Summary: A new study reveals that young adults show the strongest empathic responses to others in physical or social pain, compared to adolescents and older adults. Researchers measured brain activity while participants viewed painful situations, finding that empathy responses develop with age but peak in young adulthood.
Older adults exhibited stronger brain reactions to pain but rated others’ pain as less intense, suggesting a gap between empathy felt and expressed. The findings highlight the evolving nature of empathy across the lifespan, influenced by social experiences and exposure to pain-related scenarios. This study underscores the complexity of empathy and its critical role in social interactions.
Key Facts:
- Empathy Peak: Young adults empathize more strongly with others’ pain than adolescents or older adults.
- Brain vs. Behavior: Older adults show increased brain activity to pain but rate others’ pain less accurately.
- Social Influence: Empathy develops across the lifespan, shaped by social and pain-related experiences.
Source: University of Kent
Empathy responses to others in pain peak in young adulthood according to a new study led by the University of Kent’s School of Psychology.
Psychologists have discovered that young adults are especially sensitive to social pain, such as situations of embarrassment, grief and sadness, and empathise more strongly with others experiencing social pain than adolescents or older adults do.
Empathy is a critical component of social interaction that enables individuals to understand and share the emotions of others.
The research, published in the journal, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, explored how empathy responses differ between adolescents (10-19 years old), young adults (20-40 years old) and older adults (60+ years old), by recording brain activity while participants viewed photographs of people in physically or socially painful situations.
Findings showed that brain responses to painful situations increased from adolescence to young and older adulthood.
This demonstrates that empathy responses develop throughout the lifespan as social experience and exposure to different social and pain-related situations increases.
While the research showed that people’s brain empathy responses get stronger as they age, the increased brain activity in older adults comes alongside reduced ratings of pain for others.
Professor Heather Ferguson, lead researcher on the paper and Professor of Psychology at Kent, suggests that this is because older adults are less good at expressing empathy for others compared to young adults.
Professor Ferguson said: ‘This study provides valuable insights into the complex nature of empathic responses to others in pain. Empathy responses to others in pain peak in young adulthood, as seen in their behavioural ratings of pain intensity felt by others.
‘However, the brain becomes increasingly reactive to seeing others in pain as we age, which suggests that older adults experienced empathy at the time of viewing the photographs of pain – but were less accurate later at rating the intensity of this pain.’
Funding:
This research was funded by the European Research Council.
About this empathy and neurodevelopment research news
Author: Gary Hughes
Source: University of Kent
Contact: Gary Hughes – University of Kent
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Neural empathy mechanisms are shared for physical and social pain, and increase from adolescence to older adulthood” by Heather Ferguson et al. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Abstract
Neural empathy mechanisms are shared for physical and social pain, and increase from adolescence to older adulthood
Empathy is a critical component of social interaction that enables individuals to understand and share the emotions of others.
We report a preregistered experiment in which 240 participants, including adolescents, young adults, and older adults, viewed images depicting hands and feet in physically or socially painful situations (versus nonpainful).
Empathy was measured using imagined pain ratings and EEG mu suppression. Imagined pain was greater for physical versus social pain, with young adults showing particular sensitivity to social pain events compared to adolescents and older adults.
Mu desynchronization was greater to pain versus no-pain situations, but the physical/social context did not modulate pain responses. Brain responses to painful situations increased linearly from adolescence to young and older adulthood.
These findings highlight shared activity across the core empathy network for both physical and social pain contexts, and an empathic response that develops over the lifespan with accumulating social experience.
