Description
Empathy is important in human social interactions, facilitating altruism and survival and its lack has been implicated in mental disorders such as psychopathy, autism, and personality disorders. Experiencing empathy is connected in part to the activity of aMCC-dACC-SMS, bilateral AI and mirror neurons, which can cause virtual pain sensations when exposed to an individual in pain. Neurocognitive and social-cognitive evidence supports the role of both auditory and visual stimuli in evocation of empathy, but no research has explored the relative effectiveness of each. The present study compared auditory and visual presentation in the evocation of empathy, with the expectation that auditory information would evoke higher somatic empathy compared to visual. College students (N = 125) were exposed to a 40-second audio, video, or audio-video file presenting an elderly man suffering from a painful kidney stone. Participants indicated his perceived pain and level of danger and whether they experienced any physical sensations. The results were consistent with hypothesis for both pain and danger. Future research directions are discussed. Key Words: Empathy, Auditory Sensory System, Visual System Physical Sensation, Pain Perception, vicarious pain, Social Cognition of Empathy, and Neurocognition of somatic empathy
Supremacy of Auditory Versus Visual Input in Empathic Arousal
Empathy is important in human social interactions, facilitating altruism and survival and its lack has been implicated in mental disorders such as psychopathy, autism, and personality disorders. Experiencing empathy is connected in part to the activity of aMCC-dACC-SMS, bilateral AI and mirror neurons, which can cause virtual pain sensations when exposed to an individual in pain. Neurocognitive and social-cognitive evidence supports the role of both auditory and visual stimuli in evocation of empathy, but no research has explored the relative effectiveness of each. The present study compared auditory and visual presentation in the evocation of empathy, with the expectation that auditory information would evoke higher somatic empathy compared to visual. College students (N = 125) were exposed to a 40-second audio, video, or audio-video file presenting an elderly man suffering from a painful kidney stone. Participants indicated his perceived pain and level of danger and whether they experienced any physical sensations. The results were consistent with hypothesis for both pain and danger. Future research directions are discussed. Key Words: Empathy, Auditory Sensory System, Visual System Physical Sensation, Pain Perception, vicarious pain, Social Cognition of Empathy, and Neurocognition of somatic empathy