Friends or Foes: Is Empathy Necessary for Moral Behavior?

Perspectives on Psychological Science

Volumn 9, Issue 5, 2014, Pages 525-537

  Decety, Jean ^a   Cowell, Jason M ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICAL CENTER   (United States)

Author keywords

developmental science; emotional sharing; empathic concern; empathy; morality; perspective taking; social and affective neuroscience; ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Indexed keywords

BRAIN; DECISION MAKING; EMPATHY; EVOLUTION; HUMAN; MORALITY; PERCEPTION; PHYSIOLOGY;

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION; BRAIN; EMPATHY; HUMANS; JUDGMENT; MORALS; SOCIAL PERCEPTION;

EID: 84907195650     PISSN: 17456916     EISSN: 17456924     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1745691614545130     Document Type: Article

References (108)

1. Aharoni E.,Sinnott-Armstrong W.,Kiehl K. A.Can psychopathic offenders discern moral wrongs? A new look at the moral/conventional distinction.Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 2012;121:484-497
2. Bal P. M.,Veltkamp M.How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation of the role of emotional transportation.PLoS ONE. 2013;8 (1): e55341
3. Barsade S. G.The ripple effect: Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior.Administrative Science Quarterly. 2002;47:644-675
4. Batson C. D.The social neuroscience of empathy. Decety J.Ickes W., ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT press; 2009:3-15.
5. Batson C. D.Empathy: From bench to bedside. Decety J., ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2012:41-54.
6. Batson C. D.,Klein T. R.,Highberger L.,Shaw L. L.Immorality from empathy-induced altruism: When compassion and justice conflict.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1995;68:1042-1054
7. Begossi A.,Hanazaki N.,Ramos R.Food chain and the reasons for fish food taboos among Amazonian and Atlantic forest fishers.Ecological Applications. 2004;14:1334-1343
8. Ben-Ami Bartal I.,Decety J.,Mason P.Empathy and pro-social behavior in rats.Science. 2011;334:1427-1430
9. Ben-Ami BartalI.RodgersD. A.Bernardez SarriaM. S.DecetyJ.MasonP. (2014). Prosocial behavior in rats is modulated by social experience. eLife, 3, e1385. Retrieved from http://elifesciences.org/content/3/e01385
10. Buchanan T. W.,Bagley S. L.,Stansfield R. B.,Preston S. D.The empathic, physiological resonance of stress.Social Neuroscience. 2012;7:191-201
11. Buckholtz J. W.,Marois R.The roots of modern justice: Cognitive and neural foundations of social norms and their enforcement.Nature Neuroscience. 2012;15:655-661
12. Castano E.The Oxford handbook of personality and social psychology. Deaux K.Snyder M., ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2012:419-445.
13. Cheng Y.,Chen C. Y.,Lin C. P.,Chou K. H.,Decety J.Love hurts: An fMRI study.NeuroImage. 2010;51:923-929
14. Cheng Y.,Hung A.,Decety J.Dissociation between affective sharing and emotion understanding in juvenile psychopaths.Development and Psychopathology. 2012;24:623-636
15. Cikara M.,Botvinick M. M.,Fiske S. T.Us versus them: Social identity shapes responses to intergroup competition and harm.Psychological Science. 2011;22:306-313
16. Cloutier J.,Li T.,Correll J.The impact of childhood experience on amygdala response to perceptually familiar black and white faces.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2014;:
17. Coplan A.Empathy: Philosophical and psychological perspectives. Coplan A.Goldie P., ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2011:3-18.
18. Cote S.,Piff P. K.,Willer R.For whom do the ends justify the means? Social class and utilitarian moral judgment.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2013;104:490-503
19. D’Amato F. R.,Pavone F.Endogenous opioids: A proximate reward mechanism for kin selection?.Behavioral and Neural Biology. 1993;60:79-83
20. Darwin C.The descent of man and selection in relation to sex. (1871). The descent of man and selection in relation to sex (1874th ed.). London, England: John Murray.London, England: John Murray; 1871:
21. Davidov M.,Zahn-Waxler C.,Roth-Hanania R.,Knafo A.Concern for others in the first year of life: Theory, evidence, and avenues for research.Child Development Perspectives. 2013;7:126-131
22. Decety J.Other minds: How humans bridge the divide between self and others. Malle B. F.Hodges S. D., ed. New York, NY: Guilford; 2005:135-149.
23. Decety J.The neuroevolution of empathy.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2011;1231:35-45
24. Decety J.,Cacioppo S.The speed of morality: A high-density electrical neuroimaging study.Journal of Neurophysiology. 2012;108:3068-3072
25. Decety J.,Chen C.,Harenski C. L.,Kiehl K. A.An fMRI study of affective perspective taking in individuals with psychopathy: Imagining another in pain does not evoke empathy.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2013;7:
26. Decety J.,Echols S. C.,Correll J.The blame game: The effect of responsibility and social stigma on empathy for pain.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2009;22:985-997
27. Decety J.,Grèzes J.The power of simulation: Imagining one’s own and other’s behavior.Brain Research. 2006;1079:4-14
28. Decety J.,Howard L.The role of affect in the neurodevelopment of morality.Child Development Perspectives. 2013;7:49-54
29. Decety J.,Jackson P. L.The functional architecture of human empathy.Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews. 2004;3:71-100
30. Decety J.,Michalska K. J.Neurodevelopmental changes in the circuits underlying empathy and sympathy from childhood to adulthood.Developmental Science. 2010;13:886-899
31. Decety J.,Michalska K. J.,Kinzler K. D.The contribution of emotion and cognition to moral sensitivity: A neurodevelopmental study.Cerebral Cortex. 2012;22:209-220
32. Decety J.,Norman G. J.,Berntson G. G.,Cacioppo J. T.A neurobehavioral evolutionary perspective on the mechanisms underlying empathy.Progress in Neurobiology. 2012;98:38-48
33. Decety J.,Skelly L. R.,Kiehl K. A.Brain response to empathy-eliciting scenarios in incarcerated individuals with psychopathy.JAMA Psychiatry. 2013;70:638-645
34. Decety J.,Svetlova M.Putting together phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspectives on empathy.Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 2012;2:1-24
35. de Waal F.The age of empathy. New York, NY: Crown; 2010:
36. Echols S.,Correll J.Empathy: From bench to bedside. Decety J., ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2012:55-71.
37. Edgar J. L.,Lowe J. C.,Nicol C. J.Avian maternal response to chick distress.Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2011;1721:3129-3134
38. Eisenberger N.The Oxford handbook of social neuroscience. Decety J.Cacioppo J. T., ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2011:586-598.
39. Fan Y.,Han S.Temporal dynamic of neural mechanisms involved in empathy for pain: An event-related brain potential study.Neuropsychologia. 2008;46:160-173
40. FootP. (1967). The problem of abortion and the doctrine of the double effect in virtues and vices. Oxford Review, Number 5. Retrieved from http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ362/hallam/readings/footdoubleeffect.pdf
41. Franklin R. G.,Nelson A. J.,Baker M.,Beeney J. E.,Vescio T. K.,Lenz-Watson A.,Adams R. A.Neural responses to perceiving suffering in humans and animals.Social Neuroscience. 2013;8:217-227
42. Fumagalli M.,Priori A.Functional and clinical neuroanatomy of morality.Brain. 2012;135:2006-2021
43. Galinsky A. D.,Moskowitz G. B.Perspective-taking: Decreasing stereotype expression, stereotype accessibility and in-group favoritism.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2000;78:708-724
44. Gleichgerrcht E.,Young L.Low levels of empathic concern predict utilitarian moral judgment.PLoS ONE. 2013;8 (4): e60418
45. Goldstein T. R.,Winner E.Enhancing empathy and theory of mind.Journal of Cognition and Development. 2012;13:19-37
46. Greene J.,Haidt J.How (and where) does moral judgment work?.Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 2002;12:517-523
47. Haidt J.,Kesebir S.Handbook of social psychology. (2010). Morality. In FiskeS.GilbertD.LindzeyG. (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (5th ed., pp. 797–832). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Fiske S.Gilbert D.Lindzey G., ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley; 2010:797-832.
48. Hamlin J. K.New frontiers in social neuroscience. Decety J.Christen Y., ed. New York, NY: Springer; 2014:165-188.
49. Hare R. D.The Hare psychopathy checklist: Revised. New York City, NY: Multi-Health Systems; 2003:
50. Hoffman M. L.Morality, moral development, and moral behavior. Gewirtz J.Kurtines W., ed. New York, NY: Wiley; 1984:283-302.
51. Insel T. R.,Young L. J.The neurobiology of attachment.Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2001;2:129-136
52. Jackson P. L.,Brunet E.,Meltzoff A. N.,Decety J.Empathy examined through the neural mechanisms involved in imagining how I feel versus how you feel pain: An event-related fMRI study.Neuropsychologia. 2006;44:752-761
53. Jeon D.,Kim S.,Chetana D.,Jo D.,Ruley H. E.,Rabah D.,. Shin H. S.Observational fear learning involves affective pain system and Ca1.2 CA channels in ACC.Nature Neuroscience. 2010;13:482-488
54. Joyce R.The evolution of morality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2006:
55. Kidd D. C.,Castano E.Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind.Science. 2013;342:377-380
56. Killen M.,Rutland A.Children and social exclusion: Morality, prejudice, and group identity. New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell; 2011:
57. Koenigs M.,Young L.,Adolphs R.,Tranel D.,Cushman F.,Hauser M.,Damasio A. R.Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases utilitarian moral judgments.Nature. 2007;446:908-911
58. Kohlberg L.Essays in moral development: Vol. 2. The psychology of moral development. New York, NY: Harper & Row; 1984:
59. Lamm C.,Batson C. D.,Decety J.The neural basis of human empathy: Effects of perspective-taking and cognitive appraisal.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2007;19:42-58
60. Lamm C.,Decety J.,Singer T.Meta-analytic evidence for common and distinct neural networks associated with directly experienced pain and empathy for pain.NeuroImage. 2011;54:2492-2502
61. Lamm C.,Meltzoff A. N.,Decety J.How do we empathize with someone who is not like us?.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2010;2:362-376
62. Langford D. J.,Tuttle A. H.,Brown K.,Deschenes S.,Fischer D. B.,Mutso A.,. Sternberg W. F.Social approach to pain in laboratory mice.Social Neuroscience. 2010;5:163-170
63. Levine M.,Prosser A.,Evans D.,Reicher S.Identity and emergency intervention: How social group membership and inclusiveness of group boundaries shape helping behavior.Personality and Social Psychological Bulletin. 2005;31:443-453
64. Malhotra D.,Liyanage S.Long-term effects of peace workshops in protracted conflicts.Journal of Conflict Resolution; 2005; 2005. 908.
65. Masten C. L.,Gillen-O’Neel C.,Spears Brown C.Children’s intergroup empathic processing: The roles of novel ingroup identification, situational distress, and social anxiety.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2010;106:115-128
66. Miller R. M.,Hannikainen I. A.,Cushman F. A.Bad actions or bad outcomes? Differentiating affective contributions to the moral condemnation of harm.Emotion. 2014;14:573-587
67. Miyake A.,Friedman N. P.,Emerson M. J.,Witzki A. H.,Howerter A.,Wager T. D.The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobes” tasks: A latent variable analysis.Cognitive Psychology. 2000;41:49-100
68. Mößle T.,Kliem S.,Rehbein F.Longitudinal effects of violent media usage on aggressive behavior—The significance of empathy.Societies. 2014;4:105-124
69. Moll J.,De Oliveira-Souza R.,Garrido G. J.,Bramati I. E.,Caparelli E. M. A.,Paiva M. L. M. F.,. Grafman J.The self as a moral agent: Linking the neural bases of social agency and moral sensitivity.Social Neuroscience. 2007;2:336-352
70. MontalanB.LelardT.GodefroyO.MourasH. (2012). Behavioral investigation of the influence of social categorization on empathy for pain: A minimal group paradigm study. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, Article 389. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3474397/
71. Morton T. A.,Postmes T.Moral duty or moral deference? The effects of perceiving shared humanity with the victims of ingroup perpetrated harm.European Journal of Social Psychology. 2011;41:127-134
72. Motzkin J. C.,Newman J. P.,Kiehl K. A.,Koenigs M.Reduced prefrontal connectivity in psychopathy.Journal of Neuroscience. 2011;31:17348-17357
73. Nichols S. R.,Svetlova M.,Brownell C. A.The role of social understanding and empathic disposition in young children’s responsiveness to distress in parents and peers.Cognition Brain Behavior. 2009;13:449-478
74. Oliner S. P.,Oliner P. M.The altruistic personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe. New York, NY: Free Press; 1988:
75. Panksepp J.Affective neuroscience. London, England: Oxford University Press; 1998:
76. Parkinson C.,Sinnott-Armstrong W.,Koralus P. E.,Mendelovici A.,McGeer V.,Wheatley T.Is morality unified? Evidence that distinct neural systems underlie moral judgments of harm, dishonesty, and disgust.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2011;23:3162-3180
77. Parsons C. E.,Stark E. A.,Young K. S.,Stein A.,Kringelbach M. L.Understanding the human parental brain: A critical role of the orbitofrontal cortex.Social Neuroscience. 2013;8:525-543
78. Pinker S.The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined. New York, NY: Penguin Group; 2011:
79. Preston S. D.The origins of altruism in offspring care.Psychological Bulletin. 2013;4:1-37
80. Prinz J. J.The emotional construction of morals. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2008:
81. Rhodes M.,Chalik L.Social categories as markers of intrinsic interpersonal obligations.Psychological Science. 2013;24:999-1006
82. Rifkin J.The empathic civilization: The race to global consciousness in a world in crisis. New York, NY: Penguin Group; 2009:
83. RobbinsE.RochatP. (2011). Emerging signs of strong reciprocity in human ontogeny. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, Article 353. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3242362/
84. Roy M.,Shohamy D.,Wager T. D.Ventromedial prefrontal-subcortical systems and the generation of affective meaning.Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 2012;16:147-156
85. Ruby P.,Decety J.How would you feel versus how do you think she would feel? A neuroimaging study of perspective taking with social emotions.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2004;16:988-999
86. Seeley W. W.,Menon V.,Schatzberg A. F.,Keller J.,Glover G. H.,Kenna H.,. Greicius M. D.Dissociable intrinsic connectivity networks for salience processing and executive control.The Journal of Neuroscience. 2007;27:2349-2356
87. Shamay-Tsoory S.The social neuroscience of empathy. Decety J.Ickes W., ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2009:215-232.
88. Shenhav A.,Greene J. D.Integrative moral judgment: Dissociating the roles of the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex.Journal of Neuroscience. 2014;34:4741-4749
89. Singer P.The expanding circle: Ethics and sociobiology. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1981:
90. Smetana J. G.Preschool children’s conceptions of moral and social rules.Child Development. 1981;52:1333-1336
91. Smetana J. G.Annals of child development. Vasta R., ed. London, England: Jessica Kingsley; 1995:83-130.
92. Sobhani M.,Bechara A.A somatic marker perspective of immoral and corrupt behavior.Social Neuroscience. 2011;6:640-652
93. Stewart-Williams S.Darwin, God, and the meaning of life. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2010:
94. Taber-Thomas B. C.,Asp E. W.,Koenigs M.,Sutterer M.,Anderson S. W.,Tranel D.Arrested development: Early prefrontal lesions impair the maturation of moral judgment.Brain. 2014;137:1254-1261
95. Thomson J. J.Killing, letting die, and the trolley problem.The Monist. 1976;59:204-217
96. Trivers R. L.Social evolution. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin Cummings Press; 1985:
97. Turiel E.The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press; 1983:
98. Turiel E.Beyond particular and universal ways: Context for morality.New Directions for Child Development. 1997;76:87-105
99. Underwood B.,Moore B.Perspective-taking and altruism.Psychological Bulletin. 1982;91:143-173
100. van Lange P. A. M.Does empathy trigger only altruistic motivation: How about selflessness and justice?.Emotion. 2008;8:766-774
101. Wiech K.,Kahane G.,Shackel N.,Farias M.,Savulescu J.,Tracey I.Cold or calculating? Reduced activity in the subgenual cingulate cortex reflects decreased emotional aversion to harming in counterintuitive utilitarian judgment.Cognition. 2013;126:364-372
102. Xu X.,Zuo X.,Wang X.,Han S.Do you feel my pain? Racial group membership modulates empathic neural responses.Journal of Neuroscience. 2009;29:8525-8529
103. Yoder K. J.,Decety J.The good, the bad, and the just: Justice sensitivity predicts neural response during moral evaluation of actions performed by others.The Journal of Neuroscience. 2014a;34:4161-4166
104. Yoder K. J.,Decety J.Spatiotemporal neural dynamics of moral judgments: A high-density EEG/ERP study.Neuropsychologia. 2014b;60:39-45
105. Young L.,Dungan J.Where in the brain is morality? Everywhere and maybe nowhere.Social Neuroscience. 2012;7:1-10
106. Young L.,Saxe R.Moral universals and individual differences.Emotion Review. 2011;3:323-324
107. Zahn R.,de Oliveira-Souza R.,Bramati I.,Garrido G.,Moll J.Subgenual cingulate activity reflects individual differences in empathic concern.Neuroscience Letters. 2009;457:107-110
108. Zahn R.,de Oliveira-Souza R.,Moll J.The Oxford handbook of social neuroscience. Decety J.Cacioppo J. T., ed. 2011:477-490.