Dispositional Perspective-Taking and Empathic Concern Modulate the Impact of Cognitive Load on Empathy for Facial Emotions

Bajouk, Omar; Hansenne, Michel

doi:10.1177/0033294118799337

Article (Scientific journals)

Dispositional Perspective-Taking and Empathic Concern Modulate the Impact of Cognitive Load on Empathy for Facial Emotions

Bajouk, Omar; Hansenne, Michel

2019 • In Psychological Reports

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2268/227820

DOI
10.1177/0033294118799337

PubMed
30211661

Files (1)Send to Details Statistics Bibliography Similar publications

Files

Full Text

Bajouk Hansenne Psych Reports 2018.pdf

Publisher postprint (405.55 kB)

Request a copy

All documents in ORBi are protected by a user license.

Send to

RIS BibTex APA Chicago Permalink X Linkedin

Details

Keywords :

Empathy; Cognitive load; Empathic concern; Perspective-taking

Abstract :

[en] Meeting other people involves the importance to share their experiences and to understand their perspectives or, more simply, to empathize with them. Empathy research distinguishes two main dimensions of empathy, the affective sharing and the cognitive understanding. In the present study, we focus on the impact of cognitive load on empathy to pain, fear, happiness, and neutral facial emotions. Participants had to judge the intensity of the emotion when looking at facial expressions (empathize group), or with an additional eight-digit memory task (cognitive load group). While we assumed that cognitive load would reduce empathy, inconsistently with previous findings, our results did not show any significant effect of group. Interestingly, regression analyses showed that perspective-taking and empathic concern were positively related to pain, fear, and happiness ratings within the cognitive load group. These results reveal that when judging empathy under high cognitive load, dispositional empathic concern and perspective-taking could allow individuals to override the supposed deleterious cognitive load effect on empathy.

Research Center/Unit :

PsyNCog - Psychologie et Neuroscience Cognitives - ULiège

Disciplines :

Neurosciences & behavior

Author, co-author :

Bajouk, Omar ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Psychologie > PsyNCog Research Unit,

Hansenne, Michel ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Psycho. de la personnalité et des différences individuelles

Language :

English

Title :

Dispositional Perspective-Taking and Empathic Concern Modulate the Impact of Cognitive Load on Empathy for Facial Emotions

Publication date :

2019

Journal title :

Psychological Reports

ISSN :

0033-2941

eISSN :

1558-691X

Publisher :

SAGE Publishing

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0033294118799337

Available on ORBi :

since 16 September 2018

Statistics

Number of views

127 (27 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

4 (4 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

Bibliography

Andreychik M. R., Lewis E., (2017). Will you help me to suffer less? How about to fell more joy? Positive and negative empathy are associated with different other-oriented motivations. Personality and Individual Differences, 105, 139–149. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.09.038
Avenanti A., Sirigu A., Aglioti S. M., (2010). Racial bias reduces empathic sensorimotor resonance with other-race pain. Current Biology, 20(11), 1018–1022. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.03.071
Cao Y., Contreras-Huerta L. S., McFadyen J., Cunnington R., (2015). Racial bias in neural response to others’ pain is reduced with other-race contact. Cortex, 70, 68–78. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.02.010
Cheona B. K., Im D., Haradaa T., Kim J., Mathur V. A., Scimeca J. M.,.. Chiao J. Y., (2011). Cultural influences on neural basis of intergroup empathy. NeuroImage, 57(2), 642–650. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.04.031
Choi D., Watanuki S., (2014). Effect of empathy trait on attention to faces: An event-related potential (ERP) study. Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 33, 4. doi:10.1186%2F1880-6805-33-4
Corradi-Dell'Acqua C., Hofstetter C., Vuilleumier P., (2011). Felt and seen pain evoke the same local patterns of cortical activity in insular and cingulate cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(49), 17996–18006. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2686-11.2011
Cui F., Zhu X., Cheng J., (2017). Working memory load modulates the neural response to other’s pain: Evidence from an ERP study. Neuroscience Letters, 644, 24–29. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2017.02.026
Dapretto M., Davies S. M., Pfeifer J. H., Scott A. A., Sigman M., Bookheimer S. Y., Iacoboni M., (2006). Understanding emotions in others: Mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders. Nature Neurosciences, 9, 28–30. doi:10.1038/nn1611
Davis M. H., (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(1), 113–126. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113
Decety J., (2010). The neurodevelopment of empathy in humans. Developmental Neuroscience, 32, 257–267. doi:10.1159%2F000317771
Decety J., Jackson P. L., (2004). The functional architecture of human empathy. Behavorial and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 3(2), 71–100. doi:10.1177/1534582304267187
Decety J., Lamm C., (2006). Human empathy through the lens of social neuroscience. The Scientific World Journal, 6, 1146–1163. doi:10.1100/tsw.2006.221
Decety J., Yang C.-Y., Cheng Y., (2010). Physicians down-regulate their pain empathy response: An event-related brain potential study. NeuroImage, 50(4), 1676–1682. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.01.025
de Greck M., Wang G., Yang X., Wang X., Northoff G., Han S., (2012). Neural substrates underlying intentional empathy. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7(2), 135–144. doi:10.1093/scan/nsq093
di Pellegrino G., Fadiga L., Fogassi L., Gallese V., Rizzolatti G., (1992). Understanding motor events: A neurophysiological study. Experimental Brain Research, 91, 176–180. doi:10.1007/BF00230027
Eimer M., Holmes A., McGlone F. P., (2003). The role of spatial attention in the processing of facial expression: An ERP study of rapid brain responses to six basic emotions. Cognitive Affective Behavioral Neuroscience, 3(2), 97–110. doi:10.3758/CABN.3.2.97
Fan Y., Han S., (2008). Temporal dynamics of neural mechanisms involved in empathy for pain: An event-related brain potential study. Neurosychologia, 46, 160–173. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.07.023
Gallese V., (2001). The ‘shared manifold’ hypothesis: From mirror neurons to empathy. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8, 33–50.
Gilet A.-L., Mella N., Studer J., Grühn D., Labouvie-Vief G., (2013). Assessing dispositional empathy in adults. A French validation of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue Canadienne Des Sciences du Comportement, 45, 42–48. doi:10.1037/a0030425
Gilin D., Maddux W., Carpenter J., Galinsky A., (2013). When to use your head and when to use your heart: The differential value of perspective-taking versus empathy in competitive interactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39, 3–16. doi:10.1177/0146167212465320
Gu X., Han S., (2007). Attention and reality constraints on the neural processes of empathy for pain. NeuroImage, 36, 256–267. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.02.025
Han S., Fan Y., Gu X., Qin J., Wu B., Wang X., Mao L., (2009). Empathic neural responses to others’ pain are modulated by emotional contexts. Human Brain Mapping, 30, 3227–3237. doi:10.1002/hbm.20742
Hiraoka D., Nomura M., (2016). The influence of cognitive load on empathy and intention in reponse to infant crying. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 9. doi:10.1038/srep28247
Lamm C., Decety J., Singer T., (2011). Meta-analytic evidence for common and distinct neural networks associated with directly experienced pain and empathy for pain. NeuroImage, 54(3), 2492–2502. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.10.014
Marrison A. S., Mateen M. A., Brozovich F. A., Zaki J., Goldin P. R., Heimberg R. G., Gross J. J., (2016). Empathy for positive and negative emotions in social anxiety disorder. Behavior Research and Therapy, 87, 232–242. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2016.10.005
Mathôt S., Schreij D., Theeuwes J., (2012). OpenSesame: An open-source, graphical experiment builder for the social sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 44(2), 314–324. doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0168-7
Meiring L., Subramoney S., Thomas K. G., Decety J., Fourie M., (2014). Empathy and helping: Effects of racial group membership and cognitive load. South African Journal of Psychology, 44(4), 426–438. doi:10.1177/0081246314530280
Morelli S. A., Lieberman M. D., (2013). The role of automaticity and attention in neural processes underlying empathy for happiness, sadness, and anxiety. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 1–15. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00160
Morelli S. A., Lieberman M. D., Zaki J., (2015). The emerging study of positive empathy. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(2), 57–68. doi:10.1111/spc3.12157
Oswald P. A., (2002). The interactive effects of affective demeanor, cognitive processes, and perspective-taking focus on helping behavior. The Journal of Social Psychology, 142, 120–132. doi:10.1080/00224540209603890
Preston S. D., (2007). A perception-action model for empathy. In Farrow T. F., Woodruff P. W., (Eds.), Empathy in mental illness (pp. 428–447). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511543753.024
Rameson L. T., Morelli S. A., Lieberman M. D., (2012). The neural correlates of empathy: Experience, automaticity, and prosocial behavior. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24(1), 235–245. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00130
Rizzolatti G., Fadiga L., Gallese V., Fogassi L., (1996). Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions. Cognitive Brain Research, 3, 131–141. doi:10.1016/0926-6410(95)00038-0
Sheng F., Han S., (2012). Manipulations of cognitive strategies and intergroup relationships reduce the racial bias in empathic neural responses. NeuroImage, 61(4), 786–797. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.04.028
Simon D., Craig K., Gosselin F., Belin P., Rainville P., (2008). Recognition and discrimination of prototypical dynamic expressions of pain and emotions. Pain, 135(1–2), 55–64. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2007.05.008
Singer T., Seymour B., O’Doherty J., Stephan K. E., Dolan R. J., Frith C., (2006). Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others. Nature, 439(7075), 466–469. doi:10.1038/nature04271
Smith R. L., (2015). Adolescent’s emotional engagement in friend’s problems and joys: Associations of empathetic distress and empathetic joy with friendship quality, depression, and anxiety. Journal of Adolescence, 45, 103–111. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.08.020
Woodward L. J., Anderson P. J., Austin N. C., Howard K., Inder T., (2006). Neonatal MRI to predict neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants. The New England Journal of Medicine, 355, 685–694. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa053792
Ziegler M., Horstmann K., (2015). Discovering the second side of the coin: Integrating situational perception into. Psychological Assessment. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 31, 69–74. doi:10.1027/1015-5759/a000258
Zuo X., Han S., (2013). Cultural experiences reduce racial bias in neural responses to others’ suffering. Culture and Brain, 1, 34–46. doi:10.1007%2Fs40167-013-0002-4