Decety on Empathy

            Why does empathy matter? In a talk given by professor, Dr. Jean Decety, unraveled the mystery of how empathy has evolved and its limitations in the modern world. Empathy described across cultures is considered concern for others, experiencing emotions of another individual, or knowing how another is feeling through theory of mind.

From the evolutionary perspective, empathy has promoted the human race for we consider ourselves social creatures. Anatomically, empathy has roots in ancient brain systems such as the ventral straitum, amygdala, and somatosensory cortex. It is from complex interactions that bring rise to empathetic behaviors, not simply one region of the brain. Oxytocin, sometimes called the cuddle drug, is a hormone released from the pituitary gland during sexual reproduction, emotional bonding, and childbirth. This hormone in the mammalian brain evolved over 300 million years ago! As described in Jorge Abram Barraza novel The Physiology of Empathy, “the current research attempts to clarify and support the empathy-oxytocin link by arguing that oxytocin shifts people from self-focused feelings of distress to other-focused feelings of concern when witnessing the plight of others, thereby facilitating prosocial behavior,”  linking oxytocin to empathy. Studies in psychopathology have shown that a deficit in oxytocin can lead rise to psychological problems such as narcissism and sociopathy. Outside the anatomical structures, Decety described child rearing as the most motivator of social behavior. Having empathy for one’s young is essential for humans to survive early years of existence, and propagates the passing of genes to the next generation especially for our ancestors for soothing a crying infant in the middle of the night protected the clan from unwanted predators.

Although empathy is evolutionarily valid, there are situations in the modern world in which maintaining too much empathy can debilitate efficiency. In particular, people in the medical profession have to find a balance between extreme empathy and a stone cold heart. Decety postulates that too much empathy induces arousal that can damper cognitive abilities, while too little empathy induces an underestimation of pain of a patient, or filters out emotional communication. The solution to this paradox is for surgeons to set aside their empathy to complete surgery with utmost precision, but resume an empathetic disposition when consulting with patients. Empathy, although limited in the modern medicine, has survived the ages because it is in a positive loop with happiness. A devil’s advocate might postulate that altruistic, empathetic behaviors aren’t altruistic at all for the one committing acts of kindness get rewarded intrinsically, where does this theory then put Mother Teresa?