Behavioral investigation of the influence of social categorization on empathy for pain: a minimal group paradigm study

作者：Montalan Benoit; Lelard Thierry; Godefroy Olivier; Mouras Harold^*

来源：Frontiers in Psychology, 2012, 3: 389.

DOI：10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00389

• empathy for pain
• ingroup bias
• social categorization
• minimal group paradigm

Research on empathy for pain has provided evidence of an empathic bias toward racial ingroup members. In this study, we used for the first time the "minimal group paradigm" in which participants were assigned to artificial groups and required to perform pain judgments of pictures of hands and feet in painful or non-painful situations from self, ingroup, and outgroup perspectives. Findings showed that the mere categorization of people into two distinct arbitrary social groups appears to be sufficient to elicit an ingroup bias in empathy for pain.

• 出版日期2012