[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-141757-105":59,"doc-detail-141757-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","empathy-for-the-social-suffering-of-friends-and-strangers","Empathy for the Social Suffering of Friends and Strangers","","Empathy for social exclusion recruits distinguishable brain activation patterns depending on the relationship between observer and target. Functional MRI during observations of a friend versus a stranger experiencing social exclusion shows friend-based exclusion engaging affective pain regions linked to firsthand distress, including dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and insula, with strength tied to self–other overlap. Stranger-based exclusion instead activates mentalizing systems, including dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and temporal pole. Functional connectivity indicates coordinated involvement of medial prefrontal and affective pain regions for friends, not strangers.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/empathy-for-the-social-suffering-of-friends-and-strangers/141757/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/empathy-for-the-social-suffering-of-friends-and-strangers/141757.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"wps_ap_test_251126_0180","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-20","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does empathy differ when observing a friend versus a stranger’s social suffering?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Empathy for a friend’s social suffering activates affective pain regions tied to firsthand distress, whereas observing a stranger’s suffering activates mentalizing-related regions about others’ traits and intentions.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which brain regions are associated with empathy for friends’ social suffering?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and insula show increased activation, and activity relates to self-reported self–other overlap with the friend.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What brain systems are implicated when observing a stranger’s exclusion?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and temporal pole are engaged, reflecting thinking about others’ mental states and intentions.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},141757,1787664180,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":44,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":143},8796095027276,"https://avatar.qwps.com/avatar/d3BzX2FwX3Rlc3RfMjUxMTI2XzAxODA=","Empathy for the social suffering of friends and  \nstrangers recruits distinct patterns of brain activation  \nMeghan L. Meyer, 1 Carrie L. Masten,2 Yina Ma,3 Chenbo Wang,3 Zhenhao Shi,3 Naomi I. Eisenberger, 1 and Shihui Han3,*  \n1UCLA Psychology Department, 2Department of Psychological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA, and 3Department of Psychology, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing 100871, P. R. China  \nHumans observe various peoples􀀂 social suffering throughout their lives, but it is unknown whether the same brain mechanisms respond to people weare close to and strangers􀀂 social suffering. To address this question, we had participant􀀂s complete functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while observing a friend and stranger experience social exclusion. Observing a friend􀀂s exclusion activated affective pain regions associated with the direct (i.e. firsthand) experience of exclusion [dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula], and this activation correlated with self-reported self-other overlap with the friend. Alternatively, observing a stranger􀀂s exclusion activated regions associated with thinking about the traits, mental states and intentions of others [􀀃mentalizing􀀂; dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), precuneus, and temporal pole]. Comparing activation from observing friend􀀂s vs stranger􀀂s exclusion showed increased activation in brain regions associated with the firsthand experience of exclusion (dACC and anterior insula) and with thinking about the self [medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC)]. Finally, functional connectivity analyses demonstrated that MPFC and affective pain regions activated in concert during empathy for friends, but not strangers. These results suggest empathy for friends􀀂 social suffering relies on emotion sharing and self-processing mechanisms, whereas empathy for strangers􀀂 social suffering may rely more heavily on mentalizing systems.  \nKeywords: empathy; social pain; anterior cingulate cortex; medial prefrontal cortex  \nINTRODUCTION  \nEmpathy allows humans to understand and share one another’s emotional experiences and is important for successful social interactions (Eisenberg and Miller, 1987; Davis, 1994) . According to Hoffman (2000), empathy refers to experiencing an affective response that is more consistent with another person’s situation than one’s own situation (Hoffman, 2000), which suggests that vicarious emotions are pivotal to empathy. In line with this suggestion, brain imaging studies have shown that observing another person’s physical pain corresponds with activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula (particularly the anterior insula; Singer et al., 2004; Jackson and Decety, 2005; Gu and Han, 2007), regions that are known to code for the affective distress associated with the firsthand experience of pain (Rainville et al., 1997) . It has been suggested that mutual activation in these brain regions during the firsthand experience and observation of physical pain creates an affective link between the observer and target, allowing humans to ‘feel’ another person’s distress (Singer et al., 2004; Jackson et al., 2005; Lamm et al., 2007; Xu et al., 2009) .  \nHowever, the experience of empathy is not specific to observing another person in physical pain. Many of our daily experiences of empathy occur as part of our everyday social interactions, in which we empathize with others’ social emotions and suffering (Masten et al., 2011; Rameson et al., 2012; Zaki et al., 2009) . Interestingly, brain imaging studies find increased activity in the dACC and anterior insula among participants who are experiencing social exclusion, suggesting that the distress associated with social exclusion relies on shared neural systems as those coding for the affective component of  \nReceived 25 September 2011; Accepted 7 February 2012  \nAdvance Access publication 21 February 2012  \nThis work was supported by National Natural Science Foundat","cbCaiuwnqBnVxsZN","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuwnqBnVxsZN","pdf",548004,"English","# Introduction\n## Empathy and social interaction\n## Neural basis of empathy for pain and social exclusion\n## Prior studies and gaps\n## Research approach and implications","[{\"question\":\"How does empathy differ when observing a friend versus a stranger’s social suffering?\",\"answer\":\"Empathy for a friend’s social suffering activates affective pain regions tied to firsthand distress, whereas observing a stranger’s suffering activates mentalizing-related regions about others’ traits and intentions.\"},{\"question\":\"Which brain regions are associated with empathy for friends’ social suffering?\",\"answer\":\"Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and insula show increased activation, and activity relates to self-reported self–other overlap with the friend.\"},{\"question\":\"What brain systems are implicated when observing a stranger’s exclusion?\",\"answer\":\"Dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and temporal pole are engaged, reflecting thinking about others’ mental states and intentions.\"}]","Empathy for the Social Suffering of Friends and Strangers | PDF",23]