The Influence Of Collective Pride On The Empathy Of Ingroup And Outgroup

Empathy is the process by which an individual observes,imagines,or inferences the emotional states of others and produces similar emotional experiences.Both negative and positive empathy are important for interpersonal communication,prosocial interaction,and harmony between groups.When the observer and the observed belong to the same group,the observer will have a stronger empathic response to their emotional experience.This phenomenon is called "ingroup bias" on empathy.Most current studies have found in-group bias in negative empathy.Previous studies have shown that individual emotional states can affect empathy,but the results are not uniform.Collective pride is the feeling an individual feels when a member of a group or group has achieved something important or is better than another group.As a positive self-conscious emotion closely related to group,it is worth exploring how collective pride affects empathy and whether there is a difference between ingroup and outgroup empathy.Therefore,this study aims to explore the influence and internal mechanism of collective pride on negative and positive empathy in ingroup and outgroup.In the experiment,neutral emotions,happy emotions and collective pride were induced by watching videos.Participants were asked to complete negative or positive empathy tasks in different emotional states,and EEG data under the tasks were recorded.In the first experiment,behavioral results showed that people responded more quickly to pain than to calm faces.Moreover,individuals responded significantly faster in the collective pride condition compared to neutral emotions.In addition,individuals reacted faster and more correctly when observing outgroup members.EEG results showed that pain and calm expressions could be distinguished on N1,N2 and P2 components.The presence of emotion in the early component P2 can affect negative empathy,that is,the amplitude of pain and calm faces induced by collective pride and neutral emotions is significantly different in the frontal,central and parietal regions,while the amplitude of the two types of pictures induced by happy emotions is not significantly different.In addition,in the neutral condition,the amplitude of pain and calm face induced by frontal,central and parietal regions was significantly different in the ingroup,but only in the outgroup induced by pain and calm face induced by the central region was significantly different.In the condition of collective pride,the amplitude of pain and calm expression induced by outgroup members in the frontal area and the central area was significantly different.The empathic bias values were used to verify the group bias of P2 component.It was found that in the negative empathy condition,the values in the frontal,central and parietal regions were greater than zero.There was no significant difference between the values of each brain region and zero under the happy emotion condition.In the collective pride condition,the value in the frontal region is less than zero.In the second experiment,behavioral results showed that the happy faces responded more quickly than the calm faces.EEG results showed that N2,P2 and P3 components could distinguish happy faces from calm faces.However,no significant influence of emotion on positive empathy was found,let alone the significant influence of emotion on positive empathy in ingroup and outgroup.Combined with the results of two experiments,it is shown that:(1)collective pride promotes negative rather than positive empathy for others.(2)In the P2 component of early automatic affective empathy,the ingroup bias of empathy exists in negative empathy(not positive empathy)in neutral affective condition.Under the condition of happy emotion,negative empathy is suppressed and thus eliminated.Because the promoting effect of collective pride on negative empathy is mainly on outgroup members,the outgroup bias appears.