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Recognizing humanity: dehumanization predicts neural mirroring and empathic accuracy in face-to-face interactions.

ABSTRACT: Dehumanization is the failure to recognize the cognitive and emotional complexities of the people around us. While its presence has been well documented in horrific acts of violence, it is also theorized to play a role in everyday life. We measured its presence and effects in face-to-face dyadic interactions between strangers and found that not only was there variance in the extent to which they perceived one another as human, but this variance predicted neural processing and behavior. Specifically, participants showed stronger neural mirroring, indexed by electroencephalography (EEG) mu-suppression, in response to partners they evaluated as more human, suggesting their brains neurally simulated those targets' actions more. Participants were also marginally more empathically accurate about the emotions of partners deemed more human and performed better with them on a cooperative task. These results suggest that there are indeed differences in our recognition of the humanity of people we meet-demonstrated for the first time in a real, face-to-face interaction-and that this mundane variation affects our ability to neurally simulate, cooperate and empathize.

SUBMITTER: Simon JC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8094996 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Recognizing humanity: dehumanization predicts neural mirroring and empathic accuracy in face-to-face interactions.

Simon Jeremy C JC Gutsell Jennifer N JN

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience 20210501 5

Dehumanization is the failure to recognize the cognitive and emotional complexities of the people around us. While its presence has been well documented in horrific acts of violence, it is also theorized to play a role in everyday life. We measured its presence and effects in face-to-face dyadic interactions between strangers and found that not only was there variance in the extent to which they perceived one another as human, but this variance predicted neural processing and behavior. Specifica ...[more]

PMID: 33515023

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Project description:BackgroundThe Empathic Accuracy Task (EAT) is an objective measure to assess empathic accuracy. Due to the variability in the number and linked emotions of the narrated events, we adapted EAT for the Indian sociocultural setting as Indian EAT (I-EAT).MethodsEight videos were adapted in three languages (English, Hindi, and Kannada), narrating emotional events with a uniform representation of age groups, different emotions, and sex. The adapted I-EAT was then validated by cross-sectional comparison with different tests similar to EAT and those that assessed concepts different from or similar to empathy, in 29 healthy young adults, 23 healthy older adults (aged ≥60 years) along with clinical groups of 15 young people with depression, 15 older people with depression, and 15 young people with schizophrenia.ResultsWe selected eight videos with good content validity and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.73. We obtained satisfactory concurrent validity of the EAT scores with the self-reported empathic assessments using the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (Cognitive empathy score = 0.29, p = .034; Total score = 0.29, p = .035) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Empathic concern score = 0.45, p = .001). Good divergent validity was revealed in the high inverse correlation recorded with the Apathy Evaluation Scale ( = -0.67, p < .001). I-EAT did not correlate significantly with measures of social cognition. Known-groups validity was adequate in young adults with the significantly lower EAT scores (Cohen's d: 0.77 to 1.15) in the Schizophrenia group and higher EAT-N scores (Cohen's d: 0.51) in the Depression group, compared to the Healthy group. The Healthy group of the geriatric population also achieved significantly higher EAT scores (Cohen's d: 0.71 to 0.85) than the Depression group.ConclusionWith a good validity and internal consistency, I-EAT can be used in the Indian population to assess empathic accuracy without compromising performance of the original EAT.

Dataset Information

Recognizing humanity: dehumanization predicts neural mirroring and empathic accuracy in face-to-face interactions.

Publications

Recognizing humanity: dehumanization predicts neural mirroring and empathic accuracy in face-to-face interactions.

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