Racial bias reduces empathic sensorimotor resonance with other-race pain
Open accessAbstract
Although social psychology studies suggest that racism often manifests itself as a lack of empathy, i.e., the ability to share and comprehend others' feelings and intentions, evidence for differential empathic reactivity to the pain of same- or different-race individuals is meager. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, we explored sensorimotor empathic brain responses in black and white individuals who exhibited implicit but not explicit ingroup preference and race-specific autonomic reactivity. We found that observing the pain of ingroup models inhibited the onlookers' corticospinal system as if they were feeling the pain. Both black and white individuals exhibited empathic reactivity also when viewing the pain of stranger, very unfamiliar, violet-hand models. By contrast, no vicarious mapping of the pain of individuals culturally marked as outgroup members on the basis of their skin color was found. Importantly, group-specific lack of empathic reactivity was higher in the onlookers who exhibited stronger implicit racial bias. These results indicate that human beings react empathically to the pain of stranger individuals. However, racial bias and stereotypes may change this reactivity into a group-specific lack of sensorimotor resonance.
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Participants show reduced vicarious activation of the motor cortex when observing actions performed by a racial outgroup member compared to an ingroup member, and show decreased neural and motor responses when viewing racial outgroup members in pain.
“In the motor domain, participants show reduced vicarious activation of the motor cortex when observing actions performed by a racial outgroup member as compared to an ingroup member [4,8], and show decreased neural and motor responses when viewing racial outgroup members in pain [3,6].”
From Changing bodies changes minds: Owning another body affects social cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [3]
Diminished neural resonance with the racial outgroup directly correlates with participants' negative implicit racial biases.
“Furthermore, this diminished neural resonance with the racial outgroup has been found to directly correlate with participants' negative implicit racial biases [3].”
From Changing bodies changes minds: Owning another body affects social cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [3]
This mapping may also depend on the perceived physical similarity between self and other.
“This mapping may also depend on the perceived physical similarity between self and other [65].”
From The other in me: interpersonal multisensory stimulation changes the mental representation of the self (2012) · cites this paper as [65]
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- Authors
- Avenanti, A., Sirigu, A., & Aglioti, S. M.
- Affiliations
- Fondazione Santa Lucia (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Avenanti, Alessio
- Aglioti, Salvatore M.
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-06
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1018-1022
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2132578438
- Cited by
- 555
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 35 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 44 · 2014: 48 · 2013: 45 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 47.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (vor, 1178 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
- Keywords
- racial bias, empathic resonance, vicarious pain, other-race effect, in-group favoritism, implicit racial bias, corticospinal system, autonomic reactivity, racism, transcranial magnetic stimulation
- MeSH terms
- Empathy, Humans, Pain, Pain Measurement, Prejudice, Racial Groups
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