Refugees welcome? Empathy attenuates effects of xenophobia on neuronal responses to in-group and out-group suffering.

Migrant flows in modern societies have produced substantial political and societal debates due to opposing views on immigrating people. The present study aimed to investigate whether depictions of suffering refugees in contrast to suffering in-group members are perceived differently and whether these differences are influenced by xenophobia and trait empathy. We conducted an fMRI experiment with 83 participants who were presented with depictions of suffering individuals in an in-group condition, out-group condition, and control stimuli. We defined several regions of interest that had previously been associated with empathy, including the insula, anterior and posterior cingulate, inferior frontal gyrus, temporal regions, and the precuneus. The results show higher activation of empathy-related areas in both the in-group and out-group compared with control condition and a significant cluster in the inferior frontal gyrus for the contrast in-group > out-group. Moreover, a moderation analysis revealed an interplay of empathic concern and xenophobic attitudes on the activation contrast in-group vs. out-group, in that empathic concern reduced the in-group favoring empathy-specific activation in more xenophobic individuals. The results highlight the importance of empathy in the neuronal perception of (suffering) out-groups and suggest that empathy might be capable of enhancing compassion with out-groups in individuals with more pronounced negative out-group attitudes.