Our world is a hectic one. People are more often than not moving so fast, not taking the time to consider the emotions of others. However this is not justification for stigmatizing them as immoral or bad human beings. Instead of pointing a finger at people that do not take the time to empathize with others, we should provide them with reasons with they should. Dr. Decety at the University of Chicago attempted to provide neurological scientific evidence for why empathy is not only good for the people receiving it but for the people the people that take the time to demonstrate it.
In his seminar, Dr. Decety explained how he conducted several experiments with the use of MRI and fMRI to identify areas of the brain that showed neural activity when people experienced reflexive pain, or pain from first hand experience. Then Dr.Decety along with his team of researchers compared the areas where neural activity was registered and looked to find if those same areas of the brain fired when the test subjects were presented with images of family or complete strangers that were experiencing pain. And much to the pleasant surprise of Dr. Decety, and certaintly many of the attendants at his lecture, the same brain structures which included, the amygdala, hippocampus, and the pre-frontal cortex showed signs of neural activity. Although the amount of activity was not as much when seeing loved ones in pain, and even less when seeing a stranger, yet nonetheless the structures registered neural activity.
Dr.Decety conducted another experiment in which he presented mothers which picture of their babies, including picture of their babies in pain. The same pattern of cortical activity as the previous experiment was registered. Even when the pictures consisted of crying or babies in distress, the mother's registered neural activity. Furthermore, Dr. Decety coducted another experiment in which he showed distressed faces of complete strangers to test subjects. And once again neural activity of the ,amygdala, hippocampus, and pre-frontal cortex fired.
So what does this mean? In summation the evidence, Dr. Decety concluded that people were pre-disposed to be empathetic to others, yet the social construct and the speed at which we can gratify ourselves often deter us and makes us lost sight of this empathy. In his closing statements, Dr.Decety stated that empathizing
with people not only provides the victim with moral support, but that the person demonstrating the empathy received a release of chemicals that made them happy. Dr. Decety's conclusion, empathy can make you happy.
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