Lecture 3
Social cognition
Social cognition
- How do humans understand each other?
- How do humans make moral decisions?
Social cognition -> affected in schizophrenia, autism, psychopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, and
behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.
From basic to more complex
- Emotional contagion (mirror and share).
- Perspective taking (mentalize).
o Together with emotional contagion -> empathy.
- Reciprocity/fairness & trust.
- Morality.
Emotional contagion
Mirror and share
Simulation theory -> we simulate/mimic someone’s affective state (even when simply observing
them). Some people mimic the facial expressions of others.
- Mirror neurons -> neurons in motor areas that activate when you observe someone perform
an action.
o Mirror neuron activation correlated with empathy questionnaires.
o Atypical mirror neuron activation in autism.
- Simulation of pain -> empathy for pain? -> the anterior cingulate cortex overlaps when
people see their partner getting shocked. Thus, it seems we also mimic pain observation.
o Switching off empathic simulation -> in some context it is not convenient to simulate
pain (e.g., a doctor). Thus, depending on the context, we simulate more or less.
o People have less pain simulation when someone they don’t like are the ones in pain.
In males there was activation of the reward system -> they enjoyed seeing others in
pain. Furthermore, it correlated with their desire to take revenge.
- Does simulation have a function -> facial mimicry is related to trait empathy, it is also
related to pro-social behavior.
- Flexible and content dependent -> we tend to mimic less when people behave unfairly to us.
We see this less with happy faces, but more with angry faces, thus, it is a flexible situation.
- Is emotional contagion always beneficial for empathy or prosocial behavior? -> oxytocin is
produced by the hypothalamus, which is important for prosocial behavior. In a study they
had a pain condition and a non-pain condition in order to activate the simulation system.
They found that adding oxytocin, decreased the pain simulation. Some people will
experience too much personal distress when copying someone’s emotions. Oxytocin has
different effects on cognitive empathy -> people with autism perform worse in reading
expressions than controls.
1
Social cognition
Social cognition
- How do humans understand each other?
- How do humans make moral decisions?
Social cognition -> affected in schizophrenia, autism, psychopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, and
behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.
From basic to more complex
- Emotional contagion (mirror and share).
- Perspective taking (mentalize).
o Together with emotional contagion -> empathy.
- Reciprocity/fairness & trust.
- Morality.
Emotional contagion
Mirror and share
Simulation theory -> we simulate/mimic someone’s affective state (even when simply observing
them). Some people mimic the facial expressions of others.
- Mirror neurons -> neurons in motor areas that activate when you observe someone perform
an action.
o Mirror neuron activation correlated with empathy questionnaires.
o Atypical mirror neuron activation in autism.
- Simulation of pain -> empathy for pain? -> the anterior cingulate cortex overlaps when
people see their partner getting shocked. Thus, it seems we also mimic pain observation.
o Switching off empathic simulation -> in some context it is not convenient to simulate
pain (e.g., a doctor). Thus, depending on the context, we simulate more or less.
o People have less pain simulation when someone they don’t like are the ones in pain.
In males there was activation of the reward system -> they enjoyed seeing others in
pain. Furthermore, it correlated with their desire to take revenge.
- Does simulation have a function -> facial mimicry is related to trait empathy, it is also
related to pro-social behavior.
- Flexible and content dependent -> we tend to mimic less when people behave unfairly to us.
We see this less with happy faces, but more with angry faces, thus, it is a flexible situation.
- Is emotional contagion always beneficial for empathy or prosocial behavior? -> oxytocin is
produced by the hypothalamus, which is important for prosocial behavior. In a study they
had a pain condition and a non-pain condition in order to activate the simulation system.
They found that adding oxytocin, decreased the pain simulation. Some people will
experience too much personal distress when copying someone’s emotions. Oxytocin has
different effects on cognitive empathy -> people with autism perform worse in reading
expressions than controls.
1
