title: From painkiller to empathy killer: acetaminophen (paracetamol) reduces empathy for pain.
abstract: Simulation theories of empathy hypothesize that empathizing with others' pain shares some common psychological computations with the processing of one's own pain. Support for this perspective has largely relied on functional neuroimaging evidence of an overlap between activations during the experience of physical pain and empathy for other people's pain. Here, we extend the functional overlap perspective to the neurochemical level and test whether a common physical painkiller, acetaminophen (paracetamol), can reduce empathy for another's pain. In two double-blind placebo-controlled experiments, participants rated perceived pain, personal distress and empathic concern in response to reading scenarios about another's physical or social pain, witnessing ostracism in the lab, or visualizing another study participant receiving painful noise blasts. As hypothesized, acetaminophen reduced empathy in response to others' pain. Acetaminophen also reduced the unpleasantness of noise blasts delivered to the participant, which mediated acetaminophen's effects on empathy. Together, these findings suggest that the physical painkiller acetaminophen reduces empathy for pain and provide a new perspective on the neurochemical bases of empathy. Because empathy regulates prosocial and antisocial behavior, these drug-induced reductions in empathy raise concerns about the broader social side effects of acetaminophen, which is taken by almost a quarter of adults in the United States each week.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA dominik.mischkowski@nih.gov way.37@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mischkowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crocker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Baldwin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Way
mesh_terms: D000082:Acetaminophen / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004645:Empathy / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; D000082:Acetaminophen
keywords: acetaminophen; cyberball; empathy; paracetamol; psychopharmacology