Ideological values are parametrically associated with empathy neural response to vicarious suffering
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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2023-05-22
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Language
en
Pages
10
1-10
1-10
Series
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Volume 18, issue 1
Abstract
Several studies in political psychology reported higher levels of empathy among political leftists (i.e. liberals) as compared to political rightists (i.e. conservatives). Yet, all those studies lean on self-reports, which are often limited by subjective bias and conformity to social norms. Here, we tested this putative asymmetry using neuroimaging: we recorded oscillatory neural activity using magnetoencephalography while 55 participants completed a well-validated neuroimaging paradigm for empathy to vicarious suffering. The findings revealed a typical rhythmic alpha-band 'empathy response' in the temporal-parietal junction. This neural empathy response was significantly stronger in the leftist than in the rightist group. In addition to this dichotomous division, the neural response was parametrically associated with both self-reported political inclination and right-wing ideological values. This is the first study to reveal an asymmetry in the neural empathy response as a function of political ideology. The findings reported in this study are in line with the current literature in political psychology and provide a novel neural perspective to support the ideological asymmetry in empathy. This study opens new vistas for addressing questions in political psychology by using neuroimaging.Description
Funding Information: The study was supported by funding from the Academy of Finland Research Fellow funding to J.L. and the Academy of Finland Project funding to M.S. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press.
Keywords
alpha rhythm, empathy, ideological asymmetry, magnetoencephalography, neuropolitics
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Citation
Zebarjadi, N, Adler, E, Kluge, A, Sams, M & Levy, J 2023, ' Ideological values are parametrically associated with empathy neural response to vicarious suffering ', Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, vol. 18, no. 1, nsad029, pp. 1-10 . https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsad029