Welcome to the forty-fourth edition of Brain Blogging. In this round, we discuss the innate ability to empathize, the connection between moral disgust and foul smells, whether antidepressants (and antipsychotics) really work by making you hungry, and many more topics.

Remember, we review the latest blogs related to the brain and mind that go beyond the basic sciences into a more human and multidimensional perspective. You can check our archive for past editions. Read more →

Countless studies have focused on the subject of bullying, and the latest even suggest an interesting paradox: is bullying caused by a lack of empathy for others or, surprisingly, by too much empathy? Because, although all of us react in some way to seeing others in pain, we don’t all react in the same way. Scientists are asking, could an empathic response to others in pain cause enough emotional distress in some adolescents to actually cause them to respond aggressively? Here lie the two big hypotheses and they’re rather contradictory. Read more →

Empathy is the ability and quality that allows humans to feel and understand what others are experiencing. It literally means “with [em-] suffering [-pathos]” as in suffering along with someone else. Empathy is not just emotionally suffering; it is also cognitively understanding what another person is going through; walking in their shoes, per se. Empathy connects people with each other and helps bind societies together.

In one recent study in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society the authors found that 31% of normal adults exhibited low emotional empathy scores on the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES). Read more →

Try and grasp this statistic: the number of people who commit suicide in the EU is larger than the number of people who die in road collisions. And so you can put it in perspective: 50,000 people die from road collisions in the EU.

This has caused the EU to take notice. On June 13th, the European pact for mental health and wellbeing was signed. Several initiatives comprise their plan some of which include: raising public awareness, support for people who have attempted suicide, identifying mental health problems in school-aged children, and making accommodations that will allow older people to work during their later years. Read more →

I find the subject of compassion compelling. I believe this aspect of human-kind is a pivotal component in successful negotiation of the human experience where family and community is concerned. Pivotal, because in the absence of compassion there is stagnant disconnect. I suppose if one were to live solitary in the woods and could sustain the needs that promote healthy survival without interactions with fellow man, compassion and empathy would be unnecessary provisions in the condition of living. A rare few would decide to do that. Even if it were plausible to do so, we don’t willingly choose to. We desire the interaction of others. It promotes a sense of inclusion and well-being. There can be no perception of that belonging without some amount of compassion and empathy echoing within the dynamic of human interaction. To that end, it’s fundamental. Read more →

Don’t you think empathy is the ideal cure for war and domestic violence? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could teach empathy to the whole world today, right now? Well, here’s a step in that direction. A set of seven studies explored ways that we can feel more empathic and less vengeful by being exposed to information and perspectives about ourselves. The researchers looked at this from different angles. For example, recalling a similar offense on their own part caused people to feel more understanding toward transgressors. Read more →