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. 2023 Jun 20;18(1):nsad029.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nsad029.

Ideological values are parametrically associated with empathy neural response to vicarious suffering

Niloufar Zebarjadi  1 , Eliyahu Adler  1   2 , Annika Kluge  1 , Mikko Sams  1   3 , Jonathan Levy  1   4
Affiliations

Ideological values are parametrically associated with empathy neural response to vicarious suffering

Niloufar Zebarjadi et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. .

Abstract

Several studies in political psychology reported higher levels of empathy among political leftists (i.e. liberals) as compared to political rightists (i.e. conservatives). Yet, all those studies lean on self-reports, which are often limited by subjective bias and conformity to social norms. Here, we tested this putative asymmetry using neuroimaging: we recorded oscillatory neural activity using magnetoencephalography while 55 participants completed a well-validated neuroimaging paradigm for empathy to vicarious suffering. The findings revealed a typical rhythmic alpha-band 'empathy response' in the temporal-parietal junction. This neural empathy response was significantly stronger in the leftist than in the rightist group. In addition to this dichotomous division, the neural response was parametrically associated with both self-reported political inclination and right-wing ideological values. This is the first study to reveal an asymmetry in the neural empathy response as a function of political ideology. The findings reported in this study are in line with the current literature in political psychology and provide a novel neural perspective to support the ideological asymmetry in empathy. This study opens new vistas for addressing questions in political psychology by using neuroimaging.

Keywords: alpha rhythm; empathy; ideological asymmetry; magnetoencephalography; neuropolitics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared that they had no conflict of interest with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
The experimental design of one block of the MEG paradigm. The experiment includes four emotional suffering blocks and four neutral blocks.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
A time–frequency representation and topo plots of suppression patterns.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Localized activity in the alpha-band, depicted on an overlaid cortical surface.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Alpha-band power temporal changes (normalized to baseline activity) in response to vicarious emotional suffering (blue line) and neutral (red line) stimuli in leftist (plot A) and rightist (plot B) political groups. The shades represent SEM, and the thick black line shows the statistically significant effect (Pcluster-cor < 0.001) on the time axis.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.
(A) Statistical contrast between averaged alpha power suppression in leftist and rightist groups (P = 0.033), (B) correlation between subjects’ political ideology and alpha power suppression in TPJ (r = −0.3, P = 0.032) and (C) correlation between subjects’ RWA scale and alpha power suppression in TPJ (r = 0.32, P = 0.019).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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