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Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others

Author

Listed:
  • Tania Singer

    (Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience
    University College of London)

  • Ben Seymour

    (Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience)

  • John P. O'Doherty

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Klaas E. Stephan

    (Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience)

  • Raymond J. Dolan

    (Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience)

  • Chris D. Frith

    (Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience)

Abstract

I feel your pain Humans have the capacity to empathize with the pain of others, but we don't empathize in all circumstances. An experiment on human volunteers playing an economic game looked at the conditional nature of our sympathy, and the results show that fairness of social interactions is key to the empathic neural response. Both men and women empathized with the pain of cooperative people. But if people are selfish, empathic responses were absent, at least in men. And it seems that physical harm might even be considered a good outcome — perhaps the first neuroscientific evidence for schadenfreude.

Suggested Citation

  • Tania Singer & Ben Seymour & John P. O'Doherty & Klaas E. Stephan & Raymond J. Dolan & Chris D. Frith, 2006. "Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others," Nature, Nature, vol. 439(7075), pages 466-469, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:439:y:2006:i:7075:d:10.1038_nature04271
    DOI: 10.1038/nature04271
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    Cited by:

    1. Estelle Blons & Laurent M. Arsac & Eric Grivel & Veronique Lespinet-Najib & Veronique Deschodt-Arsac, 2021. "Physiological Resonance in Empathic Stress: Insights from Nonlinear Dynamics of Heart Rate Variability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-12, February.
    2. Christian Cordes & Wolfram Elsner & Claudius Graebner & Torsten Heinrich & Joshua Henkel & Henning Schwardt & Georg Schwesinger & Tong-Yaa Su, 2021. "The collapse of cooperation: the endogeneity of institutional break-up and its asymmetry with emergence," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 1291-1315, September.
    3. Vanessa Oltra, 2022. "De l’homo oeconomicus empathique à l’homo sympathicus Les apports de la sympathie smithienne à la compréhension des comportements prosociaux," Working Papers hal-03623609, HAL.
    4. Vásquez, Jorge & Weretka, Marek, 2020. "Affective empathy in non-cooperative games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 548-564.
    5. Matilda Annerstedt, 2010. "Transdisciplinarity as an Inference Technique to Achieve a Better Understanding in the Health and Environmental Sciences," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-16, June.
    6. Sung Park & Mincheol Whang, 2022. "Empathy in Human–Robot Interaction: Designing for Social Robots," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-21, February.
    7. Kamas, Linda & Preston, Anne, 2021. "Empathy, gender, and prosocial behavior," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    8. Patrick Ring & Christoph A. Schütt & Dennis J. Snower, 2023. "Care and anger motives in social dilemmas," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 95(2), pages 273-308, August.
    9. Yiyu Yi & Qianbao Tan & Jiahui Liu & Fuqun Liang & Chao Liu & Zhenbiao Yin, 2022. "The Mechanism of Cumulative Ecological Risk Affecting College Students’ Sense of Social Responsibility: The Double Fugue Effect of Belief in a Just World and Empathy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-18, December.
    10. Vanessa MICHEL(OLTRA), 2022. "De l’homo oeconomicus empathique à l’homo sympathicus Les apports de la sympathie smithienne à la compréhension des comportements prosociaux," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2022-03, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    11. Houser, Daniel & Xiao, Erte, 2010. "Inequality-seeking punishment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 20-23, October.
    12. Hassan, Mazen & Amin, Engi & Mansour, Sarah & Voigt, Stefan, 2023. "Incentivizing cooperation against a norm of defection: Experimental Evidence from Egypt," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    13. Roy, Rajat & Das, Gopal, 2022. "The role of contextual factors in increasing Pay-What-You-Want payments: Evidence from field experiments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1540-1552.
    14. Goeschl, Timo & Jarke, Johannes, 2013. "Second vs. Third Party Punishment under Costly Monitoringː A New Experimental Method and Evidence," WiSo-HH Working Paper Series 6, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, WISO Research Laboratory.
    15. Lee, Eun-Ju, 2016. "Empathy can increase customer equity related to pro-social brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3748-3754.
    16. Li, Xiaojing & Zhou, Lihua & Ding, Cody & Li, Zuoshan, 2024. "Effects of childhood emotional neglect on pain empathy: Evidence from event-related potentials," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    17. N. M. Slanevskaya, 2022. "Public Administration Transformation Based on Research in Social Neurosciences in the Context of Sustainable Development. (Part 1)," Administrative Consulting, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. North-West Institute of Management., issue 4.
    18. Marcus Holmes & Costas Panagopoulos, 2014. "The social brain paradigm and social norm puzzles," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 26(3), pages 384-404, July.

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