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. 2023 Mar 11;13(1):4072.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-30946-9.

Only empathy-related traits, not being mimicked or endorphin release, influence social closeness and prosocial behavior

Birgit Rauchbauer  1   2   3   4   5 , Gabriela Jank  1 , Robin I M Dunbar  6 , Claus Lamm  7   8
Affiliations

Only empathy-related traits, not being mimicked or endorphin release, influence social closeness and prosocial behavior

Birgit Rauchbauer et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Seminal studies suggest that being mimicked increases experienced social closeness and prosocial behavior to a mimicking confederate (i.e., interaction partner). Here we reexamine these results by considering the role of empathy-related traits, an indirect proxy for endorphin uptake, and their combined effects as an explanation for these results. 180 female participants were mimicked or anti-mimicked in an interaction with a confederate. The effects of being mimicked versus anti-mimicked in relation to empathy-related traits and endorphin release (assessed indirectly via pain tolerance) on experienced closeness and prosocial behavior were assessed using Bayesian analyses. Our results suggest that high individual empathy-related traits increase social closeness to the anti-mimicking and mimicking confederate and to one's romantic partner, as compared to mimicry alone. Results furthermore strongly suggest that high individual empathy-related traits increase prosocial behavior (donations and willingness to help) as compared to mimicry alone. These findings extend previous work by highlighting that empathy-related traits are more influential in creating positive effects on social closeness and prosocial behavior than a one-shot mimicking encounter.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A–C) Experienced social closeness to interaction partner (confederate), best friend and romantic partner in percent (%). Percentage of experienced closeness to (A) interaction partner, (B) romantic partner in relation to individual EC Score; (C) best friend in relation to Mimicry group (mimicry/anti-mimicry condition); Shaded area (A,B), error bars (C): credible interval (95%).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Amount of individual donations to charity (in Euro) in relation to empathic concern scores. Shaded area: credible interval (95%).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Willingness to help (anti-)mimicking interaction partner (confederate) in relation to perspective taking (left) and empathic concern scores (right). Shaded area: credible interval (95%).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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