Martínez-Velázquez Eduardo S, Ahuatzin González Alma L, Chamorro Yaira, Sequeira Henrique
Laboratorio de Psicofisiología, Facultad de Psicología, Benemérita Universidad de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.
Laboratorio de Neuropsicología y Neurolingüística, CUCBA, Mexico Institute of Neuroscience, University of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jan 31;11:23. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00023. eCollection 2020.
Previous studies have suggested that empathic process involve several components such as cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and prosocial concern. It has also been reported that gender and empathy trait can influence empathic responses such as emotional recognition, which requires an appropriate scanning of faces. However, the degree to which these factors influence the empathic responses, which include emotion recognition, affective empathy, and cognitive empathy, has not yet been specified. The aim of the present study was to identify the differences between individuals with high and low level of empathy trait, as well as differences between men and women, in an explicit task in order to evaluate the empathic responses. With this goal in mind, we recorded eye movements during the presentation of dynamic emotional stimuli (joy, anger, fear, and neutral videos). After watching each video, participants had to rate the valence and arousal dimensions of emotional content and explicit empathy responses were assessed. Thirty participants (15 women) were included in a High Empathy group (HE; mean age = 21.0) and 30 participants (16 women) in the Low Empathy group (LE; mean age = 21.2), according to their scores in the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) scale. As expected, the HE group showed higher scores than the LE group in the explicit empathy responses. These differences, based on global scores, were mainly explained by affective empathy and cognitive empathy responses but not by emotional recognition one. No differences were observed by gender in these measures. Regarding eye movements in the dynamic emotional stimuli, HE group had longer fixation duration on the eyes area than LE group. In addition, women spent more time on the eyes area in comparison to men. Our findings suggest that both men and women with high empathy trait are more accurate to empathizing but not on the basis of the emotional recognition response. The fact that women spent more time on the eyes area did not seem to affect the empathic responses to the dynamic emotional stimulus. Overall, empathic responses of both men and women are modulated by their empathic trait. In addition, empathic trait and gender seem to impact strategies to deal with emotional facial information.
以往的研究表明，共情过程涉及多个组成部分，如认知共情、情感共情和亲社会关注。也有报道称，性别和共情特质会影响共情反应，如情绪识别，而情绪识别需要对面部进行适当的扫描。然而，这些因素对包括情绪识别、情感共情和认知共情在内的共情反应的影响程度尚未明确。本研究的目的是在一项明确任务中，识别共情特质水平高和低的个体之间的差异，以及男性和女性之间的差异，以评估共情反应。出于这个目的，我们在呈现动态情绪刺激（喜悦、愤怒、恐惧和中性视频）期间记录了眼动。观看每个视频后，参与者必须对情绪内容的效价和唤醒维度进行评分，并评估明确的共情反应。根据人际反应指数（IRI）量表的得分，30名参与者（15名女性）被纳入高共情组（HE；平均年龄 = 21.0岁），30名参与者（16名女性）被纳入低共情组（LE；平均年龄 = 21.2岁）。正如预期的那样，高共情组在明确的共情反应中得分高于低共情组。基于总体得分的这些差异主要由情感共情和认知共情反应解释，而不是由情绪识别反应解释。在这些测量中未观察到性别差异。关于动态情绪刺激中的眼动，高共情组在眼睛区域的注视持续时间比低共情组更长。此外，与男性相比，女性在眼睛区域花费的时间更多。我们的研究结果表明，具有高共情特质的男性和女性在共情方面更准确，但不是基于情绪识别反应。女性在眼睛区域花费更多时间这一事实似乎并未影响对动态情绪刺激的共情反应。总体而言，男性和女性的共情反应都受到其共情特质的调节。此外，共情特质和性别似乎会影响处理情绪化面部信息的策略。
