4 empathy evaluations Trust your gut or your analytical side?
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How can we be accurate at reading others feelings? Analyze it. Intuit them!!! 42
Ma-Kellams, C & Lerner, J (2016) 43
900 participants 4 studies 1 3 Intuition is better than systematic thinking at inferring other s thoughts and feelings. Systematic thinking is superior for inferring others thoughts and feelings. 44
Ma-Kellams, C & Lerner, J (2016)
we acquire intuitive expertise enables quick and effortless judgments and actions 46
Mirror neurons key to implicit empathy?
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Just make yourself at home!
Social functioning Interpret behaviors of others Rapid understanding Physical and semantic
Physical interpretation: Gripping the stem of a wine glass. Semantic interpretation: Cheers! Ocampo, B and Kritikos, A. (2011) Brain Research Reviews 67
Everyday social interactions require constant and accurate interpretations of others' behavior. How do we understand other s actions? Do we comprehend them within the context of our own actions? Is our understanding of actions a function of the activity of the motor system? Ocampo, B and Kritikos, A. (2011) Brain Research Reviews 67
How do we read each other s mind? memories emotion
Mindsight Daniel Siegel Mindblindness Chris Frith Create a map of another person's internal state
Pre-motor activity of eating an apple. Monkey B The act of watching the monkey eat the apple caused some of the neurons (associated with eating) to fire. Monkey B observing A eating an apple. Pre-motor activity of eating an apple. Monkey A is eating an apple. Monkey A
The premotor neuron s firing reflects the recognition of an action irrespective of the agent performing the action
Mirror Neurons are creating motor plans to imitate observed actions.
when we see a movement, we simulate it in our brain Ballet vs Capoeira Calvo-Merino, B et al (2005) Cerebral Cortex 15:1243--1249
When we observe someone performing an action, do our brains simulate making that action? Test this question looking at acquired motor skills. People differ in learned motor skills. Calvo-Merino, B et al (2005) Cerebral Cortex 15:1243--1249
Does it make a difference in the brain activity of the observer if they are an expert in the learned motor skill? Calvo-Merino, B et al (2005) Cerebral Cortex 15:1243--1249
fmri scan Calvo-Merino, B et al (2005) Cerebral Cortex 15:1243--12
The MN system appears to be tuned to the motor skillset of an individual. Non-expert s brains showed no differences in MN activity between viewing ballet or Capoeira. Mirror Neurons (MNs) were more active when experts viewed movements that they were trained to perform as compared to movements they had not. Calvo-Merino, B et al (2005) Cerebral Cortex 15:1243--1249
Is the purpose of mirror neurons to recognize actions (and therefore understand the intentions of others) or to learn novel actions through imitation?
Ocampo, B and Kritikos, A. (2011) Brain Research Reviews 67
Calvo-Merino, B et al (2005) Cerebral Cortex 15:1243--1249
awareness is key Implicit knowledge changes slowly
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Intuition is fast, automatic, unreasoned thought and feeling. powerful. Intuitive fears Takes time to learn and unlearn unaware Intuition can be dangerous 69
testing for implicit bias
impartial jury?
[i]t is by now clear that conscious and unconscious racism can affect the way white jurors perceive minority defendants and the facts presented at their trials, perhaps determining the verdict of guilt or innocence. Justice O Connor (Georgia v McCollum) 72
racial bias assessments Explicit questioning Poor measure People hide their views to adhere to social norms People have implicit views that they are not consciously aware of. Implicit Association Test (IAT) Standard Black/White, good/bad Neural activity measured by fmri Response to seeing images of faces belonging to different races Korn, H. A., et al (2012) Social Neuroscience 7 (4) 73
IAT: response times = association disaster laughing 74
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ 75