The neuropsychology of empathy for pain: how social differences affect the empathic brain.

With the present thesis I investigated whether and how empathy for pain is effected by social cues. Empathy is a critical function regulating human social life and, specifically empathy for pain is a source of deep emotional feelings and a strong trigger of pro-social behavior. I investigated the existence of a racial and religion bias in the emotional reaction to other people’s pain. Measuring participants’ physiological arousal and functional brain activations, I found that Caucasian observers reacted to pain suffered by African people significantly less than to pain of Caucasian people. The reduced reaction to the pain of African individuals was also correlated with the observers’ individual implicit race bias. Religion did not seem to affect empathy for other people pain. My thesis pointed out that other people’s race is a crucial clue for understanding to what extent empathy for pain, social interactions, and possibly integration, may be influenced by deeply rooted automatic and uncontrollable responses.