According to this article, children have a natural inclination to have empathy for others who are experiencing pain. Through the use of MRIs, children were assessed on their responses to visual stimuli that included images of people experiencing pain accidentally, people being intentionally hurt, or more neutral pictures. First, the researchers noted that the children (ages 7-12) had neurological responses similar to that of adults. In addition, the researchers found that one children were shown pictures of people experiencing accidental pain, the brain areas responsible for the first hand experience of pain were activated. When the pictures displayed individuals being intentionally hurt, areas of the brain responsible for social interaction and moral reasoning were also activated. From the article:
The programming for empathy is something that is "hard-wired" into the brains of normal children, and not entirely the product of parental guidance or other nurturing, said Decety. Understanding the brain's role in responding to pain can help researchers understand how brain impairments influence anti-social behavior, such as bullying, he explained.
It seems reasonable to believe that some degree of empathy should be hard-wired, from an evolutionary perspective. At least, I suppose, in terms of pain being inflicted on a member of your own species (I’m not sure how this would fit in from the perspective of a carnivore). Maybe somebody who knows more about this sort of thing would be able to help me out. I do think that the research implications stemming from the study could be enormous. If scientists are able to determine the how and why of empathy, it would seem that interventions for individuals who lack empathy (and psychopaths in particular) might not be far behind. The ability to experience empathy is a hallmark feature of the ability to have healthy social relationships and interactions. A significant lack of empathy is a hallmark feature of psychopathy; in other words, a very bad thing. A lack of empathy does not account for all interpersonal violence, but it accounts for a significant portion of predatory violence. To the extent we can come up with a way to either prevent the loss of empathy, or develop empathy in individuals who were born without it, a lot of suffering at the hands of others would be ameliorated. The research above suggests there is a significant biological component to the presence or absence of empathy. Obviously, a lot more research is necessary before these results can be utilized in a clinical fashion.
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