Minding the Gap: Narrative Descriptions about Mental States Attenuate Parochial Empathy
In three experiments, we examine parochial empathy (feeling more empathy for in-group than out-group members) across novel group boundaries, and test whether we can mitigate parochial empathy with brief narrative descriptions. In the absence of individuating information, participants consistently re...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Public Library of Science
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99771 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791 |
| _version_ | 1826195219367854080 |
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| author | Bruneau, Emile G. Cikara, Mina Saxe, Rebecca R. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Bruneau, Emile G. Cikara, Mina Saxe, Rebecca R. |
| author_sort | Bruneau, Emile G. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | In three experiments, we examine parochial empathy (feeling more empathy for in-group than out-group members) across novel group boundaries, and test whether we can mitigate parochial empathy with brief narrative descriptions. In the absence of individuating information, participants consistently report more empathy for members of their own assigned group than a competitive out-group. However, individualized descriptions of in-group and out-group targets significantly reduce parochial empathy by interfering with encoding of targets’ group membership. Finally, the descriptions that most effectively decrease parochial empathy are those that describe targets’ mental states. These results support the role of individuating information in ameliorating parochial empathy, suggest a mechanism for their action, and show that descriptions emphasizing targets’ mental states are particularly effective. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:09:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/99771 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:09:16Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/997712022-09-30T19:12:50Z Minding the Gap: Narrative Descriptions about Mental States Attenuate Parochial Empathy Bruneau, Emile G. Cikara, Mina Saxe, Rebecca R. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Bruneau, Emile G. Saxe, Rebecca R. In three experiments, we examine parochial empathy (feeling more empathy for in-group than out-group members) across novel group boundaries, and test whether we can mitigate parochial empathy with brief narrative descriptions. In the absence of individuating information, participants consistently report more empathy for members of their own assigned group than a competitive out-group. However, individualized descriptions of in-group and out-group targets significantly reduce parochial empathy by interfering with encoding of targets’ group membership. Finally, the descriptions that most effectively decrease parochial empathy are those that describe targets’ mental states. These results support the role of individuating information in ameliorating parochial empathy, suggest a mechanism for their action, and show that descriptions emphasizing targets’ mental states are particularly effective. United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Government Contract/Grant D12AP00077) 2015-11-09T17:55:14Z 2015-11-09T17:55:14Z 2015-10 2015-06 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99771 Bruneau, Emile G., Mina Cikara, and Rebecca Saxe. “Minding the Gap: Narrative Descriptions About Mental States Attenuate Parochial Empathy.” Edited by Angela Sirigu. PLoS ONE 10, no. 10 (October 27, 2015): e0140838. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140838 PLOS ONE Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Public Library of Science Public Library of Science |
| spellingShingle | Bruneau, Emile G. Cikara, Mina Saxe, Rebecca R. Minding the Gap: Narrative Descriptions about Mental States Attenuate Parochial Empathy |
| title | Minding the Gap: Narrative Descriptions about Mental States Attenuate Parochial Empathy |
| title_full | Minding the Gap: Narrative Descriptions about Mental States Attenuate Parochial Empathy |
| title_fullStr | Minding the Gap: Narrative Descriptions about Mental States Attenuate Parochial Empathy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Minding the Gap: Narrative Descriptions about Mental States Attenuate Parochial Empathy |
| title_short | Minding the Gap: Narrative Descriptions about Mental States Attenuate Parochial Empathy |
| title_sort | minding the gap narrative descriptions about mental states attenuate parochial empathy |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99771 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791 |
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