Contemporary cultures do not allow people to explicitly report racial in-group favoritism in empathy for pain. However, recent functional brain imaging research has shown robust evidence for racial in-group bias in empathic responses in the human brain. I’ll present our EEG and fMRI findings that uncover greater brain activity in response to racial in-group than out-group individuals’ physical pain. Moreover, our studies revealed neural and genetic mechanisms underlying racial in-group favoritism in empathy. Furthermore, our studies showed that both laboratory and real life experiences can reduce racial in-group bias in empathic neural responses. Social implication of our brain imaging findings will be discussed.
Dr. Shihui Han is a distinguished professor at the Department of Psychology, Peking University, and a principal investigator at PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University. He is the director of Culture and Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. He served as the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Peking University between 2003 and 2007.