Empathy, age and different types of pain.

Empathy, age and different types of pain.

Sample: 273 participants aged 10 to 80.

Participants were shown photographs of people's hands and feet in situations of physical pain (e.g., a hand held over a candle) and social pain (e.g., a hand placing flowers on a coffin), or the same situations without pain (e.g., a hand holding a candle or a flower). EEG and subjective ratings of perceived pain were recorded.

Shown: subjectively perceived pain was stronger for physical pain compared to social pain. Young adults (20-40 years) showed particular sensitivity to social pain events compared to adolescents (10-20 years) and older adults (60+ years). Brain reactions to painful situations increased linearly from adolescence to young and older adulthood. The authors believe there are common markers of empathy for both physical and social pain.

Photos of the stimuli from the study are in the comments.

Let's give some empathetic likes.

Link to an article.