathic response of greater magnitude for White when compared to Black individuals perceived as trustworthy. Taken together this pattern of results suggest that when an observer is exposed to a face of an individual in pain, perceived (un)trustworthiness is such a relevant dimension that goes beyond its race.
Pubblicazioni consigliate
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
