The Effect of Cognitive Strategies and Facial Attractiveness on Empathic Neural Responses

Michela Balconi, Natalia Kopiś-Posiej (), Irene Venturella, Emilia Zabielska-Mendyk, Paweł Augustynowicz and Laura Angioletti
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Michela Balconi: International Research Center for Cognitive Applied Neuroscience (IrcCAN), Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 20123 Milan, Italy
Natalia Kopiś-Posiej: Department of Clinical Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Lublin, 20-059 Lublin, Poland
Irene Venturella: Research Unit in Affective and Social Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 20123 Milan, Italy
Emilia Zabielska-Mendyk: Department of Experimental Psychology, The Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Paweł Augustynowicz: Department of Experimental Psychology, The Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Laura Angioletti: International Research Center for Cognitive Applied Neuroscience (IrcCAN), Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 20123 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-11

Abstract: Empathy is a phenomenon that brings together both emotions and an understanding of another person. Recent studies have disentangled the mechanisms of empathy into emotional and cognitive aspects. Event-related potential (ERP) studies suggest that emotional empathy is related to the modulation of the amplitude of early ERPs, and cognitive empathy is linked to later ERPs. In the current study, we examined the influences of facial attractiveness on empathic response and the effect of cognitive strategies with setting the participants’ attention to attractiveness or pain. Participants (N= 19) viewed photos of physically attractive and unattractive men and women receiving painful stimulation. The amplitude of the N2 component measured at the frontal regions was more negative in painful stimulation compared to the non-painful, but only for attractive faces. There were no differences between painful and non-painful stimulation for unattractive faces. The amplitude of the P3 measured at the central-parietal region component was more positive in the painful condition compared to the non-painful one, but only when participants performed a pain judgment task. There were no differences in the attractiveness judgment task. This study showed that the attractiveness of a model and drawing the participants’ attention to pain constitute an essential modulator of pain empathy.

Keywords: empathy for pain; empathy; facial attractiveness; pain 4; neuroscience; EEG; ERP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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