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Empathy in sports, exercise, and the performing arts
Abstract
Objectives
This review article provides a summary of the main findings from empirical studies that used empathy measurements in the domains of sports, exercise, and the performing arts (i.e., music, dance, and theatrical acting). Method & Results: The use of body movement is considered a common denominator across performance domains. Embodied accounts of cognition claim that the capacity to understand an individual’s cognitive and affective states depend on the observer’s sensorimotor experience and seek to identify the factors influencing this process. To describe the bidirectional links between empathy and performance domains, we divided the empirical studies into two categories: those that investigated factors influencing or inducing empathy, and those that investigated possible influences of empathic tendencies on neurocognitive functions and performance. Therefore, the review includes sections on (1) effects on empathy, including (a) gender, (b) learning and performance, and (c) prosocial contexts; and (2) the effects of empathy on (a) the brain and physiology, (b) perception–performance relations, and (c) prosocial behavior. This work has proven to be informative in unraveling the links between empathy and perceptual-motor processes across intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup levels of analysis. Conclusions: The reported findings are examined in relation to embodied accounts of perceptual-motor performance. Issues related to interdisciplinary dialogue, implications for research, and applied practice are also discussed.
... This approach is consistent with the principle of standard coding, which assumes a bidirectional link between perception and action in terms of shared perceptual-motor representations and shared resources in the functional architecture of the brain (Hommel et al., 2001;Decety and Meltzoff, 2011). Empathy may be an essential psychological skill for success in sports competitions, as athlete performance requires a bidirectional link between perception and action and a high level of expertise and shared resources in the brain's functional architecture (Sevdalis and Raab, 2014). For example, in team sports, athletes must replace an opponent or teammate to anticipate their reactions, understand the opponent's and teammates' emotions, imagine their reactions, and make the right decision in an instantaneously changing environment (Budnik-Przybylska et al., 2021). ...
... They can be considered aspects of a close link between perception and action, in the sense that a curler's understanding of the cognitive and emotional aspects of the target (stone, teammate, opponent) may be related to the degree to which he empathizes with that target while experiencing actions, emotions, and somatosensations (Keysers, 2011;Sevdalis and Raab, 2014). Jola et al. (2012) used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to measure corticospinal excitability via motorevoked potentials (MEPs) in both hands and arms while watching participants' dance moves. ...
... This potential can be exploited using designs that evaluate empathy in different performance areas. For example, empathy in sports environments; (i) performance can be used to optimize empathy (by providing appropriate educational environments, experiences, and interventions) (ii) or vice versa to optimize performance (for example, by improving behaviors, interactions, and relationships to promote desired positive effects) (Sevdalis and Raab, 2014). In addition, although empathy had a relatively low predictive effect on competitive performance in Model 1, this effect increased in Model 2, where communication skills were included in the analysis. ...
Understanding the psycho-social factors such as communication, empathy, cohesion, etc., that affect successful athletic performance is a high priority and primary focus for applied sports psychology. Detailed examination of the athletes’ psycho-social characteristics is essential in revealing which processes play an active role in achieving optimum performance. Developing these features of the athlete can contribute to coordinating the team, sharing tasks, increasing motivation, preparing team members for a change, and improving performance. For this purpose, the mediating role of communication skills in the relationship between empathy, team cohesion, and competition performance was examined in a sample of 241 curlers competing in 69 teams in the Turkish Curling League in the 2021–2022 season. During the data collection process, Personal Information Form, Empathic Tendency Scale, Scale for Effective Communication in Team Sport, and Group Environment Questionnaire were used. Competition performance was calculated by giving 1 point for each match won by the teams in the competitions in which the single-circuit round-robin system is applied. Structural equation modeling was used in data analysis to determine the direct and indirect predictive effects between variables. The study showed that empathy and team cohesion predict competition performance through communication skills, and communication skills fully mediate this relationship. Based on the research results, it was evaluated that communication skills have a substantial effect on the competitive performance of athletes, and this finding was discussed in the context of the literature.
... For instance, in combat or team sport, athletes should step into the opponent's shoes to predict her/his reactions, understand the opponent's emotions, imagine their own responses, and make a correct decision in a dynamically changing environment. Therefore, psychological skills such as imagery [1,4] and empathy [5] are both important resources for sports performance Although studies in the context of imagery in sport often focus on the link with emotional and interpersonal intelligence [6,7], the investigation of the relationship between imagery and empathy still need to be investigated and it is of great importance for theoretical and applied reasons. For instance, from a theoretical point of view empathy and imagery share similar neural mechanisms [8][9][10], meanwhile, from an applied point of view, empathic tendencies could influence the imagination of movements by changing the way of perceiving them [11,12]. ...
... Imagery in sport is defined as "the creation or recreation of an experience generated from memory information, involving quasi-sensorial, quasi-perceptual, and quasiaffective characteristics, that is under the volition control of the imager and which may occur in the absence of the real stimulus antecedents normally associated with the actual experience" [1]. Empathy is a set of reactions involving taking the perspective of others, showing care and compassion, and experiencing others' emotions, and this includes both affective and cognitive dimensions, as it can be triggered by both bottom-up and top-down pathways [5,13]. Coaches and athletes are encouraged to display empathy in professional situations, which facilitates imaging sports performance and opponents' behaviors [14]. ...
... In experimental studies, cognitive empathy has operated as a predictor of sensitivity to visual cues in social situations [34,35]. Cognitive empathy involves self-awareness and an understanding of different situations-situations of one's own and of others and has been linked to being able to effectively imagine movements during performance [5]. The imagination of someone individual's state prompts a matching of a similar state (in neural but also somatic way) in the observer. ...
Background
Imagery and empathy are both important resources for athletes’ performance. Although the imagery is frequently used in sport psychology, its relationship with dispositional empathy remains largely unexplored.
Objectives
The aim of this study was to examine the associations between multidimensionally defined empathy and the ability to use the imagery in athletes, and more specifically whether empathy and general imagery ability (and their interaction) can predict the use of situational imagery components.
Methods
The study’s sample consisted of 279 athletes (including 98 women) with different levels of expertise: regional (n = 94), national (n = 94), and international (n = 91). The average age was approximately 20 years (M = 20.5, SD = 1.02, min. = 18, max. = 26). The Imagination in Sport Questionnaire and the Empathic Sensitiveness Scale were the instruments used in the study.
Results
The results indicated that there was a repeated interaction between personal distress and general imagery in the complementary impact on situational imagery.
Conclusions
Our study has applied implications and is relevant for illuminating the link between imagery and empathy.
... However, the effects of activity involvement may be activity-specific (Bundick, 2011;Feldman & Matjasko, 2007;Larson, Hansen, & Moneta, 2006;. For example, arts-based extracurricular activities, such as performing arts (e.g., music and dance), may have unique benefits for children's and adolescents' socioemotional development (Hansen, Larson, & Dworkin, 2003;Ilari, 2016;Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). As well, despite evidence of a large increase in participation in extracurricular activities between kindergarten and Grade 2 (Aumetre & Poulin, 2016), the large majority of previous studies of extracurricular activities have involved samples of older children and adolescents. ...
... Many researchers have postulated that participation in performance arts activities, such as dance and music, might have social and emotional benefits for children and youth (Eerola & Eerola, 2014;Ilari, 2016;Oliver & Hearn, 2008;Sevdalis & Raab, 2014;Von Rosseberg-Gempton et al., 1998). Results from a handful of studies have provided at least some preliminary empirical support for this assertion with respect to both dance (Lobo & Winsler, 2006;Stueck et al., 2016) and music (Rickard et al., 2013;Ritblatt et al., 2013). ...
... Children already prone to internalizing problems (e.g., social anxiety) may be particularly likely to experience feelings of self-consciousness and fear of negative evaluation in contexts in which they are the center of attention (Coplan & Arbeau, 2008;Crozier & Hostettler, 2003). Participation in performing arts may also provide opportunities for children to develop important prosocial skills such as empathy (Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). However, the experience of stress during performance arts activities might inhibit young children from experiencing such social benefits. ...
The goals of the present study were (a) to explore different aspects of children's participation in structured performing arts activities (e.g., dance and music); and (b) to examine links between participation in performing arts and indices of socioemotional functioning. Participants were N = 166 children (75 boys and 91 girls) in Grade 1 (n = 70, Mage = 6.17 years, SD = 0.38), Grade 2 (n = 44, Mage = 7.07 years, SD = 0.26), and Grade 3 (n = 52, Mage = 8.06 years, SD = 0.37). Parents completed assessments of children's participation in performing arts (activity type, frequency, positive psychological engagement, and stress) and indices of socioemotional functioning. Among the results, children participated most often in dance (particularly girls) and music. There was some evidence to suggest that children were less engaged and experienced more stress in music compared to dance activities. However, participants in music were rated as having fewer peer relationship problems as compared to children who did not participate in performing arts activities. As well, stress in performing arts was positively associated with emotion problems and negatively associated with prosocial behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of the links between performing arts activities and young children's socioemotional functioning.
... Instead, additional social-cognitive factors in which females are known to be superior (e.g., empathy and social communication) might explain this advantage in walking synchrony. It is well known that females present higher levels of empathy than males, and empathy plays an important role in understanding other people's intention, which is also crucial for social motor coordination [67,68]. And motor coordination tasks also strengthen empathy [68,69]. ...
... It is well known that females present higher levels of empathy than males, and empathy plays an important role in understanding other people's intention, which is also crucial for social motor coordination [67,68]. And motor coordination tasks also strengthen empathy [68,69]. Together with previous study showing gender difference in nonverbal communication, it is likely that gender differences in motor coordination may be a Our study further shows that females are also more responsive than men to other's body movements, especially in terms of synchronizing their bodies to others'. ...
... Our findings, along with several others, converged to a functional perspective that interpersonal motor synchronization is a form of social communication. Motor synchrony promotes emotion inference [85], empathy [68,69] and theory of mind [86]. It also cultivates positive impression[34, [80][81][82], cooperation [87], affection [12], trust [81], and pro-social behavior in both adults [88,89] and infants [90,91]. ...
Interpersonal motor synchrony during walking or dancing is universally observed across cultures, and this joint movement was modulated by physical and social parameters. However, human interactions are greatly shaped by our unique traits, and self-related factors are surprisingly little studied in the context of interpersonal motor synchrony. In this study, we investigated two such factors known to be highly associated with motor coordination: gender and autistic traits. We employed a real-world task extending our understanding beyond laboratory tasks. Participants of the same gender were paired up to walk and chat in a natural environment. A cover story was introduced so that participants would not know their walking steps were being recorded and instead believed that their location was being tracked by a global positioning system (GPS), so they would ignore the motor recording. We found that the female pairs’ steps were more synchronized than those of the males, and higher autistic tendencies (measured by the autism-spectrum quotient) attenuated synchronous steps. Those who synchronized better had higher impression rating increase for their walking partners (measured by interpersonal judgement scale) than those who synchronized less well. Our results indicated that the participants’ joint movements were shaped by predisposed traits and might share similar mechanism with social functions such as empathy.
... Studies exploring the relation between gender and adolescents' friendship quality in the context of sport are relatively rare. The results showed that female participants valued the interpersonal dimension of playing more and frequently reported more emotional support as a salient feature of their best sport friendship [41,49] than male participants did. Girls also reported higher levels of positive friendship acts, including loyalty and providing intimacy, things in common and enjoyed playing together compared to boys [34,45,48] Further, gender differences in friendship quality were found in conflict and competitiveness, boys citing conflicts and competitiveness as more characteristic of their best friendship more often than girls [34,48]. ...
... Specifically, compared to boys, girls tend to report emotional support as a salient feature of their best sport friendship. The findings confirm previous literature indicating that girls reported stronger perceptions of the benefits of their friendships and valued the interpersonal dimension of playing more than the male participants [32,41,45]. Further, in line with previous results [39] compared to boys, girls have more positive perceptions of their ability to engage in sport team relationships and are perceived as more prosocial than boys during adolescence. ...
... However, some previous studies reported interaction effects between gender and type of sport but only on the negative dimensions of social relationships, such as acceptance competition or rivalries [10,43]. Thus, future studies should address the relations between gender and type of sport with regard to other indexes of interpersonal relationships, such as positive dimensions of sport friendships or the empathy level of young athletes in relation with teammates and coach [41]. ...
This study aimed to investigate how gender is related to parent–adolescent attachment and the perception of interpersonal relationships in sports teams. The second goal was to explore whether there are gender differences in the relations between adolescent attachment and their interpersonal relationships in sport-related contexts. The sample included 120 adolescents (59 girls), aged 12 to 15 years. The adolescents completed questionnaires regarding their attachment with their parents and the quality of the relationship with their best friend within the team. The adolescent social competence was rated by their team members and coaches. Compared to boys, girls reported higher levels of benefits of their relationship with their best friend and received higher ratings of social competence from their team mates and coaches. The strengths of the associations between attachment characteristics and interpersonal relationships, however, did not differ based on children’s gender. Our findings suggest the importance of gender in relation to attachment style and interpersonal relationships and reveal that the associations between these variables are similar across the gender group.
... In performance domains such as sports and the performing arts (e.g., music, dance), body movement is the prime means to achieve optimal outcomes: For instance, ensemble dancers must adjust their bodies to perform a movement routine efficiently but also to monitor their own and the other dancers' actions. These corporeal competencies depend on both sensorimotor skills and cognitiveeemotional characteristics (for reviews, see Raab, Johnson, & Heekeren, 2009;Sevdalis & Keller, 2011aSevdalis & Raab, 2014). We focused on investigating the role such factors play in the assessment of point-light displays of dancing performances by motorically trained individuals (i.e., athletes). ...
... Such tendencies may be long established or spontaneously induced. Recent evidence suggests that individuals' perceptual decisions when judging action parameters in performance contexts are modulated by empathic and decision-making tendencies (on empathy: Sevdalis & Raab, 2014;on decision making: Plessner, Betsch, & Betsch, 2008; see also Laborde, Dosseville, & Raab, 2013, for a general overview on emotion). Below we describe links between empathy and decision making when observing and/or performing actions. ...
... Certain individual characteristics that support this immediacy may be especially effective in eliciting the simulation process. Empathy may be a particularly potent means of embodying an individual's cognitive or affective states in situations that involve the trained human body in motion (Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). Therefore, we re-examined the association between empathy, which has been thought to significantly boost perceptual judgements, and perceptual identification accuracy. ...
Objectives: Understanding others' actions depends on the observer's individual characteristics and sensorimotor experience. Motor performance domains, such as sports and the performing arts, provide optimal situations to investigate the determinants of action perception. We investigated athletes' perceptual identification of expression intensity in body movements. Design: A within-subjects design was used. Method: Participants watched point-light displays (1000 ms long) depicting expressive and inexpressive dance movements. The task was to identify the dancer's intended expression intensity. Results: The results indicate that expressive body movements can be reliably identified, with judgement accuracy correlating with self-report empathy indices, intuitive/deliberate decision-making preferences, and indices of sports training. Only years of sports training could predict perceptual identification accuracy. Conclusions: We discuss the findings in relation to motor and cognitive-emotional contributions to action simulation. The potential of cross-domain transfer of motor expertise for boosting perceptual judgements and a hierarchical role of factors eliciting action simulation are also outlined.
... Studies exploring the relation between gender and adolescents' friendship quality in the context of sport are relatively rare. The results showed that female participants valued the interpersonal dimension of playing more and frequently reported more emotional support as a salient feature of their best sport friendship [41,49] than male participants did. Girls also reported higher levels of positive friendship acts, including loyalty and providing intimacy, things in common and enjoyed playing together compared to boys [34,45,48] Further, gender differences in friendship quality were found in conflict and competitiveness, boys citing conflicts and competitiveness as more characteristic of their best friendship more often than girls [34,48]. ...
... Specifically, compared to boys, girls tend to report emotional support as a salient feature of their best sport friendship. The findings confirm previous literature indicating that girls reported stronger perceptions of the benefits of their friendships and valued the interpersonal dimension of playing more than the male participants [32,41,45]. Further, in line with previous results [39] compared to boys, girls have more positive perceptions of their ability to engage in sport team relationships and are perceived as more prosocial than boys during adolescence. ...
... However, some previous studies reported interaction effects between gender and type of sport but only on the negative dimensions of social relationships, such as acceptance competition or rivalries [10,43]. Thus, future studies should address the relations between gender and type of sport with regard to other indexes of interpersonal relationships, such as positive dimensions of sport friendships or the empathy level of young athletes in relation with teammates and coach [41]. ...
... Christensen and Calvomerino (2013) found that individuals can develop emotional empathy when watching a dance performance by appreciating the changes in the dancer's facial expressions and the meaning conveyed by the dancer's body gestures. Sevdalis and Raab (2014) examined the relationships among art performance, empathy and pro-social behaviour. Art performances or other aesthetic interactions require the transmission of emotions to be emotive, aesthetic activities that cannot be separated from aesthetic emotions, and there are certain connections among aesthetic emotions, empathy and pro-social behaviour. ...
... Iindividuals simulate the mental or emotional conditions of others through their own sensory-motor systems to elicit emotional resonance (Freedberg & Gallese, 2007;Goldstein, 2011;Christensen & Calvomerino, 2013;Sevdalis & Raab, 2014;Arnold et al., 2014), and the increasing aesthetic experience causes people to pay more attention to their make-up, clothing, etc., and to focus on the beauty of things, which in turn has an impact on their behaviour (Millis, 2001). ...
This paper discusses the relationships among aesthetic cognition, aesthetic emotion and college students’ aesthetic behaviour in light of three questionnaires including an aesthetic cognition scale, an aesthetic emotion scale, and an aesthetic behaviour scale. A survey including these three structured scales was administered to 1060 university students at general undergraduate institutions. Their responses were scored on a 5-point Likert scale. Structural equation modelling was used to construct the measurement model and structural model. The survey results indicated positive correlations among these three variables. In addition, aesthetic emotion played a mediating role in the influence of aesthetic cognition on aesthetic behaviour. The results of this study can enhance the daily lives of college students by improving their levels of aesthetic and creative behaviour.
... Joint music creation may encourage pro-social behaviours by promoting empathic responses (Kirschner & Tomasello, 2010;Rabinowitch et al., 2013;Sevdalis & Raab, 2014), thereby promoting increased theory-of-mind abilities (Livingstone & Thompson, 2009). Theory-of-mind abilities rely on both affective and cognitive assessments, and empathic abilities have a demonstrable correlation to theory-of-mind skills (Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2005). ...
... Several members also mentioned that these effects were apparent in their life separate from the choir; they were more easily able to engage in pro-social behaviours as a matter of course. Joint music creation may promote pro-social behaviours by promoting empathic responses (Kirschner & Tomasello, 2010;Rabinowitch, Cross, & Burnard, 2013;Sevdalis & Raab, 2014), thereby promoting increased theory-of-mind abilities (Livingstone & Thompson, 2009). Theory-of-mind abilities rely on both affective and cognitive assessments, and empathic abilities have a demonstrable correlation to theory-of-mind skills (Shamay-Tsoory, Tomer, Berger, Goldsher, & Aharon-Peretz, 2005). ...
Human musicality is a mystery. Theorists have proposed that it was evolutionarily adaptive through its ability to create a shared and positive emotional state, increase a sense of social cohesion, and encourage pro-social behaviours. This research found that group singing provides immediate socio-emotional wellbeing benefits but longer-term benefits are confined to emotional domains. These effects were not unique to group singing, but were similar across comparison groups. Wellbeing was facilitated by both group characteristics (music, movement, socialising) and individual mindset towards participation (motivation, flow), with greater benefits for exercise groups. Implications for social prescribing and similar interventions are discussed.
... Empathy, as a means of embodying another individual's states, may be particularly potent in situations that involve the trained human body in motion. Sports and performing arts are prime areas where embodiment is manifested and can be assessed (Sevdalis and Raab, 2014). While sports may seem like an unusual place to look for examples of empathy, ultra-running provides a few clear examples of how empathy leads to success (Hanold, 2011). ...
... Empathy has a powerful impact that directs people from egoist orientation to prosocial behavior (Hoffman 2001). The studies have proven that empathy is a powerful factor in directing prosocial behavior (Kavussanu et al., 2009;Sezen and Yıldıran 2012;Sevdalis, Raab, 2014). Empathy is a skill that can be developed through education (Dökmen 1990). ...
... Aside from the evidence discussed above, music provides auditory and, in live performance contexts, also visual cues for actions that can lead to empathic responses. The perception-action theory of empathy should thus be valid for other performance domains that engender visual perceptions of actions (for a review, see Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). Perceiving a dancer move should resonate in the observers' motor systems, and empathy may modulate responses in relation to the emotional content expressed. ...
... Leman, 2007), which may result in specific music programmes for children. The consistent finding that women appear to be more empathic than men (Egermann & McAdams, 2013;Kreutz, Schubert, & Mitchell, 2008; for a review, see Sevdalis & Raab, 2014) could be both attributed to genetic differences as well as cultural influences. Therefore it is still not clear in what ways empathy may be modulated by musical involvement as a listener or performer. ...
... Similar ideas were developed by Theodor Lipps (1883Lipps ( , 1903, who stated that human interactions are largely based on inner co-sensations. Perceiving someone else moving may resonate with one's own kinaesthetic representation of these movements, eventually leading to empathic responses between the observer and the performer (for a recent review on empathy in sports and the performing arts, see Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). Interestingly, in addition to the perception of actions as such, even the perception of action outcomes, such as expressive variations in sound patterns, may trigger motor resonance in the observer (for a review, see Sevdalis & Keller, 2014). ...
... These studies introduced manipulations that tested the effects of sensorimotor experience both in terms of overt motor behavior (e.g., spatial-temporal occlusions) and long-term deliberate practice (e.g., expertnovice comparisons). These similarities may provide the ground for essential interdisciplinary dialogue in future investigations, especially with regard to the transfer of motor expertise across performance domains (see also Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). ...
This chapter presents a perspective on how embodied practices situated in performance environments such as sports and the performing arts (i.e., music and dance) can support perception–action links. Drawing on literature on embodied cognition, ecological psychology, and recent research that applies motion capture technology, we outline how performance competencies can be grounded on the capacities of the human body, with a particular emphasis on sensorimotor skills. We argue that the coupling of action and perception is fundamentally established in ecologically valid performance contexts. Action–perception relationships can be optimally investigated in performance domains where sensorimotor skills unfold naturally (e.g., in development and learning) and are manifested at their best (e.g., in expert performance). The contribution of such an approach is to uncover the mechanisms upon which social cognition is established, and how body–environment interactions can be implemented for the training of performing individuals.
... Many reported findings are examined in relation to the embodied accounts of perceptual-motor performance. Issues related to the interdisciplinary dialogue, implications for research, and applied practice are also discussed [10]. For a high level of efficiency, all exercise programs should be tailored to meet the needs and wishes of target groups [11] following such aspects as: effects on empathy, learning and performance, pro-social contexts, the effects of empathy on individuals and group physiology and pro-social behavior [10]. ...
... Issues related to the interdisciplinary dialogue, implications for research, and applied practice are also discussed [10]. For a high level of efficiency, all exercise programs should be tailored to meet the needs and wishes of target groups [11] following such aspects as: effects on empathy, learning and performance, pro-social contexts, the effects of empathy on individuals and group physiology and pro-social behavior [10]. ...
Background: Mountain tourism implies specific aspects in contrast to other components of physical education and sport, by the vast scope and accessibility regardless of physical condition, age and skills or similarities with everyday life activities. We hypothesized that the joint activities, cooperation, interaction and direct communication with the natural and social environment will result in a better understanding of oneself and partners, placing the group structure on real bases, prompting avoidance of possible malfunctions in the subsequent group activity. Material/Methods: Subjects of this sociological research were 48 first-year students, participating in “Mountain tourism and sport orientation” (26 males and 22 females), which applied a sociological survey. To achieve the research’e objectives, we used the following methods: a questionnaire, a statistical and mathematical method and a graphical method. Results: In the most part, previous relationships of acceptance, empathy, trust, rejection or isolation were of the interpersonal type, motivation being that they had not previously - as a group or individually - experienced collaboration, mutual assistance, addiction group and so on. Experiences conducted in a common framework, adapted to everyday comfort, provide false opportunities for the knowledge of the self and one another. The ranking of desired partners would change significantly: the originally agreed out of ”top 10” instead came to be approved by other subjects (46, 48); a symmetrical aspect applies to unwanted partners, and, in fact, produced a reversal of the scale of values. An important aspect is the knowledge and recognition targeting sociometric’s leadership, sense that we can say that the initial place 1, 2, 3 have become 7, 3 and 4 and the final places 1, 2, 3 won the original positions 9, 24 and 2. Conclusions: Knowing the stage achieved in the formation of the group cohesion (through calculation of the cohesion index), before an important step for the group and some period thereafter, will show the effectiveness of the actions taken. Calculation of the index at different stages will reveal in which direction the group evolves: increasing cohesion, stagnant or in decline. The two investigative tools can be a strong support for knowing the socio-emotional bases of a group which usually escapes in direct observation, and especially provides the possibility of an action, an intervention in the group that takes into account the internal organization to enhance its functioning to improve group cohesion, and the establishment of a homogeneous team (an important aspect in sport or other activities with high complexity).
... In another follow-up study (Sevdalis & Keller, 2011a), the above results were confirmed by showing point-light displays of dance of parametrically decreasing duration (from 5 to 1 s): audiovisual presentation did not influence self-recognition (whereas display duration did). Empathy indices, as assessed by a self-report questionnaire, also correlated positively with self-recognition accuracy (see also Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). ...
... By exploring the natural instances where music is present (e.g., certain sports, or performing arts contexts, cf. Kennel, Hohmann, & Raab, 2014;Sevdalis & Raab, 2014) one can benefit by understanding both the functions of the music itself, and the behavior in the context which music occurs. ...
... The mean EPT of our female participants, in fact, was 20.6 (SD = 4.1) and that of males was 19.2 (SD = 3.5); whilst that found by Davis (1980) was 17.96 (SD = 4.8) for the females and 16.78 (SD = 4.7) for the males. This might be a characteristics of the musician sample, since training and performance contexts can potentially promote empathy at various degrees (Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). Some self-selection issues may have affected our sample as well, since people with greater empathy might be more likely to succeed at music studies. ...
Musicians’ body motion plays a fundamental role in ensemble playing, by supporting sound production, communication, and expressivity. This research investigates how Western classical musicians’ head motion during ensemble performances relates to a piece’s phrase structure and musicians’ empathic perspective taking (EPT) profile. Twenty-four advanced piano and singing students took part in the study, and their EPT score was pre-assessed using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. High and low EPT duos were formed, and musicians were paired with a co-performer from the same and the other EPT group. Musicians rehearsed Fauré’s Automne and Schumann’s Die Kartenlegerin, and performed the pieces one time before and three times after rehearsal. Motion capture data of the musicians’ front head, audio, and MIDI recordings of the performances were collected and analysed. Similarity in musicians’ head motion and tendency to lead/lag their co-performer were computed by extracting, respectively, power and phase difference of the cross-wavelet transforms of the velocity curves of each paired marker. Results demonstrate that the power of interperformer coordination corresponds to the piece’s phrase levels and that singer’s EPT can impact the leader-follower relationships between musicians, depending on piece and take number. In the Fauré piece, the higher the singer’s EPT score, the higher the tendency for the singer to lead and pianist to follow in take 3, and the lower the tendency for the singer to lead and pianist to follow in take 2. These results contribute to a further understanding of the mechanisms underpinning social interactions, by revealing the complexity of the association between empathy and body motion in ensembles in promoting and diffusing leadership between musicians.
... Embodied cognition enables rapid and accurate assessment regarding the intentions of others, both their physical movements as well as their social and emotional intentions. The capacity to experience empathy and theory of mind are deeply embedded within embodiment (Sevdalis and Keller 2011;Sevdalis and Raab 2014). Social contexts, temporal-spatial requirements to navigate effectively, and the biological movements and physiological states of others are all understood within our own functional neural networks. ...
Cognitive/creative embodiment is a memory system that encodes information about physical competencies, contextual perceptions, and motor responses to internal and external situations. Elite athletes and performers cultivate highly refined embodied awareness that directly influences creative expression. Embodied creativity draws upon sensorimotor, relational, emotional, and aesthetic perceptions and actions. Technology is a powerful tool that is integrated into the training and promotion of these populations. Embodied creativity and embodied cognition are dependent on real-time physical engagement; however, physical engagement continues to rapidly change in response to technological advancements. During the recent COVID 19 pandemic, the interface of technology and elite performance has revealed unique possibilities as well as profound limitations. Embodiment, creativity and their interaction with technology are complex and dynamic processes. In order to navigate the changes that result from these interacting components (embodiment, learning, creativity, technology) strong adaptive skills are necessary; these challenges will equally require a strong embodied and creative self that can traverse a complex world.KeywordsCreativityEmbodimentPandemicPerforming artsSportTechnology
... The sense of flow that people develop while exercise results in a heightened sense of wellbeing, which encourages prosocial behavior. This effect can also be explained by the theory of empathy training (56). Empathy is the capacity of the observer to feel and comprehend the feelings of the observed, as well as the mental process by which humans recognize and experience the emotions and feelings of others. ...
Objectives
Participation in mass sports is one of the most efficient strategies for people to attain physical and mental health in China. Prosocial behavior has a positive effect on social development. This study developed a conceptual model with mass sports activity as the independent variable, prosocial behavior as the dependent variable, and flow trait and subjective wellbeing as the mediating variables.Methods
Participants (N = 351) completed an online survey. Mass sports activity, flow trait, subjective wellbeing, and prosocial behavior were measured using the physical activity rank scale-3 (PARS-3), short dispositional flow scale (SDFS), index of wellbeing (IWB), and prosocial tendencies measure (PTM), respectively. Descriptive statistics compared differences between sports population (PARS-3, ≥ 36) and non-sports population (PARS-3, <36). Mediation effect was analyzed using the PROCESS (Template, Model 6).ResultsSports population scored significantly higher (all P ≤ 0.05) on SDFS, IWB, and PTM than non-sports population. Participation in mass sports stimulated flow trait and thus improved prosocial behavior, with a mediation effect value of 0.061 (95% CI, 0.028–0.104), which accounted for 30.18% of the total effect. Participation in mass sports enhanced subjective wellbeing and thus improved prosocial behavior, with a mediation effect value of 0.044 (95% CI, 0.007–0.090), which accounted for 21.96% of the total effect. Flow trait and subjective wellbeing mediated the relationship between mass sports activity and prosocial behavior in a sequential manner, with a mediation effect value of 0.059 (95% CI, 0.035–0.090), which accounted for 29.23% of the total effect.Conclusion
The preliminary results of the mediation model validated the hypothesized sequential links between mass sports activity, flow trait, subjective wellbeing, and prosocial behavior. Greater participation in mass sports increases the likelihood of prosocial behavior.
... Considering the positive effects of empathy behavior on team spirit, respect for the game, respect for the opponent and performance in sports, it can be said that attitudes towards Physical Education and Sports lessons are important in supporting the basic philosophy of sports. (Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). In addition, considering that the level of empathic behavior is an important factor in participating in sports, it can be said that besides developing an attitude towards physical education and sports lessons, students' empathy levels are also important, and situations where both features are combined will have a beneficial feature in terms of sports (Kwon, 2018). ...
The aim of this study is to examine the possible effects of high school students' attitudes towards Physical Education and Sports lessons on their empathic behaviors in the sports environment. Mean age x̄ =15.12± SD=1.05, n=133 male, n=117 female, total n=250 high school students participated in the study. In the study, the "Physical Education Lesson Attitude Scale for High School Education Students" developed by Güllü and Güçlü (2009) and the "Empathy Scale in Sports" developed by Erkuş and Yakupoğlu (2001) were used. In the analysis of the data "Independent groups t-test" was to compare students' scores on used empathy in sports and physical education lesson attitudes according to gender, pearson correlation analysis was used for the relationship of the scales according to the age variable, and simple linear regression analysis was used for the prediction of empathy in sports. According to the results, it was found that the attitude towards physical education and sports lessons is a significant predictor of empathy in sports.
... The color range of smalt consisted of many shades (for example, green over 30, red and blue 20 each). When making gold smalt, a thin metal plate was placed between layers of transparent glass (Kenzhebekovna & Nagima, 2014;Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). ...
The boundaries of the Galician and Volyn lands in different historical epochs changed significantly: they widely included adjacent territories, then they outlined the limits of only one historically original region. This article examines the decorative and applied art of the Galicia-Volyn principality during its stay in the Kyiv state and is associated with the dominance of Byzantine traditions, which were later enriched with their own characteristics. This phenomenon determined the uniqueness of the culture of Galicia and Volyn. The work is intended to give a slice of the current state of the study of the issue, including the authors' own findings and attributions made during their direct activity in this scientific field.
... A further example of individual characteristics that may influence sensorimotor communication is trait-like individual differences, for example, related to empathy. Individuals scoring higher on empathy in self-report questionnaires were found to be more accurate in estimating performers' intentions for expression, whether they were observing ensemble musicians (Wöllner, 2012b) or dancers (Sevdalis and Keller, 2012;Sevdalis and Raab, 2014;Sevdalis and Raab, 2016). ...
Sensorimotor communication is a form of communication instantiated through body movements that are guided by both instrumental, goal-directed intentions and communicative, social intentions. Depending on the social interaction context, sensorimotor communication can serve different functions. This article aims to disentangle three of these functions: (a) an informing function of body movements, to highlight action intentions for an observer; (b) a coordinating function of body movements, to facilitate real-time action prediction in joint action; and (c) a performing function of body movements, to elicit emotional or aesthetic experiences in an audience. We provide examples of research addressing these different functions as well as some influencing factors, relating to individual differences, task characteristics, and situational demands. The article concludes by discussing the benefits of a closer dialog between separate lines of research on sensorimotor communication across different social contexts.
... This research mentioned groups with advanced levels of sensorimotor experience such as athletes and dancers. There was predicted difference between the two groups; that is, it was implied that although both dancers and athletes possess sensorimotor experience (Sevdalis, V., & Raab, M. ,2014), dancers will have better emotion recognition due to their increased experience in movement that expresses emotions. ...
Empathy, the ability to identify and emulate the emotions of another individual, is a fundamental component of the human relational experience. The mirror neuron theory has been widely accepted as the physiological mechanism for empathy: upon perceiving the expression of another person’s emotions, mirror neurons are activated in the observer, creating in his mind a simulation of the observed expressions, and consequently activating an emotional response within the observer. Another fundamental, human attribute, is proprioception, i.e., the way we sense where our body parts are in relation to each other. This sense helps us to plan our movements and to move effectively in the physical world. A proprioceptively skilled observer, upon the perception of a particular body expression, will be able to render a closely accurate simulation of that body expression in their mind, thus, raising within the observer the associated emotion.
The current study aims to investigate the relationships between proprioceptive acuity, emotion recognition from whole body emotional expressions and emotional empathy. The research paradigm employed mixed methods, combining both quantitative and qualitative data-collection and analysis. Our hypotheses were that differences in proprioceptive acuity and in emotion recognition would lead to differences in emotion recognition, and that proprioceptive acuity will be correlated with emotion recognition, which in turn will be correlated with empathy.
In order to test our hypotheses, this study compared emotional recognition ability, proprioceptive acuity, and emotional empathy in 26 experienced dancers aged 18-45, 39 subjects with an athletic background aged 18-45 with no previous experience in dance, and 40 subjects aged 18-45 with a sedentary lifestyle and no previous experience in dance, and with no athletic background.
Our main analytical approach was three (dancers, athletes, sedentary) by two (male, female) analysis of variance models, in which we tested the all two-way effects (group, gender, and group X gender interaction) on emotional recognition, proprioceptive and empathy. Complementary regression models were presented to include proprioceptive and age as control on the cognitive and emotional empathy. This modeling approach allowed to test differences across study groups and genders, and to provide support or to abet the research hypotheses. A preliminary comparison across the three groups was based on Chi-Square test for the categorical measurements and the univariate Analysis of Variance model for the continuous variables.
To our surprise, we did not find any significant difference between the groups in terms of proprioceptive acuity, nor any significant correlations between proprioceptive acuity and emotion recognition or empathy. As for emotion recognition and empathy, we found differences between the groups, but not the ones we expected. We predicted that the subjects with sedentary lifestyles would have the lowest emotion recognition and empathy levels and that the dancers would have the highest levels, with the athletes in between. Instead, the results indicated that the athletes had significantly lower overall emotion recognition and disgust recognition than the dancers, with the sedentary lifestyle subjects in the middle. As for empathy, the athletes had significantly lower emotional empathy than both the sedentary and dancers groups, and significantly lower overall empathy compared to the dancers.
As for the relations between emotion recognition and empathy, we found that fear and neutral emotion recognition were significantly correlated with cognitive empathy and with overall empathy for the entire subject population. When the correlations were controlled for age, we found anger, fear and overall emotion recognition to be significantly correlated with cognitive empathy for the entire tested population. Specifically for athletes, fear and neutral emotion recognition were significantly correlated with cognitive empathy.
These difference in empathic tendencies and emotion recognition between subjects that engage in different types of physical activity is pronounced. Harnessing this knowledge carries great potential, indicating that the empathic tendencies of individuals can be affected by engagement in physical activity.
... Dance has been subject to multidisciplinary neurocognitive science in recent decades (Blasing et al., 2018). Motor imagery Motor imagery is a dynamic mental state during which the representation of a given motor act or movement is rehearsed in working memory without any overt motor output Collet and Guillot (2010) Visual-object imagery This refers to the capacity to generate pictorial images that are vivid, detailed, and include information about surface properties, e.g., color Blajenkova et al. (2006) Spatial imagery Spatial imagery refers to relatively abstract representations of the spatial relations among objects, parts of objects, locations of objects in space, movements of objects and object parts and other complex spatial transformations Kozhevnikov et al. (2005) The dynamic movements within this form provide an opportunity for a variety of visual viewpoints during imagery (i.e., whether first or third person) and for metaphorical imagery, which, unlike the imagery of the movement itself, can present other shapes, movements and ideas that may enhance motor performance and emotional expression (Sevdalis and Raab, 2014). Early self-report findings led to an assumption that motor imagery was limited to an egocentric or first-person viewpoint (see Moran et al., 2012). ...
... Secondly, the practice of organized physical-sport activity represents a method for personal improvement and increasing relatedness, so both intrapersonal and interpersonal elements have a direct application [20]. The knowledge of oneself, the self-regulation of emotions, self-motivation, social skills, and empathy are tools that every athlete manages to a greater or lesser extent, and these aspects are all associated to a greater or lesser extent with emotional intelligence [21,22]. Furthermore, when talking about sport at a competitive level, where training and competitive achievement are rewarded, the elements previously indicated are intensified. ...
Aim: Taking into account Bar-On's postulations about social-emotional intelligence, the aim of the current work is to find out the differences in the five dimensions of this intelligence between children that practice organized sport and those children that do not practice it at the elementary school level. Method: A randomly selected sample of 940 children from elementary schools, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years old, attending different schools from the Autonomous Community of Extremadura (Spain), was used. Results: The results showed that children who practiced organized sport had better abilities at the intrapersonal and interpersonal level, better adaptability and mood states, and greater emotional intelligence than those who did not. The findings regarding gender and age indicated greater values in girls of emotional intelligence, highlighting the interpersonal dimension, as well as mood state scores, whereas younger children showed greater intrapersonal intelligence and less stress management. Moreover, children who practiced for three or more hours per day had a greater ability to cope with stress than those children who practiced for fewer hours a day. Conclusions: To conclude, it is important to promote federative sport practice in elementary education in order to ensure that children learn to better regulate and manage their emotions.
... study as their guide on extraversion levels in performance. The extraversion dilemma is an interesting one, the public often perceive actors, comedians and rock musicians as flamboyant and/or outgoing,(Gillespie & Myors, 2000;Schlesinger, 2009;Sevdalis & Raab, 2014) however, their façade on stage is often incorrectly seen as interchangeable with their real, or off-stage personality. The results of this study, and considering the two other studies mentioned, on comedians and rock musicians, suggest that the opposite is perhaps true, and is certainly worth further research(Gillespie & Myors, 2000;Greengross & Miller, 2009). ...
PERSONALITY TRAITS, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, AND EMOTIONAL SELF-REGULATION OF ACTORS.
... There is a considerable amount of research into the importance of the relationship between empathy and prosocial behaviours (Eisenberg and Miller, 1987;Eisenberg and Fabes, 1990;Roberts and Strayer, 1996). Studies show that empathy is a strong component in guiding the athletes towards prosocial behaviours Sezen-Balçıkanlı and Yıldıran, 2012;Sevdalis and Raab, 2014;Sezen-Balçıkanlı, 2014). As empathy is a skill that could be improved through education (Dökmen, 1990;Sezen-Balçıkanlı, 2009), it is also a vital issue that must be paid more attention in sports education. ...
The purpose of the current study was to investigate the prosocial and antisocial behaviours of youth field hockey players and their empathy skills, and also the effect of empathy on these behaviours. The sampling group of the study was comprised of 110 youth hockey players at the age of 13–18 chosen from various clubs throughout Turkey. Interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) and prosocial and antisocial behaviour scale (PABSS) in sport were used. Variance analyses, correlation, One-way Anova and Tukey tests were used. It was found that female had higher mean scores in the dimensions of perspective taking, fantasy and emphatic concern as the sub-dimensions of empathy compared to male players; female players also exhibited prosocial behaviours against their opponents at a higher level compared to male ones; as for females, they exhibited antisocial behaviours against the team and the opponent at a higher level compared to females.
... There is a considerable amount of research into the importance of the relationship between empathy and prosocial behaviours (Eisenberg and Miller, 1987;Eisenberg and Fabes, 1990;Roberts and Strayer, 1996). Studies show that empathy is a strong component in guiding the athletes towards prosocial behaviours Sezen-Balçıkanlı and Yıldıran, 2012;Sevdalis and Raab, 2014;Sezen-Balçıkanlı, 2014). As empathy is a skill that could be improved through education (Dökmen, 1990;Sezen-Balçıkanlı, 2009), it is also a vital issue that must be paid more attention in sports education. ...
... Oysaki empati kişileri egoist yönelimden prososyal davranışa doğru yönlendiren güçlü bir etkiye sahiptir (Hoffman 2001). Çalışmalar empatinin prososyal davranışa yönlendirmede güçlü bir unsur olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır (Kavussanu, Stamp, Slade, Ring, 2009;Sezen, Yıldıran 2012;Sevdalis, Raab, 2014;Sezen 2014). Empati becerisi eğitimle geliştirilebilen bir beceridir (Dökmen 1990;Sezen-Balçıkanlı 2009). ...
Bu çalışmanın amacı, salon hokeycilerinin empatik beceri düzeyleri ile takımdaşına ve rakibe yönelik prososyal davranışları arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemektir. Çalışmada araştırma grubunu 2015-2016 yılı Salon Hokeyi Süper Ligi’nde yer alan ve araştırmaya gönüllü olarak katılan 150 sporcu (75 kadın, 75 erkek) oluşturmaktadır. Veri toplama aracı olarak; Kişilerarası Tepkisellik İndeksi (Interpersonal Reactivity Index: IRI) ile Sporda Prososyal ve Antisosyal Davranış Ölçeği (PABSS) kullanılmıştır.
Verilerin analizinde ise, Mann Whitney U Testi ile Korelasyon analizinden (Spearman sıra korelasyonu) yararlanılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgular; kadın sporcuların erkelere oranla daha empatik olduğu, prososyal davranışlarda cinsiyet açısından bir fark bulunmadığı ve empatik beceriler ile sporda
prososyal davranış arasında ilişki olduğu yönündedir. Sonuç olarak, sporcularda empatik düşünce, fantezi ve perspektif alma gibi empatik becerilerin sporda takımdaşına ve rakibe yönelik prososyal davranışları artırdığı ve desteklediği söylenebilir.
... Autistic individuals can have difficulty recognizing when to empathize with others because they often struggle with perspective-taking abilities. Apart from clinical studies, research on empathy seems to suggest that our ability to read each other's minds can be enhanced through myriad routes, including perception and communication training (Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). ...
Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” observation symbolizes the birth of modern Western philosophy and highlights the functional role of the human mind. In this chapter, we extend Descartes’ observation from “I” to “we” processes in team dynamics research. The notion of “collective mind” is an integral part of many team processes described in the Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology literature. In fact, scholars have been interested in evolving models to capture the abstract notion of team processes, such as cohesion, team mental models, and collective efficacy (Filho & Tenenbaum, 2015). Most of these models have been psychometric in nature; that is, concerned with identifying the reflective or formative indicators of team processes. Furthermore, research on team dynamics has also focused on the development of statistically reliable models linking team processes within a nomological network consisting of inputs, throughputs, and out- puts (Carron, Hausenblas, & Eys, 2005; Filho, Tenenbaum, & Yang, 2015b). Most recently, the growth of social neuroscience has ushered new approaches to the study of team dynamics, particularly those focused on capturing the reflective and formative indicators of team processes through peripheral and central psychophysiological methods. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the theories and methodologies that lay the foundation for the study of hyper-brains and collective minds in interactive motor tasks at large, and the sports domain in particular. We advanced applied implications stemming from the research conducted thus far, and conclude by discussing future research avenues on this realm.
... Dance has been subject to multidisciplinary neurocognitive science in recent decades (Blasing et al., 2018). Motor imagery Motor imagery is a dynamic mental state during which the representation of a given motor act or movement is rehearsed in working memory without any overt motor output Collet and Guillot (2010) Visual-object imagery This refers to the capacity to generate pictorial images that are vivid, detailed, and include information about surface properties, e.g., color Blajenkova et al. (2006) Spatial imagery Spatial imagery refers to relatively abstract representations of the spatial relations among objects, parts of objects, locations of objects in space, movements of objects and object parts and other complex spatial transformations Kozhevnikov et al. (2005) The dynamic movements within this form provide an opportunity for a variety of visual viewpoints during imagery (i.e., whether first or third person) and for metaphorical imagery, which, unlike the imagery of the movement itself, can present other shapes, movements and ideas that may enhance motor performance and emotional expression (Sevdalis and Raab, 2014). Early self-report findings led to an assumption that motor imagery was limited to an egocentric or first-person viewpoint (see Moran et al., 2012). ...
Motor imagery has been central to advances in sport performance and rehabilitation. Neuroscience has provided techniques for measurement which have aided our understanding, conceptualization and theorizing. Challenges remain in the appropriate measurement of motor imagery. Motor imagery continues to provide an impetus for new findings relating to our emotional network, embodied cognition, inhibitory processes and action representation. New directions are proposed which include exploring the physical setting and conditions in which imagery occurs and investigating if short term impairments to the motor system detract from motor imagery ability and the potential application of motor imagery for recovery.
... Dance has been subject to multidisciplinary neurocognitive science in recent decades (Blasing et al., 2018). Motor imagery Motor imagery is a dynamic mental state during which the representation of a given motor act or movement is rehearsed in working memory without any overt motor output Collet and Guillot (2010) Visual-object imagery This refers to the capacity to generate pictorial images that are vivid, detailed, and include information about surface properties, e.g., color Blajenkova et al. (2006) Spatial imagery Spatial imagery refers to relatively abstract representations of the spatial relations among objects, parts of objects, locations of objects in space, movements of objects and object parts and other complex spatial transformations Kozhevnikov et al. (2005) The dynamic movements within this form provide an opportunity for a variety of visual viewpoints during imagery (i.e., whether first or third person) and for metaphorical imagery, which, unlike the imagery of the movement itself, can present other shapes, movements and ideas that may enhance motor performance and emotional expression (Sevdalis and Raab, 2014). Early self-report findings led to an assumption that motor imagery was limited to an egocentric or first-person viewpoint (see Moran et al., 2012). ...
Motor imagery has been central to adzvances in sport performance and rehabilitation. Neuroscience has provided techniques for measurement which have aided our understanding, conceptualization and theorizing. Challenges remain in the appropriate measurement of motor imagery. Motor imagery continues to provide an impetus for new findings relating to our emotional network, embodied cognition, inhibitory processes and action representation. New directions are proposed which include exploring the physical setting and conditions in which imagery occurs and investigating if short term impairments to the motor system detract from motor imagery ability and the potential application of motor imagery for recovery.
... A person who is trained or skilled in exercises, or learned art, may have an improved capacity of understanding the cognitive and affective profile of the other people [30]. Our finding of the increased GM in RTPS can be associated with the above definition by means of perspective taking. ...
The structural and functional neural differences between the elite karate athletes and control group have been investigated in the concept of this study. 13 elite karate athletes and age-gender matched 13 volunteers who have not performed regular exercises participated in the study. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to acquire the anatomical and functional maps. T1-weighted anatomical images were segmented to form gray and white matter images. Voxel-based morphometry is used to elucidate the differences between the groups. Moreover, resting state functional measurements had been done, and group independent component analysis was implemented in order to exhibit the resting state networks. Then, second-level general linear models were used to compute the statistical maps. It has been revealed that increased GM volume values of inferior/superior temporal, occipital, premotor cortex, and temporal pole superior were present for the elite athletes. Additionally, WM values were found to be increased in caudate nucleus, hypothalamus, and mammilary region for the elite karate players. Similarly, for the elite karate players, the brain regions involved in the movement planning and visual perception are found to have higher connectivity values. The differences in these findings can be thought to be originated from the advances gained through the several years of training which is required to be an elite karate athlete.
... • Agent identification is attainable in a variety of contexts, ranging from simple movements (e.g., hands clapping) to complex dance performances (Sevdalis & Keller, 2014). Even if movementy information is impoverished with regard to its expressive components, movement cues can be used as to identify an action's agent (Sevdalis & Keller, 2012) • Expression intensity identification is possible by non-experts, but does benefit form musicrelated experience and social-emotional self-report indices, such as empathy (Sevdalis & Raab, 2014) • While there were no differences in response times and the number of correctly rated videos in the cross-cultural study on the identification of emotion by nonverbal behavior, participants from the UAE felt more certain in rating the emotions for the ...
... of Sevdalis and Raab (2014) where they made a summary of the main findings from various research studies in which empathy measurements are employed in the domains of sport, exercise and the performing arts, the overall findings are examined with regard to studies related to motor-performances. Issues such as interdisciplinary dialog, implications for research, and applied practice are also discussed with a view to providing a more general perspective of the domains mentioned above. ...
The objective of this study is to determine the correlation between the professional futsal players’ (futsallers’) empathic tendency and the numbers of the cards they are shown and the fouls they commit. Empathy was assessed through a Turkish version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index-IRI. The original IRI takes as its starting point from the notion that empathy consists of a set of separate but related constructs, and seeks to provide measures of dispositional tendencies in several areas. The instrument contains four (seven-items) subscales, each tapping a separate facet of empathy. The items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale, with 0 (does not correspond at all to me) and 4 (corresponds exactly to me) serving as extreme points. Research group is composed of total 76 professional male futsal players who took part in Efes Pilsen Futsal League games with 7 teams from Ankara region. Age averages of all the participants were between the ages of 18 and 38 and their age average range was from 24 to 26. As a statistical method in the assessment of the research data; in order to examine the correlation between the general average, standart deviation, mean per team, standart deviation and professional futsal players’ empathy levels and the number of the cards they are shown (yellow/red) and their fouls, Spearman Rank Correlation was utilized. The results obtained demonstrate that there is a relationship between empathy and yellow/red cards and fouls. It is considered that the empathy practices to be developed for the sportspersons will develop perspective taking and interpersonal communication between them, enhance moral viewpoint and moral attitudes in sports in them, and reduce the aggressive behaviours and self-seeking actions.
... Children develop social awareness in movement activities like play (Ismail, 1972), and it is often a goal of physical education teachers to use physical activities to develop children's social awareness (Wiggins-James, James, & Thompson, 2005). Sports training can improve and increase an empathy ability in and out of school life (Yigiter & Ustaoglu, 2013), and Sevdalis & Raab (2014) declared that empathy has a greater potential to be developed through trained human movement. They further noted that empathy in sports and exercise need to be understood for encouraging and enriching the socio-emotional level of sportspersons. ...
This study examined the effects of physical education (PE) and sports programs on children’s communication and social awareness skills in a volcano disaster-prone area in which a 2010 eruption has already produced trauma. Fourth through sixth grade students (n = 810) from fifteen elementary schools in disaster-prone areas, 5 - 15 km from the top of the Merapi volcano, were randomly assigned to groups receiving standard and experimental PE and sports programs over 28 weeks in the academic year 2014/2015. Data were collected before and after the program using communication (10 items) and social awareness (10 items) skills scales. Two- and one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) and paired sample t-tests were used to compare group means at pre- and post-testing. There were significant interaction on communication and social awareness skills scores between the tests and groups, with gains on mean communication and social awareness scores from pretest to post-test and in the intervention group, compared to control groups. The intervention, a psychosocial-based PE and sports program, was an effective way to improve children’s communication and social awareness skills.
... Furthermore, participants felt that NSAs should possess a sense of empathy and actively demonstrate they were concerned for their athletes' well-being by cultivating personal relationships. Empathetic associations have been found to promote positive attitudes and behaviours which can lead to improvements in performance but more importantly, stimulate long-term engagement in activities like sport (Sevdalis & Raab, 2014). If authority figures can take the time to get to know their athletes, it would hopefully give them an understanding of what national athletes go through to deliver these medals. ...
With the paucity of research on the motivational processes in elite sport, this qualitative study was undertaken to explore the relationship between specific environmental factors and the motivation of elite Singaporean athletes. Consistent with the principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), this study acted as a medium for five current and five former national athletes to provide their personal accounts of elite sport in Singapore based on their lived experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed according to the procedures of IPA to provide an in-depth account of participants’ experiential concerns. Five super-ordinate themes emerged from the data: attraction to sport, support environment, personal sacrifices, organizational obstacles and recommendations for better well-being. These themes provide a subjective account of how participants were involved in sport for their personal satisfaction and, with a strong support environment, were willing to make sacrifices for sport but were impeded by the very organizations in place to support them. For athletes to progress in elite sport, it is recommended that organizations shift their focus on outcomes to the process and development of athletes.
... "Understanding the current state, future intentions, and emotions of another person via observing them is crucial for social interactions" (Hayes et al., 2008). The source of empathetic experience in dance is fundamentally somatic, and bodily empathy allows observers to feel the dancer's expressive intent (Warburton, 2011;Sevdalis and Raab, 2014). ...
The process of transmitting ballet’s complex technique to young dancers can interfere with the innate processes that give rise to efficient, expressive and harmonious movement. With the intention of identifying possible solutions, this article draws on research across the fields of neurology, psychology, motor learning, and education, and considers their relevance to ballet as an art form, a technique, and a training methodology. The integration of dancers’ technique and expressivity is a core theme throughout the paper. A brief outline of the historical development of ballet’s aesthetics and training methods leads into factors that influence dancers’ performance. An exploration of the role of the neuromotor system in motor learning and the acquisition of expert skills reveals the roles of sensory awareness, imagery, and intention in cuing efficient, expressive movement. It also indicates potentially detrimental effects of conscious muscle control, explicit learning and persistent naïve beliefs. Finally, the paper presents a new theory regarding the acquisition of ballet skills. Recontextualization theory proposes that placing a problematic task within a new context may engender a new conceptual approach and/or sensory intention, and hence the genesis of new motor programs; and that these new programs may lead to performance that is more efficient, more rewarding for the dancer, more pleasing aesthetically, and more expressive. From an anecdotal point of view, this theory appears to be supported by the progress of many dancers at various stages of their dancing lives.
... Despite empathy being "the most valuable resource in our world" [1], as Clarke et al. [3] cite in their review, not much research, theoretical or empirical has been done to unravel the potential of music in shaping empathic behavior. It is only in the last few years that practical interest in this intersection has sprung and new scientific, as well as 'field' evidence has started to surface leading to various accounts of the relationship between music and empathy [for example, see [7][8][9]. ...
... Aspects of personality such as social competence, empathy and locus of control have also been shown to relate to the specific cognitive-motor mechanisms involved in interpersonal coordination, such as temporal anticipation and adaptation. The concept of empathy—understanding others' thoughts and feelings—has been linked to anticipatory mechanisms related to action simulation [121]. In the TMS studies of piano duos described in §3a,b, scores on the 'perspective-taking' subscale of an empathy questionnaire correlated positively with neurophysiological measures of representing the other's part in their own motor system [91], as well as how much this 'other-representation' was relied upon for coordination [102]. ...
Human interaction often requires simultaneous precision and flexibility in the coordination of rhythmic behaviour between individuals engaged in joint activity, for example, playing a musical duet or dancing with a partner. This review article addresses the psychological processes and brain mechanisms that enable such rhythmic interpersonal coordination. First, an overview is given of research on the cognitive-motor processes that enable individuals to represent joint action goals and to anticipate, attend and adapt to other's actions in real time. Second, the neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin rhythmic interpersonal coordination are sought in studies of sensorimotor and cognitive processes that play a role in the representation and integration of self- and other-related actions within and between individuals' brains. Finally, relationships between social-psychological factors and rhythmic interpersonal coordination are considered from two perspectives, one concerning how social-cognitive tendencies (e.g. empathy) affect coordination, and the other concerning how coordination affects interpersonal affiliation, trust and prosocial behaviour. Our review highlights musical ensemble performance as an ecologically valid yet readily controlled domain for investigating rhythm in joint action.
... Moreover, this interference was stronger in individuals with high perspective taking skills, which is noteworthy given that Novembre et al. (2012) demonstrated that these individuals also form stronger representations of others' action. This finding is also consistent with other accounts that postulate the relevance of empathic and perspective taking skills in the context of interactions between musicians (see Engel and Keller, 2011;Babiloni et al., 2012;Rabinowitch et al., 2013;Pecenka et al., 2013; see also Thoma and Bellebaum, 2012;Sevdalis and Raab, 2014;Gallese, 2014 for reviews on how empathy might modulate cognitive and neurophysiological mechanisms implicated in action monitoring). Thus, the results of Novembre et al. (2013) provide evidence that motor representation processes might be a means used by musicians to monitor others' (Novembre et al., 2012;Loehr et al., 2013) and ultimately establish synchrony with one another. ...
Experience with a sensorimotor task, such as practicing a piano piece, leads to strong coupling of sensory (visual or auditory) and motor cortices. Here we review behavioral and neurophysiological (M/EEG, TMS and fMRI) research exploring this topic using the brain of musicians as a model system. Our review focuses on a recent body of evidence suggesting that this form of coupling might have (at least) two cognitive functions. First, it leads to the generation of equivalent predictions (concerning both when and what event is more likely to occur) during both perception and production of music. Second, it underpins the common coding of perception and action that supports the integration of the motor output of multiple musicians' in the context of joint musical tasks. Essentially, training-based coupling of perception and action might scaffold the human ability to represent complex (structured) actions and to entrain multiple agents-via reciprocal prediction and adaptation-in the pursuit of shared goals.
There is evidence that promoting prosociality through music helps activate participation and integration with the environment, supporting the emergence of empathic responses and fostering bonds between people, especially those with societal inclusion difficulties. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of psychosocial intervention programs that have used musical techniques to promote prosociality in populations at risk of social exclusion. The search was performed following PRISMA methodology guidelines in the Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC, PubMed, and ProQuest databases between 2000 and 2021. A total of 11 studies met the selection criteria. The type of musical activity applied, research design, sample sociodemographic characteristics, measurement instruments and effectiveness were compared. Despite the heterogeneity of the interventions, populations, and contexts among the studies, music was found to be a potential resource for increasing prosocial behaviors, promoting physical and psychological health, and constructing alternatives to antisocial behaviors through the creation of safe spaces for creatively expressing subjectivity, providing prosocial referents, and facilitating cohesive and positive relationships. The limitations highlight the importance of investigating other variables within the studied populations, such as the age of the beneficiaries, the psychosocial problems they present, the level of risk they present, or even their motivations for participating in these programs. It can be concluded that this type of intervention has an impact on the increase in prosocial behaviors in people at risk of social exclusion. However, future studies should address methodological aspects related to the intervention itself, such as the duration of the intervention and the types of activities developed in these programs.
After the disaster, stress would affect the people in the affected areas for a long time. If psychological relief and rescue were not carried out in time, it may induce a series of physical and mental diseases. Physical exercise is low cost and easy to popularize, which is in line with the characteristics of widespread disaster impact. Therefore, it has important research significance in post-disaster stress psychological rescue. The purpose of this study is to explore the comprehensive effects of adolescent physical exercise and empathy on post-traumatic growth after disaster stress events, investigate the mediating effect of empathy, the regulatory effect of gender and learning stage, and construct a conditional process model. A longitudinal follow-up design was used to investigate 1069 middle school students in Zhengzhou, which were affected by heavy rain in Henan Province. Physical exercise (β = 0.75), empathy (β = 0.79) had a significant positive impact on post-traumatic growth prosocial behavior (P < 0.01); when physical exercise affected post-traumatic growth, the mediating effect of empathy was significant (P < 0.01); in addition, the learning stage regulates the impact of physical exercise on post-traumatic growth, and gender regulates the impact of physical exercise on empathy. After disaster stress events, adolescent physical exercise cannot only directly affect post-traumatic growth, but also indirectly affect post-traumatic growth by inducing empathy; in contrast, physical exercise is more likely to trigger empathy among girls, and the body at this time, education and exercise have a greater impact on high school students’ prosocial behavior.KeywordsStressPhysical exerciseEmpathyPost-traumatic growthAdolescent
Purpose. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between physical activity (PA) and the development of relational empathy skills in children, taking into account weight status.
Methods. Parents/guardians of primary school children were involved in filling out a questionnaire: the Empathy Questionnaire (EmQue-I13) and children were asked to complete the PAQ-C to investigate the self-reported PA levels. The weight status was assessed using a self-reported Body Mass Index (BMI).
Results. 370 parents or guardians of students who attended primary school (8.53±1.61 yrs) were recruited. The total score was 2.41±0.89 for PAQ-C and 41.17±6.32 for EmQue-I13. The three domains of EmQue-I13 were: Contagion (8.16±2.67), Attention to Others’ Feelings (19.40±2.99) and Prosocial actions (13.62±3.01). Linear regression models showed that a higher PAQ-C score was positively associated with empathy-related total score p <0.001. Weight status, age and gender were not associated with EmQue-I13.
Conclusion. Our results underline the positive association between physical activity and the development of relational empathic skills.
We examined intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation in the hour prior to athletic competition. Specifically, we investigated the extent to which differences between experienced and desired emotions were related to emotion regulation processes. Participants ( n = 114) from team/doubles sport rated their experienced and desired emotions before a recent competition, and listed strategies used to regulate emotions reporting frequency, effectiveness, and self-efficacy for each strategy used. They followed the same procedure in relation to perceived emotions in a teammate. Results show athletes who experienced emotions close to their desired states reported significantly higher regulatory emotional self-efficacy than those further from their desired states. Further, their emotion regulation strategies were used more frequently and were more effective. Qualitative results indicated that participants attempted to regulate similar emotions in themselves and others, but used different strategies to accomplish these tasks to different degrees of frequency. The findings highlight the role of self-efficacy in emotion regulation; an individual difference variable which merits attention in future emotion regulation interventions.
While people are trying to keep up with the rapidly evolving technology in today’s zeitgeist, this situation leads to people isolation, and ultimately to a more-egocentric state of mind. However, humanity is also a social being and must stick together. This association necessitates certain requirements for us. For example, behaviors such as healthy communication, understanding the other, helping one and another are the essential aspects of human relations. From this point of view, the concept of empathy (encompassing all these behaviors) emerges. Empathy is a field of inquiry that has been frequently studied from past to present. Unfortunately, this is not the case in physical education and sports. It has always been observed that both physical education teachers and coaches do not attach as much importance as possible to empathy training. Moreover, competition in physical education and sport has widely reported to reduce empathy in a wide array of research studies up to date. On the contrary, competitive spirit may offer the most suitable environment for empathy to improve in physical education and sport, which has an impact on cognitive, affective and physical development of children. In addition, the need for empathy has become more and more necessary recently. In this regard, how can we help gain the empathy skills through physical education and sports? In the light of this question, this chapter explores the concept of empathy in physical education and sport from a diachronic perspective. Additionally, it offers empathy activities to provide empathy skills through physical education and sports for the future endeavor.
iecses.org 4.Uluslararası Avrasya Spor Eğitim ve Toplum Kongresi Bildiri Kitabı 783 125-iecses-4th-59-FC-Oral / Sözel OKUL TAKIMI SPORCULARININ EMPATİ DÜZEYLERİNİN DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ Yavuz YILDIZ, Cemil KESKİN ÖZET Bu araştırmada, okul spor takımlarında oynayan sporcuların spor ortamındaki empati düzeylerinin değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırma yöntemi olarak nicel araştırma yöntemlerinden anket tekniği seçilmiştir. Araştırmanın çalışma grubu, Manisa ilindeki 4 II. Kademe (ortaokul) ve 3 III. Kademe (lise) okulunda öğrenim gören toplam 199 sporcu oluşmaktadır. Sporcuların empati düzeylerini ölçmek amacıyla, Erkuş ve Yakupoğlu (2001) tarafından geliştirilen Sporda Empati Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Sporda Empati Ölçeği, 16 madde ve iki faktörden (sporda tahmin ve duygusal empati) oluşan bir ölçektir. Araştırmanın sonucunda, kadınların duygusal empati düzeylerinin erkeklerden daha yüksek olduğu bulunmuştur. Öğrenim seviyesine göre II. Kademe ve III. Kademe öğrencileri arasında empati düzeyleri açısından farklılık bulunamamıştır. Kadınlarda erkeklere göre duygusal empati daha yoğundur. Sporcuların yaşlarının duygusal empatiyi ve toplam empati düzeyini olumlu yönde etkilediği tespit edilmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: spor, sporcu, empati,
ABSTRACT
The aim of this theoretical article that is supported by an illustrative research case of an ongoing project, is the investigation of the experience of awe in relation to the empathic “feeling into” and the ‘‘being moved” phenomenological quality of aesthetic experience, as instantiated in the specific case of religious icons-paintings. This approach focuses on an extensive exploration of the perceivers’ experience of religious icons in relation to any emergent aesthetic, cultural, spiritual and religious issues. The case of awe was considered of specific importance, substantiating possible aspects of the above confluences, while both the empathic “feeling into” and the “being moved” aspects seem overriding attributes Complimentary Contributor Copy
Despina Stamatopoulou, Jacob Lang and Gerald Cupchik 198of “awe”. Awe being one of the most complex (collective?) emotions, including polarities of opposite emotions (e.g., fear, delight) is highlighted in this project. There are two reasons for this: first, awe is among the very few emotions that could support both aesthetic and religious experiences, while possibly bearing a convergent basis in both, as reflected in the subject-object relationship during the perceptual experience of icons. Secondly, awe is assumed as the prototypical reaction to sublime, with the attributes of the latter (sublime object stimulus) either independently or interdependently defined from the perceiving subject, depending also on specific cultural contexts. An effort, thus, will be made to resolve the “subject-object” problem as posed in the sublime stimuli for empirical purposes. It could be challenging to investigate how psychological data of today might reflect aspects of the above aesthetic sensibilities. Variations could also be a matter of cultural construction, proving insights in the “visuality” of a culture in relation to the cultural identity of people participating in it and sharing its ‘material’ products. Our findings suggest that awe is anchored in a compact dynamic interaction (not a mix) of a moving, engaging, embodied experience in front of powerful, evocative stimuli (not critically beautiful especially when the implicated affective tone/valance of the icons is negative), where the moving and the engaging (affective connectedness—closeness) activate reflective engagement that can bring moral insights of the imaginative empathic “feeling into” to the fore, attuning perceivers to what could be morally salient at the point. It is suggested that, awe embraces a ‘primordial’ relational structure keeping vivid the intersubjective ties between the self and the other/object/world. That is, that none of these poles can be defined independently—neither the spectator nor the powerful object/sublime, so “tertiary” moving, awe-taking experiential qualities are spread through, activating a back and forth between the experiential ‘I’ and the reflective ‘Me’ (embodied engaged positions of the perceiving subject) that initiate a sort of an imaginative, recursive, distancing within our embodiment. This ‘engaged’ distancing that results in reflective engagement is set within our perspectival embodiment, as we define ourselves in relation to the other-sublime-sacred, in the case of the icons. As such, awe-sublime cannot be activated when we become detached, when cutting the “moving” embodied and resonating ties and attending in a disembodied opposing manner, at least within this specific cultural frame that keeps some affinities with the primordially ‘old’ ritual experiences.
In this study (N = 759), the German version of the Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Sport Scale (PABSS) was evaluated using exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). The results support the four-factor solution of the English version. The ESEM model fit to the data was reasonable and yielded fully differentiated (low correlated) factors. Results prove the reliability and the partial measurement invariance over gender and different sports (soccer, rugby/football, hockey/floorball, basketball, and handball). The gender differences analyzed as well as the correlations with conceptually similar scales provide evidence for the construct validity.
Baron-Cohen's empathizer-systemizer-theory (E-S theory, Baron-Cohen, Knickmeyer, & Belmonte, 2005) distinguishes two general cognitive styles. Empathizing is characterized as the capacity to respond to feeling states of other individuals, whereas systemizing is characterized as the capacity to respond to regularities of objects and events. To investigate these traits within the music domain, a questionnaire study (N = 442) was conducted. Construct validity and reliability of the measurement instrument were assessed by factor analysis procedures. A simplified unit weighting (SUW) scale was used to determine individual differences in music empathizing (ME) and music systemizing (MS). Significant effects of sex and of music performance experience were observed. A highly similar pattern of results emerged from a replicating survey (N = 155) using a short-version of the questionnaire. These results suggest that the ME and MS traits corroborate and extend the general E-S theory.
A surfeit of research confirms that people activate personal, affective, and conceptual representations when perceiving the states of others. However, researchers continue to debate the role of self-other overlap in empathy due to a failure to dissociate neural overlap, subjective resonance, and personal distress. A perception-action view posits that neural-level overlap is necessary during early processing for all social understanding, but need not be conscious or aversive. This neural overlap can subsequently produce a variety of states depending on the context and degree of common experience and emotionality. We outline a framework for understanding the interrelationship between neural and subjective overlap, and among empathic states, through a dynamic-systems view of how information is processed in the brain and body.
Musical group interaction (MGI) is a complex social setting requiring certain cognitive skills that may also elicit shared psychological states. We argue that many MGI-specific features may also be important for emotional empathy, the ability to experience another person's emotional state. We thus hypothesized that long-term repeated participation in MGI could help enhance a capacity for emotional empathy even outside of the musical context, through a familiarization with and refinement of MGI empathy-promoting musical components (EPMCs). We tested this hypothesis by designing an MGI programme for primary school children consisting of interactive musical games implementing various EPMCs. We ran the programme for an entire school year and compared the emotional empathy of MGI children to control children using existing and novel measures of empathy before and after the programme. Our results support our hypothesis: MGI children showed higher emotional empathy scores after the study compared to its beginning, and higher scores than control children at the end of the study. These findings shed new light on the emotional processes involved in musical interaction and highlight the remarkable potential of MGI for promoting positive social-emotional capacities such as empathy.
Fiction might be dismissed as observations that lack reliability and validity, but this would be a misunderstanding. Works of fiction are simulations that run on minds. They were the first kinds of simulation. All art has a metaphorical quality: a painting can be both pigments on canvas and a person. In literary art, this quality extends to readers who can be both themselves and, by empathetic processes within a simulation, also literary characters. On the basis of this hypothesis, it was found that the more fiction people read the better were their skills of empathy and theory-of-mind; the inference from several studies is that reading fiction improves social skills. In functional magnetic resonance imaging meta-analyses, brain areas concerned with understanding narrative stories were found to overlap with those concerned with theory-of-mind. In an orthogonal effect, reading artistic literature was found to enable people to change their personality by small increments, not by a writer's persuasion, but in their own way. This effect was due to artistic merit of a text, irrespective of whether it was fiction or non-fiction. An empirically based conception of literary art might be carefully constructed verbal material that enables self-directed personal change. WIREs Cogn Sci 2012, 3:425–430. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1185
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Why do People Seek out Music that Makes Them cry? This paradox is a complex one that appears to have no single answer. Rather, numerous factors appear to be interacting in the diverse responses of individuals to music. The present study tested the hypothesis that individual differences in dissociation, absorption, fantasy proneness, empathy, and rumination would be related to the enjoyment of negative emotion in music. Fifty-nine participants completed a survey pertaining to this question. Results revealed statistically significant positive relationships between enjoyment of evoked negative emotion in response to music with both absorption and the recently reported construct of 'music empathy,' Factor analysis and a regression model confirmed these results, and the approach suggests that further study of individual differences will continue to provide new insights into some of the subtleties of the enjoyment of negative emotions in music.
Three studies investigated implicit biases, and their modifiability, against overweight persons. In Study 1 (N = 144), the authors demonstrated strong implicit anti-fat attitudes and stereotypes using the Implicit Association Test, despite no explicit anti-fat bias. When participants were informed that obesity is caused predominantly by overeating and lack of exercise, higher implicit bias relative to controls was produced; informing participants that obesity is mainly due to genetic factors did not result in lower bias. In Studies 2A (N = 90) and 2B (N = 63), participants read stories of discrimination against obese persons to evoke empathy. This did not lead to lower bias compared with controls but did produce diminished implicit bias among overweight participants, suggesting an in-group bias.
This article describes the implementation and evaluation of a sport-based life skills and community service program. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the impact of a combined life skills and community service program on adolescents' prosocial values. The program was part of a national golf and life skills enrichment academy for adolescents (n = 100). It was hypothesized that the life skills component would have a significant impact on adolescents' prosocial values and that participants (n = 42) who were involved in the community service component following the program, when compared to a comparison group (n = 23), would maintain their increased levels of prosocial values. Results indicated that the program had a significant positive impact on adolescents' prosocial values and that the community service experience positively impacted the adolescents' levels of empathic concern and social responsibility. These results are consistent with existing research on participating in community service.
In spite of the remarkable progress made in the burgeoning field of social neuroscience, the neural mechanisms that underlie social encounters are only beginning to be studied and could - paradoxically - be seen as representing the "dark matter" of social neuroscience. Recent conceptual and empirical developments consistently indicate the need for investigations that allow the study of real-time social encounters in a truly interactive manner. This suggestion is based on the premise that social cognition is fundamentally different when we are in interaction with others rather than merely observing them. In this article, we outline the theoretical conception of a second-person approach to other minds and review evidence from neuroimaging, psychophysiological studies, and related fields to argue for the development of a second-person neuroscience, which will help neuroscience to really "go social"; this may also be relevant for our understanding of psychiatric disorders construed as disorders of social cognition.
Actors must imagine themselves in a different world: they must adopt the perspective of multiple characters, grasp their beliefs and intentions, and feel their emotions. In this study we tested the hypothesis that actors have unusually sharp mind-reading abilities and unusually strong empathy. In Study 1, adolescent actors outperformed adolescents without acting experience in their ability to imagine the mental states expressed by pictures of peoples' eyes (a theory of mind measure), but did not excel on empathy as measured by a self-report scale. In Study 2, we replicated these findings with young adults using a different measure of theory of mind. These findings show that adolescent and adult actors are skilled in reading others' mental states, but do not report above average levels of empathy. Thus, strength in theory of mind can exist independently of strength in empathy.
Social cognitive skills such as empathy and theory of mind are crucial for everyday interactions, cooperation, and cultural learning, and deficits in these skills have been implicated in pathologies such as autism spectrum disorder, sociopathy, and non-verbal learning disorders. Little research has examined how these skills develop after early childhood, and how they may be trained. We tested the hypothesis that experience in acting, an activity in which one must step into the shoes of others, leads to growth in both empathy and theory of mind. In two studies, we followed children (elementary school aged) and adolescents (high school freshman) receiving one year of either acting or other arts training (visual arts, music), and assessed empathy and theory of mind before and after training. In both studies, those receiving acting (but not other arts) training showed significant gains in empathy scores; in Study 2, adolescents receiving acting training also showed significant gains on a naturalistic measure of theory of mind, the Empathic Accuracy Paradigm. These findings demonstrate plasticity in empathy and theory of mind long past the watershed age of 3-4 years, and suggest that both capacities are enhanced by role playing.
We propose that the crucial difference between human cognition and that of other species is the ability to participate with others in collaborative activities with shared goals and intentions: shared intentionality. Participation in such activities requires not only especially powerful forms of intention reading and cultural learning, but also a unique motivation to share psychological states with others and unique forms of cognitive representation for doing so. The result of participating in these activities is species-unique forms of cultural cognition and evolution, enabling everything from the creation and use of linguistic symbols to the construction of social norms and individual beliefs to the establishment of social institutions. In support of this proposal we argue and present evidence that great apes (and some children with autism) understand the basics of intentional action, but they still do not participate in activities involving joint intentions and attention (shared intentionality). Human children's skills of shared intentionality develop gradually during the first 14 months of life as two ontogenetic pathways intertwine: (1) the general ape line of understanding others as animate, goal-directed, and intentional agents; and (2) a species-unique motivation to share emotions, experience, and activities with other persons. The developmental outcome is children's ability to construct dialogic cognitive representations, which enable them to participate in earnest in the collectivity that is human cognition.
Affective and cognitive empathy are traditionally differentiated, the affective component being concerned with resonating with another's emotional state, whereas the cognitive component reflects regulation of the resulting distress and understanding of another's mental states (see Decety and Jackson, 2004 for a review). Adolescence is a critical period for the development of cognitive control processes necessary to regulate affective processes: it is only in young adulthood that these control processes achieve maturity (Steinberg, 2005). Thus, one should expect adolescents to show greater automatic empathy than young adults. The present study aimed at exploring the neural correlates of affective (automatic) and cognitive empathy for pain from adolescence to young adulthood. With this aim, Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded in 32 participants (aged 11-39) in a task designed to dissociate these components. ERPs results showed an early automatic fronto-central response to pain (that was not modulated by task demand) and a late parietal response to painful stimuli modulated by attention to pain cues. Adolescents exhibited earlier automatic responses to painful situations than young adults did and showed greater activity in the late cognitive component even when viewing neutral stimuli. Results are discussed in the context of the development of regulatory abilities during adolescence.
Empathy is the lens through which we view others' emotion expressions, and respond to them. In this study, empathy and facial emotion recognition were investigated in adults with autism spectrum conditions (ASC; N=314), parents of a child with ASC (N=297) and IQ-matched controls (N=184). Participants completed a self-report measure of empathy (the Empathy Quotient [EQ]) and a modified version of the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces Task (KDEF) using an online test interface. Results showed that mean scores on the EQ were significantly lower in fathers (p<0.05) but not mothers (p>0.05) of children with ASC compared to controls, whilst both males and females with ASC obtained significantly lower EQ scores (p<0.001) than controls. On the KDEF, statistical analyses revealed poorer overall performance by adults with ASC (p<0.001) compared to the control group. When the 6 distinct basic emotions were analysed separately, the ASC group showed impaired performance across five out of six expressions (happy, sad, angry, afraid and disgusted). Parents of a child with ASC were not significantly worse than controls at recognising any of the basic emotions, after controlling for age and non-verbal IQ (all p>0.05). Finally, results indicated significant differences between males and females with ASC for emotion recognition performance (p<0.05) but not for self-reported empathy (p>0.05). These findings suggest that self-reported empathy deficits in fathers of autistic probands are part of the 'broader autism phenotype'. This study also reports new findings of sex differences amongst people with ASC in emotion recognition, as well as replicating previous work demonstrating empathy difficulties in adults with ASC. The use of empathy measures as quantitative endophenotypes for ASC is discussed.
The research paradigm that W. Ickes and his colleagues (e.g., Ickes et al; see record 1986-27142-001) developed for the study of naturalistic social cognition was used to explore the phenomenon of empathic accuracy in the initial, unstructured interactions of 38 mixed-sex (male–female) dyads. The results indicated that an important aspect of empathic accuracy, content accuracy, could be measured reliably (α = .94) with the procedure used. The results further indicated that content accuracy was, to a large extent, an emergent product of social interaction processes occurring at the level of the dyad. Although many of the findings could be explained in informational terms, some significant motivational influences were observed as well. For example, content accuracy was influenced by the partner's physical attractiveness and, more generally, by the perceiver's apparent interest in the partner (as indexed by various thought/feeling measures). The individual difference variables of grade point average (GPA) and self-monitoring also predicted the subjects' levels of content accuracy; however, gender and self-report measures of empathic skills and empathic accuracy did not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Recent theories of empathy highlight perception-action components as a basis for automatic responses to perceived emotions. Since music is universally based on human actions and often elicits strong emotions, it was hypothesized that empathy influences audiovisual estimations of emotional expression. In this study, the performance and perception of a string quartet was investigated using time-series analyses. Quartet musicians rated video presentations of their own performance, resulting in relationships between visual-only and auditory-only judgments as well as acoustical intensity measures. Independent observers accurately perceived the string quartet's expressive intentions in multimodal presentations. Observers with higher affective and overall empathy were more accurate at estimating the musicians' intentions. It is argued that empathy—via the perception of bodily motion—has an impact on the appreciation of performing arts such as music. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reviews the literature on sex differences in empathy (defined as vicarious affective responding to the emotional state of another) and related capacities (affective role taking and decoding of nonverbal cues). The literature is discussed according to method used to assess empathy and affective role taking. Where appropriate, meta-analyses were also computed. In general, sex differences in empathy were found to be a function of the methods used to assess empathy. There was a large sex difference favoring women when the measure of empathy was self-report scales; moderate differences (favoring females) were found for reflexive crying and self-report measures in laboratory situations; and no sex differences were evident when the measure of empathy was either physiological or unobtrusive observations of nonverbal reactions to another's emotional state. Moreover, few sex differences were found for children's affective role taking and decoding abilities. (156 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study investigated the perceptual identification of individuals' intended expression intensity in point-light displays depicting dance. Participants watched point-light displays of 200-1,000-ms duration, as well as static displays, of expressive and inexpressive dance performances. The task was to identify the intended expression intensity of the performer. The results indicate that expression intensity could be discerned reliably only from dynamic displays, even when they were as short as 200 ms, though the accuracy of judgments increased with exposure duration. Judgment accuracy for dynamic displays was positively correlated with self-report empathy indices and confidence in judgments. Accuracy for these displays also correlated with indices of informal music and dance experience. The findings are discussed in relation to sensorimotor and cognitive-emotional processes underlying action understanding and social cognition.
Terror management research has typically found that people respond harshly toward offending others when reminded of their
mortality. In the current research we examined whether mortality salience would increase attitudes of forgiveness toward such
individuals, especially among those with high trait empathy. Consistent with prior research, Study 1 showed that mortality
salience increased forgiveness of a violent hockey player, but only if this person was a member of the ingroup. Study 2 showed
that mortality (vs. dental pain) salience led persons high in trait empathy to forgive the same violent hockey player regardless
of his group membership. Implications for increasing forgiveness and prosocial behavior in intergroup contexts are briefly
discussed.
The human "mirror-system" is suggested to play a crucial role in action observation and execution, and is characterized by activity in the premotor and parietal cortices during the passive observation of movements. The previous motor experience of the observer has been shown to enhance the activity in this network. Yet visual experience could also have a determinant influence when watching more complex actions, as in dance performances. Here we tested the impact visual experience has on motor simulation when watching dance, by measuring changes in corticospinal excitability. We also tested the effects of empathic abilities. To fully match the participants' long-term visual experience with the present experimental setting, we used three live solo dance performances: ballet, Indian dance, and non-dance. Participants were either frequent dance spectators of ballet or Indian dance, or "novices" who never watched dance. None of the spectators had been physically trained in these dance styles. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to measure corticospinal excitability by means of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in both the hand and the arm, because the hand is specifically used in Indian dance and the arm is frequently engaged in ballet dance movements. We observed that frequent ballet spectators showed larger MEP amplitudes in the arm muscles when watching ballet compared to when they watched other performances. We also found that the higher Indian dance spectators scored on the fantasy subscale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the larger their MEPs were in the arms when watching Indian dance. Our results show that even without physical training, corticospinal excitability can be enhanced as a function of either visual experience or the tendency to imaginatively transpose oneself into fictional characters. We suggest that spectators covertly simulate the movements for which they have acquired visual experience, and that empathic abilities heighten motor resonance during dance observation.
The personality profiles and cognitive styles of 191 professional actors were compared to general population samples. Actors of both sexes were significantly higher than comparison groups in extraversion, openness to experience, and agreeableness. There was a trend towards higher neuroticism. The actors also scored significantly more highly than comparison groups on Baron-Cohen’s empathizing quotient. The results are discussed with reference to the demands and rewards of acting, and the view that choices of activity are the result of seeking a fit between the person and the environment.
When people play music and dance together, they engage in forms of musical joint action that are often characterized by a shared sense of rhythmic timing and affective state (i.e., temporal and affective entrainment). In order to understand the origins of musical joint action, we propose a model in which entrainment is linked to dual mechanisms (motor resonance and action simulation), which in turn support musical behavior (imitation and complementary joint action). To illustrate this model, we consider two generic forms of joint musical behavior: chorusing and turn-taking. We explore how these common behaviors can be founded on entrainment capacities established early in human development, specifically during musical interactions between infants and their caregivers. If the roots of entrainment are found in early musical interactions which are practiced from childhood into adulthood, then we propose that the rehearsal of advanced musical ensemble skills can be considered to be a refined, mimetic form of temporal and affective entrainment whose evolution begins in infancy.
This study investigated the effects of voluntarily empathizing with a musical performer (i.e., cognitive empathy) on music-induced emotions and their underlying physiological activity. N = 56 participants watched video-clips of two operatic compositions performed in concerts, with low or high empathy instructions. Heart rate and heart rate variability, skin conductance level (SCL), and respiration rate (RR) were measured during music listening, and music-induced emotions were quantified using the Geneva Emotional Music Scale immediately after music listening. Listening to the aria with sad content in a high empathy condition facilitated the emotion of nostalgia and decreased SCL, in comparison to the low empathy condition. Listening to the song with happy content in a high empathy condition also facilitated the emotion of power and increased RR, in comparison to the low empathy condition. To our knowledge, this study offers the first experimental evidence that cognitive empathy influences emotion psychophysiology during music listening.
The capacity to distinguish between one's own and others' behavior is a cognitive prerequisite for successful joint action.
We employed a musical joint action task to investigate how the brain achieves this distinction. Pianists performed the right-hand
part of piano pieces, previously learned bimanually, while the complementary left-hand part either was not executed or was
(believed to be) played by a co-performer. This experimental setting served to induce a co-representation of the left-hand
part reflecting either the self or the co-performer. Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied to the right
primary motor cortex and motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from the resting left forearm. Results show that corticospinal
excitability was modulated by whether the representation of the left hand was associated with the self or the other, with
the MEP amplitude being low and high, respectively. This result remained unchanged in a separate session where participants
could neither see nor hear the other but still infer his presence by means of contextual information. Furthermore, the amplitude
of MEPs associated with co-performer presence increased with pianists' self-reported empathy. Thus, the sociality of the context
modulates action attribution at the level of the motor control system.
This book is the fruit of a study group on perception and action that worked at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiP) of the University of Bielefeld, FRG in the academic year 1984-1985. We express our gratitude to the ZiF for hosting the group and for providing fmancial and organizational support for its scientific activities, including a meeting of the authors of the present volume that took place at the ZiF in July 1986. This is/ the study group's last common product, and it took considerable time to give the book its fmal shape. Most of the editing was done while one of us (0. N.) was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NlAS) during the academic year 1987-1988. Thanks are due to NIAS for its generous support. We also thank all our friends and colleagues who contributed to the book.
Series Editors' Preface Acknowledgements Introduction The Essential Embodiment Thesis Essentially Embodied, Desire-Based Emotions Sense of Self, Embodiment, and Desire-Based Emotions The Role of Emotion in Decision and Moral Evaluation Essentially Embodied, Emotive, Enactive Social Cognition Breakdowns in Embodied Emotive Cognition Conclusion Notes References Index
This research aimed to (a) develop a measure of prosocial and antisocial behavior in sport, (b) examine its invariance across sex and sport, and (c) provide evidence for its discriminant and concurrent validity. We conducted two studies. In study 1, team sport athletes (N = 1,213) recruited from 103 teams completed questionnaires assessing demographics and prosocial and antisocial behaviors in sport. Factor analyses revealed two factors representing prosocial behavior and two factors representing antisocial behavior. The model had a very good fit to the data and showed configural, metric, and scalar invariance across sex and sport. The final scale consisted of 20 items. In Study 2, team-sport athletes (N = 106) completed the scale and measures of empathy and goal orientation. Analyses provided support for the discriminant and concurrent validity of the scale. In conclusion, the new scale can be used to measure prosocial and antisocial behaviors in team sport.
The ability to coordinate our actions with those of others is crucial for our success as individuals and as a species. Progress in understanding the cognitive and neural processes involved in joint action has been slow and sparse, because cognitive neuroscientists have predominantly studied individual minds and brains in isolation. However, in recent years, major advances have been made by investigating perception and action in social context. In this article we outline how studies on joint attention, action observation, task sharing, action coordination and agency contribute to the understanding of the cognitive and neural processes supporting joint action. Several mechanisms are proposed that allow individuals to share representations, to predict actions, and to integrate predicted effects of own and others' actions.
Despite the increased participation of girls in competitive high school athletics, it is unclear that play on sports teams holds the same meaning for adolescent boys and girls. This study investigated school, grade, (freshman and sophomore vs junior and senior), and gender differences associated with a range of factors related to participation in high school varsity soccer play among 65 students attending two high schools, one emphasizing achievement, the other emphasizing competitive involvement in athletics, including soccer. Also of interest was the relationship between both soccer involvement and soccer knowledge and school climate, empathy, occupational interest, and perceived parent behavior. Because gender differences were found in comparative and correlational analysis, it is concluded that play on varsity soccer teams holds different meanings and values for adolescent boys and girls.
Our ability to acknowledge and recognize our own identity - our "self" - is a characteristic doubtless unique to humans. Where does this feeling come from? How does the combination of neurophysiological processes coupled with our interaction with the outside world construct this coherent identity? We know that our social interactions contribute via the eyes, ears, etc. However, our self is not only influenced by our senses. It is also influenced by the actions we perform and those we see others perform. Our brain anticipates the effects of our own actions and simulates the actions of others. In this way, we become able to understand ourselves and to understand the actions and emotions of others. This book describes the new field of "Motor Cognition". Though motor actions have long been studied by neuroscientists and physiologists, it is only recently that scientists have considered the role of actions in building the self. How consciousness of action is part of self-consciousness, how one's own actions determine the sense of being an agent, how actions performed by others impact on ourselves for understanding others, differentiating ourselves from them and learning from them: these questions are raised and discussed throughout the book, drawing on experimental, clinical, and theoretical bases. The advent of new neuroscience techniques, such as neuroimaging and direct electrical brain stimulation, together with a renewal of behavioral methods in cognitive psychology, provide new insights into this area. Mental imagery of action, self-recognition, consciousness of actions, imitation can be objectively studied using these new tools. The results of these investigations shed light on clinical disorders in neurology, psychiatry, and in neuro-development.
This study investigated sex differences in observed prosocial and antisocial behaviors in soccer and the role of personal and social factors in explaining these differences. Male (n = 26) and female (n = 20) soccer teams, consisting of players (N = 464) whose age ranged from 15–47 years, participated in the study. For each team, a 90-min soccer game was videotaped, and questionnaires were administered to players measuring empathy, motivational climate, soccer experience, and demographics. Two observers recorded prosocial and antisocial behaviors for each team. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that males and females did not differ in prosocial behaviors, but males engaged in more antisocial acts than females. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that the effects of sex on antisocial behavior were substantially reduced when behavior scores were adjusted for empathy, perceived performance climate, or soccer experience. Our findings underscore the importance of these variables in explaining sex differences in antisocial behavior in soccer.
Previous research has shown that exposure to violent media increased aggression-related affect and thoughts, physiological arousal, and aggressive behavior as well as decreased prosocial tendencies. The present research examined the hypothesis that exposure to prosocial media promotes prosocial outcomes. Three studies revealed that listening to songs with prosocial (relative to neutral) lyrics increased the accessibility of prosocial thoughts, led to more interpersonal empathy, and fostered helping behavior. These results provide first evidence for the predictive validity of the General Learning Model [Buckley, K. E., & Anderson, C. A. (2006). A theoretical model of the effects and consequences of playing video games. In P. Vorderer, & J. Bryant, (Eds.), Playing video games: Motives responses and consequences (pp. 363–378). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates] for the effects of media with prosocial content on prosocial thought, feeling, and behavior.
This chapter is concerned with some of the issues involved in understanding how perception contributes to the control of actions. Roughly speaking, the term of action refers to any meaningful segment of an organisms intercourse with its environment. Two important features of this preliminary definition can be brought out more clearly when “actions” are contrasted with “responses” and “movements”. Unlike response-centered approaches to psychology, which consider the organisms activity more or less determined by the actual stimulus information, the action approach emphasizes intentional control as being simultaneous with (or even prior to) informational control of activity, assuming that intentional processes fix the rules for the selection and use of stimulus information (Heuer Prinz, 1987; Neumann Prinz, 1987). Unlike movement-centered approaches, which describe the organisms activity in terms of the dynamics of muscular contraction patterns and the kinematics of the resulting body movements, the action approach stresses the environmental consequences that go along with these bodily events, contending that meaningful interactions with the environment, rather than movements per se, should be considered the effective functional units of activity (Fowler Turvey, 1982; Neisser, 1985).
In cognitive science, we are currently witnessing a 'pragmatic turn', away from the traditional representation-centered framework towards a paradigm that focuses on understanding cognition as 'enactive', as skillful activity that involves ongoing interaction with the external world. The key premise of this view is that cognition should not be understood as providing models of the world, but as subserving action and being grounded in sensorimotor coupling. Accordingly, cognitive processes and their underlying neural activity patterns should be studied primarily with respect to their role in action generation. We suggest that such an action-oriented paradigm is not only conceptually viable, but already supported by much experimental evidence. Numerous findings either overtly demonstrate the action-relatedness of cognition or can be re-interpreted in this new framework. We argue that new vistas on the functional relevance and the presumed 'representational' nature of neural processes are likely to emerge from this paradigm.
consider the concept of empathy as it has been used in psychology specifically / Einfühlung i