Citation

Wang C, Wu B, Liu Y, Wu X, Han S. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 2015; 10(9): 1195-1201.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/scan/nsv005

PMID

25605968

Abstract

Humans show stronger empathy for in-group compared to out-group members' suffering and help in-group members more than out-group members. Moreover, the in-group bias in empathy and parochial altruism tend to be more salient in collectivistic than individualistic cultures. The current work tested the hypothesis that modifying self-construals, which differentiate between collectivistic and individualistic cultural orientations, affects in-group bias in empathy for perceived own-race versus other-race pain. By scanning adults using functional MRI, we found stronger neural activities in the mid-cingulate, left insula and supplementary motor area in response to racial in-group compared to out-group members' pain after participants had been primed with interdependent self-construals. However, the racial in-group bias in neural responses to others' pain in the left SMA, MCC and insula was significantly reduced by priming independent self-construals. Our findings suggest that shifting an individual's self-construal leads to changes of his/her racial in-group bias in neural responses to others' suffering.

Language: en