{"id":27279,"date":"2023-05-05T14:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=143230"},"modified":"2023-05-05T14:37:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T12:37:11","slug":"why-youre-probably-a-secret-empath-explained-by-a-neuroscientist","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/why-youre-probably-a-secret-empath-explained-by-a-neuroscientist\/","title":{"rendered":"Why you\u2019re probably a secret empath, explained by a neuroscientist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why your \u2018mirror neurons\u2019 mean you have better skills of empathy than Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Mantis. <\/p>

By Stephen Kelly\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 05 May 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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There is a scene in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2<\/em>, the Marvel movie released in 2017, where the character of Mantis \u2013 an alien played by Pom Klementieff \u2013 touches Chris Pratt\u2019s Peter Quill on the hand. \u201cYou feel love!\u201d she tells him, her face beaming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess, yeah,\u201d he replies, nervously. \u201cI feel a general, unselfish love for just about everybody\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo! Romantic, sexual love,\u201d she says, before pointing a finger at Quill\u2019s teammate, Zoe Saldana\u2019s Gamora. \u201cFor her!\u201d<\/p>\n

Some superheroes have super strength. Others fly. Mantis\u2019s superpower is a souped-up version of empathy, meaning that she can touch someone and feel their emotions as though they were her own. Yet according to neuroscientist Dr Dean Burnett<\/a>, author of new book Emotional Ignorance<\/em>, this isn\u2019t quite as fantastical as it sounds. In fact, it\u2019s merely an extreme version of something we already do.<\/p>\n

How humans evolved to have empathy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cHumans have evolved \u2013 primates as well \u2013 with mirror neurons that react when you see someone doing something, not when you do it,\u201d Burnett explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have evolved the ability to see other people\u2019s actions \u2013 their physical characteristics, their movements \u2013 and our brains have an elaborate system that\u2019s fed into the planning part of the brain that goes, \u2018Right, so they did this. If I did that as well, I would be able to learn this skill.\u2019 It\u2019s how we learn by observation, and that\u2019s a really complex, evolved system, which connects the motor cortex, the mind map, the body map, the other regions, and our actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at some point in our evolution<\/a>, says Burnett, this network became fundamentally connected to the granular part of the insular cortex, which is a big part of the emotion system.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now, whenever someone is feeling emotion, someone else has loads of different cues: the colour of their face, their expression, their stance, their posture \u2013 all of that is a big part of an emotional expression. By linking that to our emotional system, our brain recognises that someone is angry or overjoyed and that leaks into our emotional system. Therefore we see someone else\u2019s emotional state, and feel it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnett is sceptical, however, about the idea of real-life Mantis-style empaths, who tend to claim that they have a greater empathic sensitivity than others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know of any variant of human who has a special ability in this area,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople can call themselves an empath, but it\u2019s not a recognised scientific title. Plus, it seems pretty egotistical. Everyone has empathy, to a degree, even psychopaths<\/a> \u2013 they can recognise other people\u2019s emotional state and manipulate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, empathy tends to be stronger for people you care about in some way. This, of course, can lead to disturbing consequences, particularly when it comes to empathy for \u201cingroups and outgroups\u201d, as Burnett puts it \u2013 essentially, people you identify with (ingroups) compared to those you find it harder to relate to (outgroups). But there\u2019s also an evolutionary advantage to curbing our empathetic abilities \u2013 especially before it can reach the levels of Mantis, who feels other people\u2019s emotions so strongly she can become overwhelmed by them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a tribe, as a social species, we wouldn\u2019t be able to function,\u201d says Burnett. \u201cIn the olden days, on the African savannah, if you saw someone break their leg and roll around in agony, you\u2019d say, \u2018Oh, God, that looks awful\u2019 and feel bad for them. But if you felt that exact same pain yourself, you\u2019d be incapacitated. It would mean that, while running from a predator, if it took out one of you, then suddenly it\u2019s got all of you.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmpathy has to be a reflection of an emotional state, not the actual thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, we all feel empathy, so Mantis\u2019s skills aren\u2019t that outlandish. But luckily for us, we don\u2019t tend to feel overwhelmed by others\u2019 emotions, like she does.<\/span><\/p>\n

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About our expert, Dr Dean Burnett<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist and author of The Guardian<\/em>\u2018s\u00a0Brain Flapping <\/em>column. He is the author of books including The Idiot Brain<\/em> and Emotional Intelligence<\/em>. He has also written for The Telegraph<\/em>, GQ<\/em>, Women\u2019s Health<\/em>, The Lancet<\/em> and New York Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n