Stress Fuels Empathy, Study Finds
Stress can be a bad thing, that’s for sure. But there’s another side of the coin and it can be good. According to new research, stress may actually make a person more compassionate to others who are struggling or in pain.
In the study, an international team of researchers measured brain activity of 80 male participants, some of whom were given a stress test while others acted as a control group with no intervention. During the stress tests, they were instructed to solve difficult tasks under a deadline, all while receiving negative feedback on their performance. The stress level of the participants was measured based on the amount of cortisol – stress hormone – in their blood.
Once stressed, the participants were asked to look at photos of strangers who were undergoing a painful medical procedure and were asked to imagine how the patient in each photograph felt. For some of the images, participants were that the patient in the photo had received anaesthesia, which indicates that the patient didn’t feel any pain during the procedure. Researchers did this so they could determine whether the study participants’ reactions were to the image of the procedure or were based in an understanding of the patient’s experience.
The researchers found that stressed participants displayed more empathy toward the photographed patients. Even when the individuals were informed that the patients weren’t in pain, they still had an empathetic reaction. This is exhibited by the increase in activity in the neural centre in the brain, which is responsible for feelings of empathy.
Their findings also show that people may have stronger emotional reactions when they’re under stress and may be more likely to behave altruistically.
‘This suggests empathetic reactions under stress may “result in aid that is uncalled for or inappropriate,’ says Claus Lamm, study researcher from Claus Lamm of the University of Vienna. For instance, a stressed person may react with alarm when someone is crying out of joy.
The study has some caveats too. One is that it is small so the results may not provide general conclusions. It also involved male subjects so it can’t be sure if the same stress reactions also apply among women.
The findings were published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
Source of this article:
Increased neural responses to empathy for pain might explain how acute stress increases prosociality
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