Brain imaging evidence for why we are numbed by numbers

Zheng Ye; Marcus Heldmann; Paul Slovic; Thomas F. Münte

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-66234-z

Brain imaging evidence for why we are numbed by numbers

Zheng Ye^*, Marcus Heldmann, Paul Slovic, Thomas F. Münte

^*Corresponding author for this work

Clinic of Neurology

University of Oregon

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We as humans do not value lives consistently. While we are willing to act for one victim, we often become numb as the number of victims increases. The empathic ability to adopt others’ perspectives is essential for motivating help. However, the perspective-taking ability in our brains seems limited. Using functional MRI, we demonstrated that the core empathy network including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was more engaged for events happening to a single person than those happening to many people, no matter whether the events were emotionally neutral or negative. In particular, the perspective-taking-related mPFC showed greater and more extended activations for events about one person than those about many people. The mPFC may be the neural marker of why we feel indifferent to the suffering of large numbers of people in humanitarian disasters.

Original language	English
Article number	9270
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	10
Issue number	1
Pages (from-to)	9270
ISSN	2045-2322
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66234-z
Publication status	Published - 01.12.2020

Funding

We thank Prof. Simon B. Eickhoff for his help in preparing images from meta-analyses. This work was primarily funded by the German Research Foundation (SFB TR134 C1) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, with additional support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31771216). Paul Slovic's participation was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (G-2018-11100).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Research Areas and Centers

Academic Focus: Center for Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM)

Access to Document

10.1038/s41598-020-66234-z

Cite this

@article{158ab8f849aa44dfb88b2aa8065b5592,

title = "Brain imaging evidence for why we are numbed by numbers",

abstract = "We as humans do not value lives consistently. While we are willing to act for one victim, we often become numb as the number of victims increases. The empathic ability to adopt others{\textquoteright} perspectives is essential for motivating help. However, the perspective-taking ability in our brains seems limited. Using functional MRI, we demonstrated that the core empathy network including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was more engaged for events happening to a single person than those happening to many people, no matter whether the events were emotionally neutral or negative. In particular, the perspective-taking-related mPFC showed greater and more extended activations for events about one person than those about many people. The mPFC may be the neural marker of why we feel indifferent to the suffering of large numbers of people in humanitarian disasters.",

author = "Zheng Ye and Marcus Heldmann and Paul Slovic and M{\"u}nte, \{Thomas F.\}",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Prof. Simon B. Eickhoff for his help in preparing images from meta-analyses. This work was primarily funded by the German Research Foundation (SFB TR134 C1) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, with additional support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31771216). Paul Slovic's participation was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (G-2018-11100). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2020",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41598-020-66234-z",

language = "English",

volume = "10",

pages = "9270",

journal = "Scientific Reports",

issn = "2045-2322",

publisher = "Springer Science and Business Media, LLC",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Brain imaging evidence for why we are numbed by numbers

AU - Ye, Zheng

AU - Heldmann, Marcus

AU - Slovic, Paul

AU - Münte, Thomas F.

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Prof. Simon B. Eickhoff for his help in preparing images from meta-analyses. This work was primarily funded by the German Research Foundation (SFB TR134 C1) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, with additional support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31771216). Paul Slovic's participation was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (G-2018-11100). Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/12/1

Y1 - 2020/12/1

N2 - We as humans do not value lives consistently. While we are willing to act for one victim, we often become numb as the number of victims increases. The empathic ability to adopt others’ perspectives is essential for motivating help. However, the perspective-taking ability in our brains seems limited. Using functional MRI, we demonstrated that the core empathy network including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was more engaged for events happening to a single person than those happening to many people, no matter whether the events were emotionally neutral or negative. In particular, the perspective-taking-related mPFC showed greater and more extended activations for events about one person than those about many people. The mPFC may be the neural marker of why we feel indifferent to the suffering of large numbers of people in humanitarian disasters.

AB - We as humans do not value lives consistently. While we are willing to act for one victim, we often become numb as the number of victims increases. The empathic ability to adopt others’ perspectives is essential for motivating help. However, the perspective-taking ability in our brains seems limited. Using functional MRI, we demonstrated that the core empathy network including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was more engaged for events happening to a single person than those happening to many people, no matter whether the events were emotionally neutral or negative. In particular, the perspective-taking-related mPFC showed greater and more extended activations for events about one person than those about many people. The mPFC may be the neural marker of why we feel indifferent to the suffering of large numbers of people in humanitarian disasters.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85086146567

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-020-66234-z

DO - 10.1038/s41598-020-66234-z

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 32518348

AN - SCOPUS:85086146567

SN - 2045-2322

VL - 10

SP - 9270

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

IS - 1

M1 - 9270

ER -

Brain imaging evidence for why we are numbed by numbers

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Areas and Centers

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this