Discussion
prosocial behavior, pain
This experimental study tested the effects of prior hate speech exposure on neurocognitive mechanisms of empathic reaction and/or propensity to attribute mental states to others when contemplating another’s pain in an intergroup setting. Building our predictions on previous research on intergroup bias in empathy, as well as desensitization to verbal aggression, in this study, we investigated 3 possible theoretical models: the empathic failure model, the dehumanized perception model, and the empathic numbing model.The results demonstrate that exposure to hate speech, even for about a quarter of an hour, affects brain response by reducing BOLD response in the region involved in mentalizing (rTPJ) while faced with the pain of others, regardless of the group membership of the protagonist (Polish or Arab).Firstly, whole-brain analysis revealed that the narrative scenarios used in the fMRI experiment activate brain regions typically considered as the core empathy network: AI, ACC, SMA, pre- and postcentral gyrus, parietal lobe, thalamus, frontal pole (specifically the inferior frontal gyrus)Secondly, neither fMRI nor self-report measures collected during the fMRI session were indicative of in-group biases. On the one hand, the lack of intergroup bias in empathy ratings may be related to the fact that self-report assessment during the fMRI study was done on a 4-point scale, which may not have been sensitive enough to capture possible subtle ingroup bias. These results are also consistent with the study of Bruneau and colleaguesThis result might be also explained by the participants' sociodemographic characteristics (young well-educated adults who have had an average of 14.9 years of schooling) and ideological orientation. Given that a preference for hierarchy has been shown to be associated with reduced empathy towards outgroup personsFinally, both whole-brain and independent ROI analysis revealed that exposure to derogatory language about migrants and minority groups suppresses the brain response of the rTPJ. This effect occurred regardless of the group membership of the protagonist (Polish or Arab). A sizable number of studies have shown the rTPJ to be robustly activated when people attribute mental states to others (intentions/beliefs), in order to explain or predict or make moral judgements about their actionsThis result supports the psychological numbing hypothesis: repeated exposure to negatively charged messages with a high emotional intensity leads to psychological desensitization. Although this effect has not been demonstrated in relation to hate speech, it has been confirmed for other types of highly emotional stimuli, such as violent media stimuli and violent video-games. In particular, it has been shown that repeated exposure to media violence Although prosocial behavior was not measured in this study, given that previous research has shown that helping involves perspective-taking and is associated with increased activation of the mentalizing network (including the TPJ)