Baby don't cry : measuring the empathetic response towards infant cries in a Singaporean nonparent context

• Main Author: Ng, Xinyao
• Other Authors: Gianluca Esposito
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138138
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Females and feminine gender roles are considered to be more empathetic according to societal stereotypes and experimental studies. Therefore, they are expected to respond more empathetically in difficult situations, such as when one hears an infant crying. Crying, which serves as the primary means of communication for infants, is often perceived as aversive, thereby activating empathy-related brain areas. However, few neuroimaging studies that examine the empathetic response towards infant cries, or the effects of gender roles on such an empathetic response have been conducted. This study aims to (1) examine the empathetic responses towards infant cries of different intensities; (2) investigate sex differences in empathetic responses toward infant cries; and (3) assess whether individuals’ empathetic responses are moderated by the gender roles they are classified as using the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI). In this study, the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) were used to measure the nonparent participants’ (n = 38) trait empathy and empathetic response towards mild and intense infant cries respectively. Results showed that a higher empathetic response was elicited for mild cry intensities in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a core neural processing region of empathy. Nonsignificant sex differences in empathetic response was observed in the mPFC. Masculinity, not femininity, was correlated with an empathetic response in the mPFC in response to intense but not mild infant cries. Overall, our results suggest the existence of differing empathetic responses towards mild and intense infant vocalizations, with gender roles moderating the response.