Our Brains Are Guided More By Empathy Than Selfishness

In addition, the findings suggest a path toward treating people with conditions that lower their ability to understand others: Someday, people whose social cognition is impaired could be helped by treatments that regulate the neural pathways that enhance or restrict their empathetic feelings, said Dr. Marco Iacoboni, a co-author of both studies and a professor of psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles. [The Most and Least Empathetic Countries in the World]

Seeing brain activity

In the first study, the neuroscientists used imaging to look at brain activity while study participants performed an activity that tested their generosity. First, the scientists imaged participants’ brains as they watched footage of a hand being jabbed with a pin, and then as they mimicked facial expressions shown to them in photos. This allowed the researchers to note which of the participants showed greater activity in brain regions associated with recognizing pain in others.