Empathetic systems in human societies

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project Area: Empathic system
• Project/Area Number: 25118004
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Complex systems
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Kameda Tatsuya 東京大学, 大学院人文社会系研究科(文学部), 教授 (20214554)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 清成 透子 青山学院大学, 社会情報学部, 准教授 (60555176) ; 山岸 俊男 一橋大学, 大学院国際企業戦略研究科, 特任教授 (80158089) ; 樋口 さとみ 岩手医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (70418515)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HIGUCHI Satomi 岩手医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (70418515)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-06-28 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 共感性 / 実験ゲーム / 高次共感 / 情動 / 社会内分泌 / fMRI / 注意過程 / 計算論モデル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

1) Investigation of neuro-cognitive bases of empathy underlying social interaction: Through a series of experiments with humans and computational models, we have shown that human empathy is a multi-facet system composed of emotional and cognitive subsystems. We showed that: (a) RTPJ, recruited in strategic planning in competitive games, is also engaged when people consider welfare of the most unfortunate others in social distribution; and (b) warm empathy, which is recruited in helping unfortunate ingroup members, produces external inefficiency when helping outgroup members.
2)Investigation of social-niche construction using empathy: By assigning various experimental games as a battery, we have identified core dimensions underlying human cooperation. We showed that: (a) cortical thickness of DLPFC is related to individual differences in strategic behaviors in games; (b) Testosterone is related to maintenance of social orders in groups; and (c) OXTR rs53576 is related to human trust.

Free Research Field

社会心理学