1. Department of Psychology
Name: Rachel Geyer 2017 (Psychology; Spanish)
Mentor: Erin Cooley (Psychology)
Title: Examining the effects of behavioral synchrony on White people’s compassion for Black people’s pain
Funding: NASC Division
Name: Christopher Huber 2017 (Neuroscience)
Mentor(s): Bruce C. Hansen (Neuroscience; Psychology) and Douglas “Doug” Johnson (Psychology)
Title: Change Blindness: The Role of Implicit and Explicit Change Detection
Funding: NASC Division
Name: Matthew “Matt” Lettieri 2017 (Neuroscience)
Mentor: Richard “Rick” Braaten (Psychology)
Title: The Influences of Personality on Patterns of Social Conformity in Zebra Finches
Funding: NASC Division
Name: Nicole Lue 2018 (Neuroscience)
Mentor: Erin Cooley (Psychology)
Title: Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Inter-Group Conflict
Funding: NASC Division
Name: Cassandra “Cassie” Miller 2019 (Undeclared)
Mentor: Richard “Rick” Braaten (Psychology)
Title: The Influences of Personality on Patterns of Social Conformity in Zebra Finches
Funding: NASC Division
Name: Benjamin “Ben” Phelps 2018 (Psychology; Music)
Mentor(s): Bruce C. Hansen (Neuroscience; Psychology) and Douglas “Doug” Johnson (Psychology)
Title: Change Blindness: The Role of Implicit and Explicit Change Detection
Funding: NASC Division
Name: Stephanie Wu 2018 (Psychology)
Mentor: Erin Cooley (Psychology)
Title: Examining the effects of behavioral synchrony on White people’s compassion for Black people’s pain
Funding: NASC Division
DIVISION OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SOSC)
Department of Anthropology
Name: Hailey Biscow 2017 (Anthropology)
Mentor: Elana Shever (Anthropology)
Title: Visiting the Bones: How Americans Construct Science and Meaning from Dinosaurs
Funding: SOSC Division
Name: Maria Isabel Kubabom 2017 (Anthropology)
Mentor: Mary Moran (Anthropology; Africana and Latin American Studies)
Title: Agency under Oppression: The Role of Sexual Minorities in the Rise of LGBTQI Initiative in Ghana
Funding: SOSC Division
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2. Research Fellow(s): Rachel Geyer (2017) Concentration(s): Psychology; Spanish
Stephanie Wu (2018) Concentration: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Erin Cooley Department: Psychology
Title of Project: Examining the effects of behavioral synchrony on White people’s compassion for
Black people’s pain
Project Summary:
Compassion is an important emotion that can motivate people to help others who are suffering. Unfortunately, people do not
always feel similar levels of compassion for everyone. Instead, research indicates that people tend to feel more compassion for
pain experienced by others who are from their own racial group and less for those from different racial groups (Azevedo et al.,
2013; Forgiarini, Gallucci, & Maravita, 2011; Avenanti, Sirigu, & Aglioti, 2010). In the present research, we will attempt to
decrease racial biases in the experience of compassion for others who are experiencing pain. In particular, we will test whether
behavioral synchrony with people from other racial groups may decrease racial biases in the experience of compassion for pain.
Mimicry and behavioral synchrony (i.e., moving one’s body similarly to another person) are associated with myriad beneficial
interpersonal outcomes. For example, when people are subtly mimicked by another person, they tend to report liking that
person more (Stel & Vonk, 2010). Likewise, when two people move in synchrony (e.g., rocking at the same cadence in a
rocking chair), they then perform subsequent joint tasks more effectively than when they engage in behaviors that lack
synchrony (i.e., rocking out of rhythm with another person; Valdesolo et al., 2010). Most relevant to our project’s focus on
racial biases in compassion for others, research indicates that when White people behaviorally synchronize with a Black person
(versus a White person) that this leads to decreases in implicit racial prejudice (Inzlicht, Gutsell, & Legault, 2012). Thus, we
reason that behavioral synchrony may also decrease racial biases in the experience of compassion for people experiencing
painful events.
Although the experience of compassion can be measured through self-reports of emotional experiences, recent research has
illuminated more subtle and embodied ways to measure compassion. Steller and colleagues (2015) find that the experience of
compassion is associated with specific changes in cardiovascular functioning--in particular, increases in an index of
cardiovascular health called heart rate variability (HRV). Interestingly, higher HRV is not only associated with the experience of
compassion, but also to the daily experiences of positive social connections more generally. Fredrickson and colleagues (2010)
found that daily reports of positive social connections over a period of weeks was associated with increases in HRV over time.
Because behavioral synchrony is known to facilitate social connections, we reason that synchronizing movements with others
may increase HRV (from baseline levels)—regardless of the race of the interaction partner. However, we also expect that when
White people engage in behavioral synchrony with a Black person (vs. a White person or a no synchrony control condition),
that this should increase feelings of social connection to Black people in particular. As a result, mimicking a Black person may
specifically increase compassion toward a Black person in pain and minimize racial biases in the experience of pain.
In addition to measuring HRV, we will also measure compassion in several other ways: galvanic skin conductance (GSC), facial
muscle movements, and self-reports. First, higher GSC is associated with activation in what has been called the pain matrix of
the brain (i.e., anterior cingulate cortex; Lamm, Porges, Cacioppo, & Decety, 2008). Thus, higher GSC while viewing others in
pain has been interpreted as greater compassion or empathy for their pain (Forgiarini et al., 2011). Second, Lamm and
colleagues (2008) found that two facial muscles, the orbicularis oculi and corrugator supercilii are activated while watching
others in pain. Thus, activation in these muscles while viewing others in pain should indicate greater compassion or empathy.
This study is ongoing, and we aim to collect and analyze data of roughly 100 participants throughout the next two semesters.
We predict that when White people engage in behavioral synchrony with Black people, that this may increase perceived
closeness to Black people in general and, thus, increase compassion for pain experienced by Black people. We also expect that
behavioral synchrony with others should have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health more generally. Given recent media
coverage of lethal force used by law enforcement against Black men, we hope to better understand how White people
emotionally respond to these events.
Source of Support: AHUM Div. NASC Div. SOSC Div. UNST Div.
Other (specify):
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