Pinsamheten Att Känna För Dig: Den Prosociala Rolen(Erna) Av Empatisk Förlägenhet Och Dess Neurala Grund
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Pinsamheten att känna för dig: Den prosociala rolen(erna) av empatisk förlägenhet och dess neurala grund The awkwardness of feeling for you: The pro-social role(s) of empathic embarrassment and its neural basis Examensarbete för kandidatexamen med huvudområdet kognitiv neurovetenskap Grundnivå 180 högskolepoäng VT2021 Student: Jessica Svensson Handledare: Joel Parthemore Examinator: Antti Revonsuo Examensarbete 2 Abstract Empathic embarrassment is an emotional state that belongs to the self-conscious category of emotions. It is an uncomfortable condition where someone feels embarrassed over another person’s mishap or violation of social norms. It is prosocial in that one is motivated to help a person who expresses embarrassment. To experience it, one needs to be able to imagine how the other person is feeling and how one would feel if the situation happened to oneself. One is likelier to feel empathic embarrassment if one likes the person who is experiencing the mishap or if one has experienced the mishap oneself. This thesis investigates whether empathic embarrassment is a prosocial emotion and what neural basis empathic embarrassment has. The results show that empathic embarrassment is perceived as a prosocial emotion, while the areas that are the most involved are the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and medial prefrontal cortex. Keywords: empathic embarrassment, embarrassment, prosocial, empathy 3 The awkwardness of feeling for you. Imagine events where you have done (or said) something embarrassing, like farting in front of people, having your fly down, or finding a piece of toilet paper stuck on the bottom of your shoe. The same feeling of embarrassment can happen to a person observing the event: either a close friend or stranger. This phenomenon is called second- hand embarrassment, vicarious embarrassment, or empathic embarrassment, the latter being the term I will use in this thesis. Empathic embarrassment is the emotion that arises when you feel embarrassment for someone who does something embarrassing. That person can either show that they are embarrassed, or they can be unaware of it. The term empathic embarrassment was first used by Rowland S. Miller (1987). An observer witnessing an embarrassing event often responds with empathy towards the embarrassed person. The empathic response one feels is like what one would have felt if one had suffered the initial embarrassment oneself (Hawk et al., 2011). Empathic embarrassment is a complex emotion with components such as fear of negative appraisal, perspective-taking, and heightened levels of empathy or ability to be embarrassed (Uysal et al., 2014). Embarrassment Embarrassment is one component of empathic embarrassment. It occurs when a person feels like they have violated social norms, made a mishap, or otherwise had their social image threatened. Most people go to great lengths to avoid feeling or expressing embarrassment. Embarrassment is in the category of self-conscious, social emotions, together with shame, guilt, and envy. A self-conscious emotion concerns how one perceives oneself: one is consciously aware of others’ perceptions and judgement (Feinberg et al., 2012; Robbins & Parlavecchio, 2006). Embarrassment is a generally unpleasant emotion that makes the person feel judged or otherwise scrutinized. Though it is unpleasant, it serves a valuable social function as, for example, a nonverbal apology or indication that the person expressing embarrassment will not let this happen again. Embarrassment is a highly coordinated response involving various brain regions and physiological reactions. It shows itself through blushing, looking downwards to the left, touching the face, flashing a Duchenne smile, or stuttering. An embarrassed expression is developed early in life, starting at 18 months (Keltner & Anderson, 2000). 4 When someone is expressing embarrassment, this leads to increased trust, forgiveness, and motivation to help the person who is expressing it (Keltner & Anderson, 2000). Physiological reactions only appear on the parts of the body that are visible to others (Miller, 2007). There are different categories of embarrassing events: e.g., the faux pas, “centre of attention”, and sticky situation (Miller, 1987; Sabini et al., 2000). A faux pas is when one does something socially wrong. “Centre of attention” is receiving the unwanted attention of others. A sticky situation is one that makes one feel one is being judged or could be judged, even if one is not (Sabini et al., 2000). Embarrassment is not to be confused with shame though the two are in the same category of self-conscious social emotions. Shame is a feeling of remorse in the event of a mishap. It is felt more intensely than embarrassment and can lead to feelings of anger and disgust towards oneself, whereas embarrassment is a feeling of silliness or humor in response to one’s mishaps; one is if often caught by surprise that they happened (Robbins & Parlavecchio, 2006). Specific brain regions are involved when one experiences embarrassment or other self-conscious emotions. The most frequently mentioned are the medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and superior temporal sulcus. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is linked to social cognition including feeling for and with someone; it is also involved in mentalizing. Paulus et al. (2015) report that patients with lesions in this area experience less embarrassment after being involved in inappropriate behaviour. The exact role of the mPFC is not quite established. It is involved in many different processes such as memory retrieval, (where it has a key role) decision-making, and error detection. It has also been shown that the mPFC has a role in guiding adaptive behaviour as modulated by “positive” and “negative” events (Euston et al., 2012). The anterior insula (AI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are involved in experiencing social pain and violation of social norms, along with trait empathy: a stable feature of one’s personality concerning one’s capacity for empathic response (Mayer et al., 2020; Wallmark et al., 2018). These two areas were activated in an fMRI study where participants observed something that could be interpreted as a threat to their reputation or perspective (Mayer et al., 2020). In an fMRI study of the ACC done on monkeys, it was shown that the ACC is activated during prosocial cues and plays a role in vicarious reinforcements. Damage to the ACC led to the monkeys having difficulties attaching value to reward outcomes and learning vicarious reinforcement in social decision- 5 making (Basile et al., 2020). The AI has many roles in the brain, including a role in decision-making. A meta-analysis by Bellucci et al. (2018) showed that the AI is involved in social-norm compliance and is activated during decision-making to trust or reject offers that might be unfair. The posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is important when it comes to sharing other people’s emotions nonverbally. In an fMRI study, Paulus et al. (2015) show activation in the pSTS when a person is herself embarrassed or when looking at hand- drawn sketches of embarrassing scenarios, compared to neutral scenarios. An fMRI study by Isik et al. (2017) found that the pSTS is sensitive to social interactions and emotional facial expression. Empathy Empathy is an affective reaction to others’ expression of emotions whereby one share (to a certain limited extent) the emotional state of another. “Affective” can be understood as an umbrella term for emotion and mood. Empathy demands the ability both to understand someone else’s emotions (and thought) and to resonate with them. Empathy is experienced for example when a person sees another in pain: either physical or social (Rameson et al., 2011). It can arise just by imagining it, as when reading a novel and empathizing with one of the characters (Stietz et al., 2019). The brain regions primarily involved in empathy and empathic processes are the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and AI: both in observing pain in others and helping a friend (Krach et al., 2011; Rameson et al., 2011). The mPFC is implicated in embarrassment and empathic judgement (also in interpersonal judgement). In their fMRI study, Rameson et al. (2011) demonstrate the activation of and the important role the mPFC has in empathic processes, along with the role of AI and dACC when helping a friend daily. Empathic embarrassment Perspective-taking – also known as theory of mind or mentalizing – is needed to experience empathic embarrassment. Perspective-taking means imagining how someone else is feeling or thinking without needing to ask. One must be able to imagine what the embarrassed person is feeling if one is to empathize with her (see e.g., Hawk et al., 2011; Miller, 1987). The mPFC is active both during general perspective-taking and when experiencing embarrassing events. The superior temporal sulcus is active when 6 someone is mirroring someone else’s behaviour or emotion. Mirroring is when someone is imitating or otherwise changing behaviour to match someone else’s, often unconsciously (Paulus et al., 2015). Closely related to perspective-taking is the capacity for nonverbal mimicry, which is when someone witnesses facial expression, body language or posture, and is subsequently more inclined to engage in the same behaviour they are witnessing (Hawk et al., 2011). Mimicry shows itself facially, emotionally (through body language), behaviourally, or verbally (Chartrand & Van Baaren, 2009).