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Current study Significantly increased empathy for stress
Experts have until now believed that stress tends to be more distant from other people and less socially responsible. However, Austrian researchers now report that stressed people show more empathy and social behavior.
More empathy
Canadian researchers reported a few years ago on a study that concluded that reducing stress leads to more empathy. The scientists at McGill University in Montreal wrote back then that both a stress-solving means as well as playing together "the empathy of the subjects significantly increased." However, Austrian researchers are now showing in a study that shows people under stress more social behavior and other people help.
So far it has been assumed that stress is the cause of so-called combat or flight reactions. However, researchers now report that people under stress show increasingly prosocial behavior. (Image: Sergey Nivens / fotolia.com) People under stress show increasingly prosocial behavior
"Stress is a survival psychobiological mechanism. He mobilizes the organism so that it can handle stressful situations. Until now, it was assumed that stress is the cause of so-called combat or escape reactions, "writes the University of Vienna in a statement.
However, this theory was recently questioned by findings from behavioral studies. According to this, people show increased prosocial behavior under stress.
Claus Lamm from the University of Vienna and his team have now investigated in a study which neural processes are responsible for this behavior. The results of the study were published in the journal "Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience".
Neural activity in the so-called "empathy network"
The study exposed the subjects to acute stress while empathizing with others. Their brain activity was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
The researchers focused specifically on how neuronal activity changes in the so-called "empathy network" during a stressful situation.
Subjects should demonstrate empathy as they solved challenging tasks under time pressure while constantly receiving negative feedback on their performance. The psychological burden could be measured by the increase of the stress hormone cortisol.
Thereafter, photographs of painful medical procedures were shown on the hand, and the subjects were asked to introduce themselves to the pain of the subjects.
Some were additionally informed that the patient's hand had been anesthetized during the procedure shown.
Prosoziales behavior
Subsequently, prosocial behavior was assessed using a behavioral economic game. The participants were able to give a freely selectable amount of money to a second, this unknown person.
It turned out that the neural empathy network in people under stress reacted more strongly to the images of painful interventions. However, in the stressed subjects, a stronger neuronal response was detected even if they knew that the procedure was painless.
Therefore, this speaks for a higher level of empathy, but at the same time a lesser takeover of perspectives under stress.
In addition, neural activation was related to how much money a subject had made prosocially. So, the more the brain responded to the pain of the person, the more money was given prosocially by the subjects.
People under stress can show more empathy
"Measuring brain activity shows us that stressed test subjects show a stronger emotional response to the pain of the person being imaged. At the same time, they ignore more complex information about their actual condition, "explained study leader Lamm.
"Our findings suggest that people under stress can be more empathic and more inclined to help others. However, this help can also be inappropriate or inappropriate, for example if the first impression does not correspond to the actual emotion of the other person - for example, when someone is crying for joy. Stress can thus be conducive or hindering in social situations, depending on the context and the situation. "(Ad)