title: Pain and empathy: the effect of self-oriented feelings on the detection of painful facial expressions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Painful facial expressions have been shown to trigger affective responses among observers. However, there is so far no clear indication about the self- or other-oriented nature of these feelings. The purpose of this study was to assess whether facial expressions of pain are unconsciously associated with other-oriented feelings (empathic concern) or with self-oriented feelings (personal distress).
  
  
  METHODS
  70 participants took part in a priming paradigm in which ambiguous facial expressions of pain were primed by words related to empathic concern, distress, negative or by neutral words. It was hypothesized that empathic concern or distress-related words might facilitate the detection of pain in ambiguous facial expressions of pain, independently of a mere effect of prime (i.e., neutral words) or an effect of valence congruency (negative primes).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed an effect of prime on the detection and on the reaction time to answer "pain" when confronted to ambiguous facial expressions of pain. More specifically, the detection of pain was higher and faster when preceded by distress primes relative to either neutral or negative primes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study suggests that painful expressions are unconsciously related to self-oriented feelings of distress and that their threat value might account for this effect. These findings thus shed new light on the automatic relationship between painful expressions and the affective components of empathy.
authors.affiliation: Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Grynberg
authors.affiliation: Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maurage
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001244:Association; D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time