How the social brain experiences empathy
Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience
University of Chicago
Sponsored by
Location
Gleacher Center Room 621
450 N. Cityfront Plaza Dr.
Chicago, IL 60611Program
8:00-8:30am: Registration
8:30-8:40am: Introductory remarks (Room 621)
John Cacioppo and Jean Decety (University of Chicago)
8:40-12:30am: Morning Presentations (Room 621)
8:40-9:30am: Survival of the Kindest: The Evolution of Empathy
Frans de Waal (Emory University)
9:30-10:20am: Oxytocin and the Neurobiology of Empathy
Sue Carter (University of Illinois at Chicago)
10:20-10:50am: Coffee Break
10:50-11:40am: Relations of Children’s Empathy-related Responding to Their Regulation and Social Functioning
Nancy Eisenberg (Arizona State University)
11:40-12:30pm: The Benefits and the Costs of Empathy: the Price of Being Human
Jean Decety (University of Chicago)
12:30-1:30pm: Lunch (Room 600-604)
1:30-4:30pm: Afternoon Presentations (Room 621)
1:30-2:20pm: The Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis: Issues and Implications
Daniel Batson (University of Kansas)
2:20-3:10pm: The Strange (Recent) History of Empathic Cruelty
Allan Young (McGill University)
3:10-3:40pm: Break
3:40-4:30pm: Challenges to Clinical Empathy
Jodi Halpern (University of California at Berkeley)
4:30-4:50pm: Concluding remarks (Room 621)
John Cacioppo and Jean Decety (University of Chicago)
Presentation abstracts
Dr. Daniel Batson
Professor of Social Psychology, University of KansasThe Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis: Issues and Implications
The empathy-altruism hypothesis claims that empathic concern (an other-oriented emotional response elicited by and congruent with the perceived welfare of another person in need) produces altruistic motivation (a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing that person’s welfare). After distinguishing my use of the terms empathy and altruism from other common uses, and after briefly assessing the current status of the empathy-altruism hypothesis, I shall consider some of its implications, focusing on the difference between altruism and morality. At times, empathy-induced altruism can lead us to act immorally.
Dr. Sue Carter
Professor of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at ChicagoOxytocin and the Neurobiology of Empathy
Empathy will be discussed in the context of the evolution of the mammalian nervous system and the neurochemistry of behavior. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that plays a major role in mammalian social behavior. Both oxytocin and social experiences also modulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the autonomic nervous system and behavioral reactivity to stressors. We hypothesize here that neuroendocrine processes including those triggered by oxytocin and acting at various sites in the nervous system - already implicated more generally in sociality and social communication - also underlie the behavioral states and responses necessary for empathy.
Dr. Jean Decety
Irving B. Harris Professor of Psychology & Psychiatry, University of ChicagoThe Benefits and the Costs of Empathy: the Price of Being Human
It is often taken for granted that it is good to be empathic. It is indeed useful and necessary in interpersonal interactions. Empathy is a valuable attitude in many aspects of social interaction (such as a good teacher, a dedicated father/mother, a sensitive physician, etc.). But there are also physiological and social costs associated with being too empathic. I will first clear up some conceptual issues and distinguish empathy from sympathy and personal distress. Then I will critically examine a growing number of functional neuroimaging studies of pain empathy from my laboratory, which demonstrates a sticking neural overlap between the first hand experience of pain and the perception of pain in others. This overlap includes not only the brain regions involved in the affective-motivational dimension of pain processing but also the somatosensory representation of pain. Based on these functional imaging studies, I will argue that the more overlap between self and other in the context of pain empathy the more likely personal distress, burn out and even compassion fatigue can be experienced. This is detrimental to the self. Empathy is thus something that needs to be regulated, and such regulation can be unconscious or intentional.
Dr. Frans de Waal
Professor of Psychology, Emory UniversitySurvival of the Kindest: The Evolution of Empathy
Many mammals show basic forms of empathy, such as emotional contagion, and some large-brained species (apes, elephants) even show the capacity to take another’s perspective.
Dr. Nancy Eisenberg
Regents’ Professor of Psychology, Arizona State UniversityRelations of Children’s Empathy-related Responding to Their Regulation and Social Functioning
In examining the relations of empathy-related responding to children’s functioning and developmental outcomes, it is important to differentiate among empathy, sympathy, and personal distress. After discussing these distinctions, I briefly summarize our research on the relations of sympathetic concern to children’s prosocial behavior and adjustment. In addition, theory and findings on the relations of sympathy and personal distress to empathy-related responding are summarized.
Dr. Jodi Halpern
Associate Professor of Bioethics & Medical Humanities, UC BerkeleyChallenges to Clinical Empathy
Is a purely cognitive empathy preferable to emotional empathy for clinical practice? Empathy, according to many physicians, involves over-identifying with patients and threatens objectivity and respect for patient autonomy. Is it possible for doctors to use empathy in diagnosing and treating patients without jeopardizing objectivity or projecting their values onto patients? I will discuss the importance of curiosity for developing and sustaining professional empathy in busy clinical practices and empathy for a group of unfamiliar others. I will also discuss challenges to empathizing with another during a conflict.
Dr. Allan Young
Marjorie Bronfman Professor of Social Sciences in Medicine, McGill UniversityThe Strange (Recent) History of Empathic Cruelty
The prevailing evolutionary narrative among neo-Darwinists describes a sequence of behavioural adaptations leading from altruism to reciprocity and punishment. A complementary narrative describes how these adaptations have also contributed to the completion of the social brain. The starting point for the second narrative is empathy and pain, and its end point is spitefulness, Schadenfreude, and cruelty. Narrative one ends with altruistic punishment; narrative two ends with empathic cruelty. Evidence provided by ethological observations and experiments involving chimpanzees and other homologous species and research based on neuroimages of normal people and psychopathic personalities suggest the uniquely human character of spitefulness etc. Yet recent research on the social life of bacteria suggests that these cells likewise have an evolved capacity for spitefulness, although they possess neither a nucleus nor empathy. How can this be? I describe these developments and an anthropological resolution.
