Abstract
People have a greater desire to date highly attractive partners, which induces intrasexual competition between same-sex individuals. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore whether and how intrasexual competition modulates pain empathy for a same-sex rival and the underlying neural mechanism. Participants were scanned while processing the pain of a same-sex ‘lucky guy’ who had an attractive partner and one with a plain partner. The results revealed that participants reported lower pain intensity for the lucky guy. Neurally, reduced pain-related activations in anterior insula and anterior mid-cingulate cortex and increased activations in right superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and medial prefrontal gyrus (MPFC) were found for the lucky guy compared to the one with a plain partner. Right SFG and MPFC activations could predict participants’ subsequent pain intensity ratings for the lucky guy. These findings suggest intrasexual competition can modulate normal empathic responses.
Highlights
Speaking, physical attractiveness is linked to youth, health, and female fertility (Sugiyama, 2005)
Given that intrasexual competition leads to negative attitudes toward same-sex rivals (Fisher, 2004; Griskevicius et al, 2009), we predicted that observers would show reduced behavioral and neural empathic responses to their pain
Further post hoc analyses revealed that, when watching painful pictures, greater percent signal changes in anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC), right anterior insula (AI), left thalamus, left precuneus, and left precentral gyrus were detected for PlainPlain than for PlainAtt [ts(19) > 3.48, ps < 0.01], whereas in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), right superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and right angular gyrus, greater percent signal changes was observed for PlainAtt than for PlainPlain [ts(19) > 5.98, ps < 0.01; Figure 2]
Summary
Speaking, physical attractiveness is linked to youth, health, and female fertility (Sugiyama, 2005). Previous studies have revealed that the attitudes held toward others impact empathy for their suffering and pain (Singer et al, 2006; Cheng et al, 2010) This leads to the question: are empathic responses to the same-sex rival, especially when the rival is a ‘lucky guy’ who obtains the love of a highly attractive partner, modulated by intrasexual competition? Given that intrasexual competition leads to negative attitudes toward same-sex rivals (Fisher, 2004; Griskevicius et al, 2009), we predicted that observers would show reduced behavioral and neural empathic responses to their pain To test this prediction, an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was designed. At the neural level, decreased pain-related brain activations in AI and ACC/aMCC and increased activation in MPFC, which has been associated with the regulation of empathic pain, would be observed for PlainAtt relative to PlainPlain
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