Motivated empathy: a social neuroscience perspective

Empathy supports adaptive social behaviors such as cooperation and helping. It is also fragile, and commonly unravels in contexts such as intergroup conflict. Insights from neuroscience support the idea that empathy is context sensitive, but recent findings suggest that empathy (and its fragility) reflect individuals’ motives in a given context rather than context alone. Here we explore motivated empathy from the perspective of social neuroscience, examining how motives shape empathy-related brain activity. We also describe recent motive-based empathy interventions, their biological underpinnings, and their behavioral consequences. Finally, we propose novel applications of recent neuroimaging techniques to promote empathy, emotional wellbeing, and social adjustment.