Cultural experiences reduce racial bias in neural responses to others’ suffering

Abstract

Recent neuroimaging research has shown increased neural activity in adults in response to perceived pain in same-race versus other-race individuals. Moreover, manipulations of cognitive strategies and intergroup relationships in laboratory can significantly reduce the racial bias in empathic neural responses by increasing the neural activity to perceived pain in other-race individuals. The current study further investigated whether real-life cultural experiences with other-race individuals can reduce the racial bias in empathic neural responses to others’ suffering. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we scanned 20 Chinese adults who were brought up in Western countries (United States, United Kingdom, and Canada) where Caucasians consist of the majority of population. Participants viewed video clips in which either Asian or Caucasian models received painful or non-painful stimulations. We found that the neural activity in the pain matrix including the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, inferior frontal cortex and somatosensory cortex was significantly increased in response to painful versus non-painful stimuli applied to both Asian and Caucasian models. Moreover, these empathic neural responses to Asian and Caucasian models did not differ significantly and were positively correlated with each other. Our results indicate that cultural experiences with racial out-group members may increase the neural responses to the suffering of other-race individuals and thus reduce the racial bias in empathy.