Zhou Yuqing, Pang Chenyu, Pu Yue, Han Shihui
School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Neuropsychologia. 2022 Sep 9;174:108321. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108321. Epub 2022 Jul 11.
Racial ingroup favoritism in empathic brain activity has been widely observed and is associated with biased behavior toward same-race and other-race individuals. We investigated whether racial outgroup favoritism in neural responses to others' pain - an objective measure of empathy - may emerge during sociocultural interactions in a new social environment. We recorded magnetoencephalography to pain and neutral expressions of Asian and White faces from White students who had stayed in China for 6-36 weeks (Experimental group) or 2-4 weeks (Control group). The experimental group showed better neural decoding of and greater insular/sensorimotor responses to pain vs. neutral expressions of Asian compared to White faces. By contrast, the control group showed better neural decoding of pain vs. neutral expressions of White than Asian faces. In addition, participants of the experimental group who had stayed longer in China showed greater sensorimotor responses to pain (vs. neutral) expressions of Asian faces but weaker sensorimotor responses to pain (vs. neutral) expressions of White faces. Our findings revealed emerging racial outgroup favoritism in brain activities associated with sensorimotor resonance and affective sharing of others' pain during sociocultural interactions.
共情脑活动中的种族内群体偏袒现象已被广泛观察到，且与对同种族和其他种族个体的偏见行为有关。我们调查了在新的社会环境中进行社会文化互动时，对他人疼痛的神经反应中的种族外群体偏袒（一种客观的共情测量方法）是否会出现。我们对在中国停留了6至36周（实验组）或2至4周（对照组）的白人学生观看亚洲人和白人面孔的疼痛表情与中性表情时的脑磁图进行了记录。与白人面孔相比，实验组对亚洲人疼痛表情与中性表情的神经解码能力更强，脑岛/感觉运动反应也更强烈。相比之下，对照组对白人疼痛表情与中性表情的神经解码能力比对亚洲人面孔更强。此外，在中国停留时间更长的实验组参与者对亚洲人面孔的疼痛（与中性表情相比）表情表现出更强的感觉运动反应，但对白人面孔的疼痛（与中性表情相比）表情的感觉运动反应较弱。我们的研究结果揭示了在社会文化互动过程中，与感觉运动共鸣和对他人疼痛的情感分享相关的脑活动中出现了种族外群体偏袒现象。
