Contagious yawning, empathy, and their relation to prosocial behavior.

Franzén, Axel; Mäder, Sebastian; Winter, Fabian

doi:10.1037/xge0000422

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Edele, Dziobek, and Keller [ 27 ] elicited only two of the dimensions and found that the correlation between empathy and altruism is statistically significant only for empathic concern , whereas it is not for perspective taking . In contrast, Franzen, Mader, and Winter [ 13 ] identified a positive and statistically significant correlation for all dimensions except fantasy .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Some studies detected statistically significant but weak correlations [ 25 – 27 ], and others found none [ 28 , 29 ]. Closely related to our research, Edele, Dziobek, and Keller [ 27 ] and Franzen, Mader, and Winter [ 13 ] examined the relationship between the stable characteristic empathy based on the IRI [ 18 ] and giving in the dictator game. The IRI measures four dimensions of dispositional empathy: empathic concern , personal distress , fantasy , and perspective taking [ 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Empathy: A clue for prosocialty and driver of indirect reciprocity

2021

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Indirect reciprocity has been proposed to explain prosocial behavior among strangers, whereby the prosocial act is returned by a third party. However, what happens if the prosocial act cannot be observed by the third party? Here, we examine whether empathy serves as a clue for prosociality and whether people are more generous toward more empathetic people. In a laboratory study, we measured prosocial behavior as the amount sent in the dictator game and empathy based on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). By using an incentivized task, we find that people believe that more empathetic participants send more money in the dictator game. Thus, people see empathy as a clue for prosocial behavior. Furthermore, in a second dictator game, participants indirectly reciprocate by sending more money to more empathetic recipients. Therefore, we suggest that empathy can replace a reputation derived from observable prosocial behavior in triggering indirect reciprocity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathy: A clue for prosocialty and driver of indirect reciprocity

2021

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“…Studies have shown a link between mimicry and the recruitment of the reward circuit, thus emphasizing the "reward value of the act of mimicking" [13]. It is, therefore, not surprising that a relationship between facial mimicry and levels of individual empathy or susceptibility to emotional contagion has been demonstrated [1,[14][15][16][17][18], although the robustness of the relationship is still not clear (e.g., [19]). As a conspicuous line of research has strongly sustained, all these effects of facial mimicry could relate to its facilitating role in recognizing others' expressions of emotions [20,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blocking facial mimicry affects recognition of facial and body expressions

Borgomaneri¹,

Bolloni²,

Sessa³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Facial mimicry is commonly defined as the tendency to imitate-at a sub-threshold levelfacial expressions of other individuals. Numerous studies support a role of facial mimicry in recognizing others' emotions. However, the underlying functional mechanism is unclear. A prominent hypothesis considers facial mimicry as based on an action-perception loop, leading to the prediction that facial mimicry should be observed only when processing others' facial expressions. Nevertheless, previous studies have also detected facial mimicry during observation of emotional bodily expressions. An emergent alternative hypothesis is that facial mimicry overtly reflects the simulation of an "emotion", rather than the reproduction of a specific observed motor pattern. In the present study, we tested whether blocking mimicry ("Bite") on the lower face disrupted recognition of happy expressions conveyed by either facial or body expressions. In Experiment 1, we tested participants' ability to identify happy, fearful and neutral expressions in the Bite condition and in two control conditions. In Experiment 2, to ensure that such a manipulation selectively affects emotion recognition, we tested participants' ability to recognize emotional expressions, as well as the actors' gender, under the Bite condition and a control condition. Finally, we investigated the relationship between dispositional empathy and emotion recognition under the condition of blocked mimicry. Our findings demonstrated that blocking mimicry on the lower face hindered recognition of happy facial and body expressions, while the recognition of neutral and fearful expressions was not affected by the mimicry manipulation. The mimicry manipulation did not affect the gender discrimination task. Furthermore, the impairment of happy expression recognition correlated with empathic traits. These results support the role of facial mimicry in emotion recognition and suggest that facial mimicry reflects a global sensorimotor simulation of others' emotions rather than a muscle-specific reproduction of an observed motor expression.

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“…We measured empathy by 12 items suggested by Davis (1983) [25]. This scale (see Table 3) has high internal (Cronbach's alpha = 0.80), as well as test-retest, reliability [26]. As can be seen from the results (see Figure 3), empathy is positively related to environmental concern.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Can Climate Skeptics Be Convinced? The Effect of Nature Videos on Environmental Concern

Franzén

Mäder

2020

Sustainability

Self Cite

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Much research has demonstrated that videos can function as primers or nudges that influence attitudes and behaviors. Studies to date suggest that this includes influence over individual pro-environmental attitudes. However, the existing evidence all stems from samples comprised of university students. In this paper, we describe the results of a randomized online experiment in a sample of 468 climate skeptics. We presented 3-min nature documentary videos that highlighted either the beauty of nature, the endangerment of nature by humans, or a mixture of both. The results suggest that the mixed stimulus video, which shows first the beauty of nature and then its endangerment by humans does indeed increase environmental concern by almost half a standard deviation. However, none of the video treatments increased donations to pro-environmental organizations. Still, the results suggest that nudging by video also works in samples of climate skeptics, which demonstrates the external validity of former findings.

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Contagious yawning, empathy, and their relation to prosocial behavior.

Cited by 24 publications

References 52 publications

Empathy: A clue for prosocialty and driver of indirect reciprocity

Empathy: A clue for prosocialty and driver of indirect reciprocity

Blocking facial mimicry affects recognition of facial and body expressions

Can Climate Skeptics Be Convinced? The Effect of Nature Videos on Environmental Concern

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