Cultural and Neural Basis of Empathy

Empathy is a key facet of social behavior and precursor to altruism. This session will provide a cultural neuroscience approach to understanding how cultural and biological mechanisms foster empathy and altruism as adaptive behavior. In particular, theory and evidence that cultural values for fairness in hierarchical and egalitarian groups are associated with neural mechanisms of empathy will be presented. Implications of this research for public policy and population health will be discussed.