群际关系影响疼痛共情及利他性行为的中介效应分析和神经机制

Empathy and counter-empathy play important roles in social behaviors and decision-making, which in turn are influenced by the relationship between the observer and others being observed. Although in recent years research in this area has attracted much attention, existing studies have the following limitations: 1) Most studies treated empathy and counter-empathy separately and it lacks an integrative framework to systematically account for them. 2) In many studies empathy judgment relied on the evaluation of pain events or emotional expressions in pictures, few extended to the active sharing the pain. Therefore it is hard to distinguish emotion identification and sharing. The task paradigms also lack ecological validity. 3) Research on counter-empathy of pain and using pain as the third-party punishment is scarce, which hinders comprehensive understanding of both sides of the coin of pro-social behaviors (altruistic helping and punishment). To address the above issues, this project aims to investigate empathy and counter-empathy under an integrative theoretical framework. We plan to manipulate the relationship between the observer and others being observed in terms of intimacy and liking/disgust in order to elicit empathy and counter-empathy. Furthermore we will examine how these social emotions lead to altruistic helping and punishment, and elucidate the underlying psychological and neural mechanisms. We will test the theoretical model that empathy and counter-empathy mediate the influence of intergroup relationship on altruistic social behaviors. Based on this theoretical validation, we can improve intergroup relationship to take advantage of positive effect of empathy and counter-empathy, promote altruistic social behaviors. This will ultimately help alleviate social conflict and improve social harmony.

共情和反向共情对社会行为和决策起重要作用，并受观察者和观察对象间群际关系的影响。虽然近年来共情和反向共情受到越来越多研究者的关注，然而已有研究存在如下问题：1）大多孤立看待共情和反向共情，缺乏整合的理论框架来系统研究二者；2）多基于疼痛事件或表情评估研究疼痛共情，而没有行动上分担疼痛，无法区分情绪识别和共享，缺少生态效度；3）缺乏反向共情及由此诱发的第三方惩罚研究，无法全面理解亲社会行为正反两方面：利他性施助和惩罚。针对上述问题，本研究在共情和反向共情的整合框架下，操控观察者与他人的亲疏关系和喜憎，诱发对他人的共情或反向共情，并探讨共情和反向共情对利他性施助和惩罚的影响及其神经机制，验证共情和反向共情作为中介因素来调节群际关系影响利他性行为的理论模型。该机制的验证将有助于我们通过改善群际关系，发挥共情和反向共情的积极作用，促进利他性社会行为，对化解社会矛盾、促进和谐稳定有重要现实意义。

本项目通过原创的实验范式，探究共情和反向共情对社会行为和决策所起的作用，以及如何受观察者和观察对象间群际关系影响的。我们创新性地提出了整合的理论框架来研究共情和反向共情，开发了疼痛分担的实验范式深入研究共情和利他性施助行为，克服了以往疼痛共情研究被动评估的问题。此外，我们通过诱发反向共情实施第三方惩罚，有助于全面理解亲社会行为正反两方面：利他性施助和惩罚。本研究操控了观察者与他人的亲疏关系和喜憎，诱发对他人的共情或反向共情，并探讨共情和反向共情对利他性施助和惩罚的影响及其神经机制，验证共情和反向共情作为中介因素，调节群际关系影响利他性行为的理论模型。本项目研究发现：1）亲疏关系调节疼痛共情与利他行为。人们更愿意帮助关系亲密的情侣分担疼痛，且不会随着分担比例的增加而减少分担行为；与此相对，更少帮助陌生人分担疼痛，且随着分担比例的增加也减少了分担行为。在评估他人的疼痛程度时，主动分担会降低对他人的疼痛评估，且对情侣的疼痛评估高于陌生人；在评估自己的疼痛程度时，主动分担也会降低对自己的疼痛评估；女性被试为情侣分担疼痛时会提高对自己疼痛程度的评估，而男性被试为不同对象分担疼痛时没有差异。2）疫情前后的疼痛共情与利他行为有明显变化。疫情暴发时期，人们感受和减轻他人痛苦的意愿和设身处地为他人着想的意愿都降低了。进一步来说，与疫情爆发前的数据相比，在疫情期间，对他人疼痛评分、共情动机、观点采择、想象和亲社会意愿呈现下降。