Year-Long Study of Compassion & Theory of Mind

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Metadata of Note

Type: 🍃 Leaf Source (Video): Neuroscience of Compassion by Tania Singer Tags: #neuroscience #Compassionate #researchstudy Date: March 7th, 2022

Below are my highlights from watching this talk where [[Tania Singer]] presents the results of her year-long study.

First, she worked with 300 participants on three major "phases" throughout the year, each: presence, affect, and perspective.

Each phase involved the participants performing some daily/weekly exercises as shown below. "Dyad" means two people who are paired with each other and help each other by asking questions, and listening.

They had two "cohorts" and a control group. The dropout rate was less than 7% which she said is astounding, as general dropout rates are between 40-60%.

Result 1: When the participants were tested on "perspective-taking" and the theory of the mind, those who did the "Perspective" exercises tend to get really good after doing it. As one would expect.

Result 2: The same pattern can be observed when participants were measured on their "compassion rating." Those who went through the training fared better.

Result 3: Finally, when it came to cortisol levels, those who did the compassion training had the least cortisol levels of everyone else. (not shown in the image below, but could not capture the image properly. Video timestamp: 14:39)

Finally, she mentioned that this information from #neuroscience can be applied to #economics by understanding how emotions dictate behaviour. How emotions such as care and affiliation lead to prosocial and confirming behaviour.