Is lack of empathy a contributing factor in bullying behavior? In the past year, brain research using MRI scans has revealed surprising paths to empathy in the brains of bully type boys.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, known as fMRI scans can now help brain researchers learn more about social and emotional skills at work in the brain. Scientists can conduct lab experiments at the same time they scan the brain to identify which parts of the brain are stimulated by particular activities.
Lack of Empathy Often Linked to Child Bullies
Because child bullies usually do not show remorse for their behavior, many psychologists had drawn a natural conclusion that children who bully lack empathy. After all, if bullies don’t feel sorry about their abusive behavior, it would reason that bullies aren’t able to imagine or sense how others feel.
Recent Brain Research about Lack of Empathy
Jane Decety, Professor in Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago conducted fMRI scans on two sets of boys all within the range of 16–18 years old. One group of boys had exhibited abusive behavior and had been diagnosed as having conduct disorders. The other group showed very few signs of conduct disorder or bullying behaviors.
Boys in both groups viewed video scenes of people accidentally hurting themselves. Decety monitored activity in the boys’ brains via fMRI scans to note which parts of the brain responded while the boys watched people in pain. Would the brains of the boys who bullied empathize with other people experiencing pain?
Brains of Child Bullies Empathize Differently
Decety’s brain research project led to some noticeable results. As the brains of the non-aggressive boys watched the clips, the expected parts of the brains signaled that the boys felt empathy for the people in pain. When the brains of boys who had exhibited abusive behavior were scanned, their brains signaled empathy towards the pain, but their brain wiring associated that pain empathy with pleasure, in the reward centers of the brain.
This simple experiment leads brain researchers to believe that children who bully do not lack empathy. Instead bullies associate the pain of their victims as a positive feeling. These results suggest that the abusive behavior of bullies feeds their brains with a feeling of reward.
A larger sample is in order for more brain research to prove statistically conclusive, but testers noted a remarkable difference between the fMRI scans of the two groups in this small study. Bullies are empathetic but not in a way that causes remorse.
References: " Bullies May Enjoy Seeing Others In Pain." University of Chicago. 2008, November 7.
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