ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2018, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (3): 442-453.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2018.00442

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 The effects of oxytocin on empathic response and its mechanisms

 YUE Tong1,2,3; HUANG Xiting2,3; LIU Guangyuan4   

  1.  (1 Post-doctoral Station of Mathematics, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China) (2 Research Center for Psychology and Social Development, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China) (3 School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China) (4 School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)
  • Received:2017-04-17 Online:2018-03-15 Published:2018-01-31
  • Contact: HUANG Xiting, E-mail: xthuang@swu.edu.cn LIU Guangyuan, E-mail: liugy@swu.edu.cn E-mail: E-mail: xthuang@swu.edu.cn , E-mail: liugy@swu.edu.cn
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Abstract: Oxytocin is a prosocial hormone that also has an important influence on human beings’ empathic responses. It can promote emotion recognition, enhance the empathic concern regarding others’ unfortunate experiences, and weaken the level of personal distress. With reference to the mechanisms, oxytocin may influence an individual's empathic response by promoting his/her embodied-simulation ability, weakening the tendency of self-centeredness, and regulating the emotional representation mechanism. Future studies could focus on the effects of oxytocin on the different types of empathic responses, the effects of oxytocin on gender differences in empathic responses, and actively using oxytocin in clinical interventions for empathy deficits.

Key words: oxytocin, empathic response, embodied-simulation, self-projection, emotional representation

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