Empathy and moral emotions in post-apartheid South Africa: an fMRI investigation.

ABSTRACT: Moral emotions elicited in response to others' suffering are mediated by empathy and affect how we respond to their pain. South Africa provides a unique opportunity to study group processes given its racially divided past. The present study seeks insights into aspects of the moral brain by investigating behavioral and functional MRI responses of White and Black South Africans who lived through apartheid to in- and out-group physical and social pain. Whereas the physical pain task featured faces expressing dynamic suffering, the social pain task featured victims of apartheid violence from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to elicit heartfelt emotion. Black participants' behavioral responses were suggestive of in-group favoritism, whereas White participants' responses wer

SUBMITTER: Fourie MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5472164 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature