Compared to adolescents and older adults, young adults exhibit the most empathic reactions to individuals experiencing physical or social distress, according to a study. Researchers found that empathy reactions peak in young adulthood but develop with age based on brain activity monitored as people watched traumatic circumstances.
Despite rating others’ pain as less severe, older persons showed higher neural responses to pain, indicating a disconnect between empathy expressed and empathy felt. The results demonstrate how empathy changes over the course of a person’s life and is impacted by social interactions and exposure to situations involving pain. The intricacy of empathy and its vital significance in social interactions are highlighted by this study.
Key Information:
- Empathy Peak: Compared to adolescents or older people, young adults have a greater capacity for empathy towards the suffering of others.
- Brain vs. Behaviour: While older persons’ brain activity is more sensitive to pain, their ability to appropriately assess the agony of others is diminished.
- Social Influence: Social and pain-related experiences impact empathy as it grows throughout life.
According to a recent study conducted by the School of Psychology at the University of Kent, young adults exhibit the highest levels of empathy for those who are suffering.
Psychologists have found that young adults are more sensitive to social pain than adolescents or older adults, and that they empathise more deeply with individuals who are going through social pain, such as circumstances of embarrassment, bereavement, and despair. Social contact requires empathy in order for people to comprehend and experience others’ feelings.
By recording brain activity while participants viewed photographs of people in physically or socially painful situations, the study – which was published in the Journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience – explored how empathy responses vary among adolescents (10–19 years old), young adults (20–40 years old), and older adults (60+ years old).
Results indicated that from youth to young and older age, the brain’s reactions to unpleasant circumstances grew.
This illustrates how empathy reactions evolve over the course of a person’s life as their social experience and exposure to various social and pain-related circumstances grow.
Adolescence and older adulthood are associated with increased neural empathy mechanisms for both social and physical pain. Social contact requires empathy in order for people to comprehend and experience others’ feelings.
In a preregistered study, 240 participants – including teenagers, young adults, and older individuals – saw pictures of hands and feet in socially or physically distressing circumstances (as opposed to painless ones).
EEG mu suppression and imagined pain ratings were used to gauge empathy. Young adults were more sensitive to social pain events than adolescents and older adults, and imagined pain was higher for physical pain than for social pain.
These results emphasise an empathic response that evolves throughout life with accumulated social experience, as well as shared activity across the core empathy network for both physical and social pain situations.
Read More: Psychologist’s Insights on Empathy and its Psychological Foundations
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