I found Dr. Decety’s talk to be extremely fascinating. Empathy isn’t something I have heard a lot about in the scientific world. It seems to be more secluded to the world of literature and philosophy. But I was amazed to see clear neural correlates of such a poetic emotion. Along those lines, it made sense that empathy involves highly flexible networks since it is such a complex emotion. I was really intrigued by the study he described on how social stigmas can affect empathy: a victim of AIDS (through blood transfusion) elicited a stronger empathic response than someone viewed to be at fault (an IV drug user). Stereotypes and stigmas are prevalent in our society and can be very damaging. I would love to see more research into this topic because I believe it could be useful to make people aware of their own innate stigmas.
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