The secret of empathy
鈥淧resident Barack Obama has described an 鈥榚mpathy deficit鈥� that fuels misunderstanding, divisions, and conflict. This research identifies a reason for the empathy gap and answers the vital question of how do we create empathy between strangers,鈥� said 不良研究所 psychology professor Jeffrey Mogil, senior author of the study. 鈥淚n this case, creating empathy was as simple as spending 15 minutes together playing the video game Rock Band庐.鈥�
Empathy is increasingly being studied by scientists because of its known role in psychological disorders, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and psychopathy. In studies of empathy, pain is often used as a stimulus because it is universally understood and easy to measure. Previous research by Mogil and other scientists has used this approach to show that capacity for empathy is evident even in lower mammals, such as mice.听
In the new study, Mogil and his team compared the reactions of undergraduate students to painful stimuli in various scenarios: alone; with a friend; with a stranger; between two strangers given a stress-blocking drug; and between two strangers who had spent 15 minutes playing the video game Rock Band庐 prior to testing. 听
The student participants were asked to submerge their arm in ice-cold water and rate their pain. These pain scores remained the same whether they experienced the pain alone or sitting across from a stranger. However, the pain actually increased when these students put their arms in ice water across from a friend.
鈥淚t would seem like more pain in the presence of a friend would be bad news, but it鈥檚 in fact a sign that there is strong empathy between individuals 鈥� they are indeed feeling each other鈥檚 pain,鈥� said Mogil.
Past research from Mogil鈥檚 lab has demonstrated that two mice do not feel empathy when they are unknown to one another. It has also shown that if two mice are familiar with one another (cage mates), they will feel more pain from a stimulus than they do when given the same painful experience alone. The research released today is the first to demonstrate the same barrier to empathy in the presence of strangers among humans. The researchers then investigated what prevented empathy between strangers and found the same cause in both humans and mice: the stress of being near a stranger. When researchers gave mice and humans the drug metyrapone -- which prevents the 鈥渇light-or-fight鈥� stress reaction -- before the experiment, both students and mice demonstrated empathy for the stranger.
To further test this 鈥渟ocial stress鈥� barrier to empathy between strangers, student participants paired with strangers were given the opportunity to play Rock Band庐 prior to the experiment. After only 15 minutes of playing Rock Band庐 together, these strangers showed empathy toward one another when they experienced the pain from exposure to ice water. 听(Playing Rock Band庐 alone did nothing to increase empathy between strangers.)
鈥淚t turns out that even a shared experience that is as superficial as playing a video game together can move people from the 鈥榮tranger zone鈥� to the 鈥榝riend zone鈥� and generate meaningful levels of empathy,鈥� said Mogil. 鈥淭his research demonstrates that basic strategies to reduce social stress could start to move us from an empathy deficit to a surplus.鈥�
鈥淭hese findings raise many fascinating questions because we know failures in empathy are central to various psychological disorders and even social conflicts at both the personal and societal level,鈥� said Mogil.听 鈥淚t鈥檚 also pretty surprising that empathy appears to work exactly the same way in mice and people.鈥�
The research was supported by the Louise and Alan Edwards Foundation, the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Pain Society, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
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Martin et al., Reducing Social Stress Elicits Emotional Contagion of Pain in Mouse and Human
Strangers, Current Biology (2015), published online Jan. 15, 2015.
