Abstract
The publisher underscores that this book offers a scientific global overview on the social neuroscience of intergroup relations, and the neural mechanisms that drive processes such as prejudice, racism and dehumanization. Further on, it states that the book is providing critical insights on these underpinnings that include the neuroscience of ingroup bias, empathy, dehumanization, competition, ideological bias and prejudice between groups. The authors are explaining how genes and environment interact to create attitudes between groups and how this can lead to different cultures.
Reading this book I was reminded of my contribution (‘Hundred billion neurons, but where is the mind’) to the IAGP congress held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, in 2012, for the Symposium dedicated to the research pertaining to the neurophysiology of the brain. The main topic of the congress was ‘Between worlds and cultures—social transformation’. As a neuropsychiatrist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist and group analyst I am convinced that brain activities expressed and mirrored in human communication and interactions are rooted in neurophysiological activities, as was already assumed by S. Freud. The last decade of the 20th-century was declared in the scientific community as the decade of the brain, which helped to concentrate research efforts to explore the biological and physiological aspects of brain activities.
Regarding the importance of the brain and its functions that greatly exceed its volume and the human body, encompassing limitless spaces and crossing existing boundaries with the help of new knowledge and technologies, it was high time to explore in a deeper and more detailed way the ‘mechanisms’ of the ways of its functioning. Ten years after reading this book dedicated to the neuroscience of intergroup relations, it is admirable to see how valuable researchers of the psychological spheres are enlarging horizons of insight into specific brain activities that overbridge material and immaterial spheres of the human brain expressed through its conscious and unconscious activities.
The editor of this volume, Pascal Molenberghs, is a well-known scientist and his research focus in social neuroscience, the aim of understanding our social brain.
In this book he, with 12 other contributors, all world renowned neuroscientists, offer an impressive overview of the latest neuroscientific research results. Together they bring new insights into the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological activities of the human brain influencing cerebral activities expressed through ways of communication, relations and behaviour. The content comprises eight chapters, each describing different research topics underlying neural processes that influence intergroup behaviour. Molenberghs states If we truly want to understand how important concepts such as intergroup bias, dehumanisation and violence between groups develop, it is critical that we better understand the underlying neural mechanisms that support them.
Some leading scholars of the neuroscience of intergroup relations provide important insights into the basis of some important concepts.
In the first chapter, David Amodio and Jeffrey Berg write about the neural underpinnings of intergroup bias, how they are expressed and how they can be reduced. They present a memory systems model of intergroup bias with schematic illustration of a model of the learning and memory systems. Describing the role of semantic memory in forming stereotypes and prejudices, they suggest that social knowledge about people and groups has been specifically linked to the anterior temporal lobe, including the temporal pole. Proceeding in this way, the authors describe the potential role of the amygdala and other cerebral regions that bear information of certain biases, prejudices and behaviours and describe the multimodal sources of information recorded in separate but interacting systems. Information from these unique memory systems may then converge in higher-order representations in different cerebral structures to produce intricate social judgments and behaviour. They conclude with an overview of the knowledge about the neural underpinnings of intergroup bias; that the memory systems model represents an integration of social neuroscience research on how individual-level intergroup biases are learned, represented in the mind or expressed in behaviour. The chapter is followed by 71 references, offering an inexhaustible source of inspiration for further research.
In chapter two, Robert Eres discusses how group membership can influence the neural correlates of empathy, i.e. how the neural mechanisms involved in affective empathy, cognitive empathy and emotional regulation (a tripartite model of empathy) can be influenced by both stable and transient group memberships. The author conceptualizes empathy as the ability to share and understand the emotional states of others. He presents data of neuroimaging meta-analyses that the bilateral insula and anterior cingulate cortex are consistently activated when sharing the emotions of others. That is the reason why humans have the ability to share positive and negative emotions. He states that empathy is a complex social construct that relies on a network of brain regions and that empathic experiences are modulated by group membership. He states that group membership not only impacts the affective component of empathy but also the cognitive components. The overview of research draws data from 74 works that document research on this topic.
In chapter three, Dorottya Lantos describes the neuroscientific basis of intergroup competition and how it can lead to aggression, as well as how to reduce intergroup violence. Writing about precursors to collective violence she states that humans have a tendency to view the world as divided into us and them. Neuroimaging evidence supports the overlap between the representation of the self and other ingroup members. She quotes that increased neural activity to ingroup versus outgroup was observed in experiments. Researching, she then exposes psychological mechanisms following intergroup competition and threat identifying malicious joy, dehumanization and moral disengagement and how these emotional and behavioural features are mirrored in functions and linkage of different cerebral areas. These processes all facilitate intergroup violence, which is a complex phenomenon and it is not possible to link it to a simple brain structure, as there is no single psychological process that could fully explain how intergroup conflict emerges. The topic is supported by 47 references.
In the fourth chapter, Tiago Bortolini and Ronald Fischer focus on ideological bias and extremist behaviour, describing neurophysiological differences between liberals and conservatives. The authors try to connect the research on the neurobiology of ideological processes that play a role in ideological or motivated processing of social information. They define ideology that is likely to be a product of both top-down socialization processes and bottom-up bio-psychological predispositions. They expose results of different studies of political ideology from a neurobiology perspective. They quote functional MRI studies that aimed at the examination of the brain responses to negative stimuli among liberals and conservatives.
The second line of research in that area focused on psychological processes related to fear and threat. According to results of different research the increased amygdala and insula activity were perceived while observing threatening versus reconciliation messages. A third line of research measured brain responses to stimuli related to political ideology, specifically focused on emotional processes. The fourth line of research examined how the brain processed ideological information consciously and unconsciously. Summing up the results from much research the authors conclude that the neuroscience studies have highlighted that ideological processes involve a large number of basic cognitive and emotional processes, that are in their nature multidimensional and multi-levelled. They conclude . . . much progress has been made in identifying basic neural processes that play a role in understanding ideological bias and sacred values.
The description of the topic is supported by 55 references.
In chapter five, Tiffany Ito discusses the neural processes involved in face processing and how this could influence ingroup bias, stereotyping and prejudice. The author starts by claiming that faces are a powerful social stimuli, capable of conveying a variety of information including emotional state, intentions, personality and physical health. The author, summing up results of several pieces of research, suggests that group membership in faces activates brain areas associated with semantic processing. That process is connected with greater amygdala activation and other brain structures. The author concludes . . . assessing the neural responses associated with group membership conveyed via faces is still a relatively new area of inquiry . . . (and suggests further research in order to) expand our understanding of the many ways that group membership impacts face processing.
Ito quotes 108 references in her overview.
In the sixth chapter, Hugh McCovern and Eric Vanman discuss the old dilemma between nature versus nurture, exposing how genes and environment interact in developing intergroup attitudes and behaviour, as well as the influence they perform in cultural matters. They discuss the passive versus active gene–environment correlations, as well as s.c. evocative gene–environment correlation as a chain of influence that runs from genotype, to environmental response, back to the individual. They discuss the serotonergic activity linked to the social status differences. Further on, they discuss results of twin studies and heritability of attitudes and the complicated interface between our genetics and the attitudes we eventually adopt. Discussing the role of oxytocin in regulating behaviours including empathy they suggest that increased oxytocin levels decrease fear and fear learning responses, as well as depressive symptoms, and its role in intergroup relations. In conclusion the authors discuss . . . the gene–culture coevolution theory, whereby cultural and genetic factors mutually influence each other in creating behavioural norms at the group level.
This overview is supported by 122 references.
In the seventh chapter, Shihui Han discusses a sociocultural neuroscientific perspective on how ingroup bias can lead to differences in empathy and the relationship to social behaviour. Han states . . . successful social interactions between two individuals and between two social groups require mutual understanding of mental status of each party including emotional states.
Han proceeds to describe neural correlates of empathy and its underlying neural circuits. The neuroscience findings indicate that empathy as a psychological construct consists of multiple processes that facilitate understanding and sharing of others’ sensorimotor feelings and affective states. He states . . . the ingroup bias in empathy reflects a pivotal social demand of ingroup help and intergroup competition that are critical for individuals’ survival during human development. Therefore, social factors such as social environments and individuals’ sociocultural experiences ought to be important for the development of ingroup bias in empathy in response to evolutionary selection. This is possibly why ingroup bias in empathic brain activities has been observed throughout all continents around the world.
The brain imaging findings have unravelled several neural circuits involved in empathy for others’ emotional states such as pain. Han states that sociocultural experiences may play a role in modulation of ingroup bias in empathy and altruistic behaviour, leaning on works described in 59 references.
In the final chapter (chapter eight), Yuqing Zhou and Grit Hein discuss the neuroscientific basis of prosocial behaviour towards ingroup and outgroup members.
Prosocial behaviours they describe as covering the broad range of actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself; behaviours such as helping, sharing, comforting and co-operating. First the authors review neuroscientific evidence regarding the neural circuitries underlining prosocial behaviours towards ingroups and outgroups. Then they enlist different research results including brain formations and areas involved in these processes. They conclude that neuroscientific research on ingroups and outgroups remains sparse and indirect. They enlist 92 references, pleading for further research in that field.
Concluding his introduction, the editor, Pascal Molenberghs writes that the book . . . provides some important insights into the neuroscience of intergroup relations. Hopefully, this information will lead to a better understanding of how intergroup behaviour develops and how the conflict between groups can be reduced
and hopes the knowledge exposed will clarify some aspects of human behaviour with an aim to develop a more prosocial society.
This is, certainly, an entirely trustworthy conclusion and a solid basis for further neuroscientific research after expounding 628 references (although many overlapping), indicating the seriousness of the scientific approach to the observed phenomena.
I strongly recommend this book for professionals interested not only in psychodynamic aspects of human relations, especially the group ones, but in neural processes that result in observable phenomena like behaviours and different kinds of relationships.