title: Cultural influences on neural basis of intergroup empathy.
abstract: Cultures vary in the extent to which people prefer social hierarchical or egalitarian relations between individuals and groups. Here we examined the effect of cultural variation in preference for social hierarchy on the neural basis of intergroup empathy. Using cross-cultural neuroimaging, we measured neural responses while Korean and American participants observed scenes of racial ingroup and outgroup members in emotional pain. Compared to Caucasian-American participants, Korean participants reported experiencing greater empathy and elicited stronger activity in the left temporo-parietal junction (L-TPJ), a region previously associated with mental state inference, for ingroup compared to outgroup members. Furthermore, preferential reactivity within this region to the pain of ingroup relative to outgroup members was associated with greater preference for social hierarchy and ingroup biases in empathy. Together, these results suggest that cultural variation in preference for social hierarchy leads to cultural variation in ingroup-preferences in empathy, due to increased engagement of brain regions associated with representing and inferring the mental states of others.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, USA.
authors.forename: Bobby K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Cheon
authors.forename: Dong-Mi
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Im
authors.forename: Tokiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: Ji-Sook
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Vani A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Mathur
authors.forename: Jason M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Scimeca
authors.forename: Todd B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Parrish
authors.forename: Hyun Wook
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Joan Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chiao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003469:Culture; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D012933:Social Identification; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult