Cited by 85Social and Intergroup PsychologyNeuroendocrine regulation and behaviorFace Recognition and Perception

Oxytocin receptor gene and racial ingroup Bias in empathy-related brain activity

Luo, Siyang, Li, Bingfeng, Ma, Yina, Zhang, Wenxia, Rao, Yi, Han, Shihui·2015·NeuroImage

Abstract

The human brain responds more strongly to racial ingroup than outgroup individuals' pain. This racial ingroup bias varies across individuals and has been attributed to social experiences. What remains unknown is whether the racial ingroup bias in brain activity is associated with a genetic polymorphism. We investigated genetic associations of racial ingroup bias in the brain activity to racial ingroup and outgroup faces that received painful or non-painful stimulations by scanning A/A and G/G homozygous of the oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (OXTR rs53576) using functional MRI. We found that G/G compared to A/A individuals showed stronger activity in the anterior cingulate and supplementary motor area (ACC/SMA) in response to racial ingroup members' pain, whereas A/A relative to G/G individuals exhibited greater activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in response to racial outgroup members' pain. Moreover, the racial ingroup bias in ACC/SMA activity positively predicted participants' racial ingroup bias in implicit attitudes and NAcc activity to racial outgroup individuals' pain negatively predicted participants' motivations to reduce racial outgroup members' pain. Our results suggest that the two variants of OXTR rs53576 are associated with racial ingroup bias in brain activities that are linked to implicit attitude and altruistic motivation, respectively.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.01.042

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  • Activity in the nucleus accumbens predicts decisions not to help outgroup members.

    “and the activity in the nucleus accumbens predicts decisions not to help outgroup members (Hein et al., 2010; Luo et al., 2015).”

    From A neurobiological association of revenge propensity during intergroup conflict (2020) · cites this paper as Luo et al., 2015

  • Outgroup pain is related to enhanced activity in the reward system (e.g., ventral striatum and nucleus accumbens).

    “Outgroup pain, on the other hand, is related to enhanced activity in the reward system (e.g., the ventral striatum and nucleus accumbens [Hein et al., 2010; Cikara et al., 2011; Luo et al., 2015]).”

    From A neurobiological association of revenge propensity during intergroup conflict (2020) · cites this paper as Luo et al., 2015

  • Neither the Revenge group nor the Control group showed activations in the reward system when viewing outgroup members' suffering.

    “Although previous research has shown that viewing outgroup pain can activate the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and greater NAcc activity predicted less motivation to help outgroup members (Hein et al., 2010; Luo et al., 2015), neither the Revenge group nor the Control group in our work showed activations in the reward system when viewing outgroup members' suffering.”

    From A neurobiological association of revenge propensity during intergroup conflict (2020) · cites this paper as Luo et al., 2015

  • Previous research has shown that viewing outgroup pain can activate the nucleus accumbens and greater NAcc activity predicted less motivation to help outgroup members.

    “Although previous research has shown that viewing outgroup pain can activate the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and greater NAcc activity predicted less motivation to help outgroup members (Hein et al., 2010; Luo et al., 2015)”

    From A neurobiological association of revenge propensity during intergroup conflict (2020) · cites this paper as Luo et al., 2015

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Authors
Luo, S., Li, B., Ma, Y., Zhang, W., Rao, Y., & Han, S.
Affiliations
Peking University (CN)
Corresponding author
Han, Shihui
Venue
NeuroImage
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-04
Volume
110
Pages
22-31
ISSN
1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2008838013
Cited by
85
References
91
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 1
FWCI
32.06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2010CB833901, 2010CB833903)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (31421003, 31470986, 81161120539, 91332125)
  • Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (20130001110049)
  • Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Z111107067311058)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
Keywords
oxytocin receptor gene, OXTR rs53576, empathy, pain perception, racial outgroups, implicit attitudes, altruistic motivation, anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor area, nucleus accumbens, genetic polymorphism
MeSH terms
Brain, Empathy, Female, Genotype, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Nucleus Accumbens, Pain, Photic Stimulation, Receptors, Oxytocin, White People, Asian People, Young Adult, Racism

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