Sheng Feng, Du Na, Han Shihui
a Guanghua School of Management , China.
b Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health , Peking University , Beijing , China.
Soc Neurosci. 2017 Aug;12(4):479-487. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2016.1182944. Epub 2016 May 17.
Human beings process perceptual and affective information of racial out-groups in a degraded manner. Relative to racial in-group members, we lack perceptual individuation of racial out-group members and empathize their pain to a less degree. To date, however, the relationship between the deficiency of individuation and the impairment of empathy in responding to racial out-groups remains elusive. By recording event-related brain potentials in response to racial in-group and out-group faces portraying pain and neutral expressions, we simultaneously measured neural activity that underpinned individuation and empathy. Deficiency in individuating members of racial out-groups, manifesting as reduced reactivity of face-sensitive N170 in the occipitotemporal region of the brain, predicted attenuation of fronto-central empathic response to the suffering of racial out-groups. Further, the individuation bias mediated the influence of racial prejudice on racial in-group bias in empathic neural responses. These findings suggest an interplay between degraded perceptual and affective processing of racial out-groups.
人类以一种有缺陷的方式处理种族外群体的感知和情感信息。相对于种族内群体成员，我们对种族外群体成员缺乏感知个体化，对他们的痛苦共情程度较低。然而，迄今为止，在对种族外群体做出反应时，个体化缺陷与共情障碍之间的关系仍不明确。通过记录对描绘痛苦和中性表情的种族内群体和外群体面孔做出反应时的事件相关脑电位，我们同时测量了支持个体化和共情的神经活动。对种族外群体成员个体化的缺陷表现为大脑枕颞区对面部敏感的N170反应性降低，这预示着对种族外群体痛苦的额中央共情反应会减弱。此外，个体化偏差介导了种族偏见对共情神经反应中种族内群体偏见的影响。这些发现表明，在对种族外群体的感知和情感处理能力下降之间存在相互作用。
