Laugh or cringe? Common and distinct processes of reward-based schadenfreude and empathy-based fremdscham

Paulus, Frieder M.; Müller-Pinzler, Laura; Stolz, David S.; Mayer, Annalina V.; Rademacher, Lena; Krach, Sören

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.05.030

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…On the other hand, OXT decreased the SCR in response toward conditioned threat stimuli ( 58 ) and decreased autonomic stress reactivity ( 59 ). Moreover, increased activity in the dAI has been specifically associated with increased arousal during embarrassing social situations ( 30 ), however not embarrassment-related schadenfreude ( 60 ). Together, the pattern of decreased reactivity in the two threat nodes as well as the autonomic arousal measures during exposure to embarrassing, social-stressful situations may thus reflect anxiolytic effects of OXT.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin Facilitates Empathic- and Self-embarrassment Ratings by Attenuating Amygdala and Anterior Insula Responses

et al. 2018

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The hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin has been reported to enhance emotional empathy in association with reduced amygdala activation, although to date studies have not investigated empathy for individuals expressing self-conscious, moral emotions which engage mentalizing as well as emotion processing networks. In the current randomized, double-blind placebo controlled functional MRI experiment in 70 male and female subjects we have therefore investigated the effects of intranasal oxytocin (40 IU) on behavioral and neural responses to embarrassment experienced by others or by self. Results showed that oxytocin significantly increased ratings of both empathic and self-embarrassment and concomitantly decreased skin conductance response, activation in the right amygdala and insula but not in the medial prefrontal cortex. The amygdala effects of oxytocin were associated with the magnitude of the skin conductance response and trait anxiety scores. Overall our results demonstrate that oxytocin increases ratings of self- and other embarrassment and that this is associated with reduced physiological arousal and activity in neural circuits involved in emotional arousal. The neural effects of oxytocin were more pronounced stronger in individuals with high trait anxiety suggesting that it may particularly reduce their anxiety in embarrassing situations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin Facilitates Empathic- and Self-embarrassment Ratings by Attenuating Amygdala and Anterior Insula Responses

et al. 2018

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“…Of course, empathic affect sharing is only one possible response to another person's emotion. Complementary affective states such as schadenfreude, envy or compassion occur as well, but the peculiarity of empathy is that it enables access to another's internal state by re-creating a representation of that state in the observer (3–6). Correspondingly, neuroscience research on empathy has not identified one single neural network associated with empathy, but rather the brain regions found to be active depend on what affective state is shared.…”

Section: Empathy and Perspective-takingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociating Empathy From Perspective-Taking: Evidence From Intra- and Inter-Individual Differences Research

et al. 2019

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Humans have the capacity to share others' emotions, be they positive or negative. Elicited by the observed or imagined emotion of another person, an observer develops a similar emotional state herself. This capacity, empathy, is one of the pillars of social understanding and interaction as it creates a representation of another's inner, mental state. Empathy needs to be dissociated from other social emotions and, crucially, also from cognitive mechanisms of understanding others, the ability to take others' perspective. Here, we describe the conceptual distinctions of these constructs and review behavioral and neural evidence that dissociates them. The main focus of the present review lies on the intraindividual changes in empathy and perspective-taking across the lifespan and on interindividual differences on subclinical and clinical levels. The data show that empathy and perspective-taking recruit distinct neural circuits and can be discerned already during early and throughout adult development. Both capacities also vary substantially between situations and people. Differences can be systematically related to situational characteristics as well as personality traits and mental disorders. The clear distinction of affect sharing from other social emotions like compassion and from cognitive perspective-taking, argues for a clear-cut terminology to describe these constructs. In our view, this speaks against using empathy as an umbrella term encompassing all affective and cognitive routes to understanding others. Unifying the way we speak about these phenomena will help to further research on their underlying mechanisms, psychopathological alterations, and plasticity in training and therapy.

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“…One of them is referred to as “mentalizing” and involves mental projections of oneself into another person's perspective, reflections about their behavior, and it typically engages brain regions in the temporal lobe and temporo‐parietal junction, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and the precuneus [Frith and Frith, ]. Previous studies showed that these mentalizing areas were recruited when making sense of others' socially painful situations [Müller‐Pinzler et al, ; Paulus et al, ; Paulus et al, ]. The second route involves so‐called “mirroring” or “sharing” and is assumed to be a direct mapping of others' sensory or affective states and actions on one's own neural system predominantly through sensory and motor streams.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindfulness meditation regulates anterior insula activity during empathy for social pain

Laneri

Krach

Paulus

et al. 2017

Human Brain Mapping

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Mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress, promote health, and well-being, as well as to increase compassionate behavior toward others. It reduces distress to one's own painful experiences, going along with altered neural responses, by enhancing self-regulatory processes and decreasing emotional reactivity. In order to investigate if mindfulness similarly reduces distress and neural activations associated with empathy for others' socially painful experiences, which might in the following more strongly motivate prosocial behavior, the present study compared trait, and state effects of long-term mindfulness meditation (LTM) practice. To do so we acquired behavioral data and neural activity measures using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an empathy for social pain task while manipulating the meditation state between two groups of LTM practitioners that were matched with a control group. The results show increased activations of the anterior insula (AI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as well as the medial prefrontal cortex and temporal pole when sharing others' social suffering, both in LTM practitioners and controls. However, in LTM practitioners, who practiced mindfulness meditation just prior to observing others' social pain, left AI activation was lower and the strength of AI activation following the mindfulness meditation was negatively associated with trait compassion in LTM practitioners. The findings suggest that current mindfulness meditation could provide an adaptive mechanism in coping with distress due to the empathic sharing of others' suffering, thereby possibly enabling compassionate behavior. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4034-4046, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Laugh or cringe? Common and distinct processes of reward-based schadenfreude and empathy-based fremdscham

Cited by 20 publications

References 56 publications

Oxytocin Facilitates Empathic- and Self-embarrassment Ratings by Attenuating Amygdala and Anterior Insula Responses

Oxytocin Facilitates Empathic- and Self-embarrassment Ratings by Attenuating Amygdala and Anterior Insula Responses

Dissociating Empathy From Perspective-Taking: Evidence From Intra- and Inter-Individual Differences Research

Mindfulness meditation regulates anterior insula activity during empathy for social pain

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