Your pain ≈ my pain

‘Neural resonance’

Singer et al. (2006)

-1

0

1

2

Female Ss Male Ss

Activation in ACC

Fair playerUnfair player

Wicker et al., (2003), Neuron

Your disgust ≈ my disgust

‘Neural resonance’

see Rizzolatti & Craighero (2004), Annual Rev Neurosci

Your goals ≈ my goals

‘Neural resonance’

Thinking about self Thinking about other’s minds

Mitchell, 2009, Trends in Cognitive Sciences

To use myself as a basis for understanding another person, I must perceive us as appropriately similar

Experiment 1

He considers himself a typical college student. While he respects religion, his politics are relatively left of center. He deeply wanted Kerry to win the last election, and still can’t quite believe that Bush managed to be re-elected. In addition to his academic interests, he keeps himself busy at college with a variety of extra-curricular activities; for example, over the last year, he has participated in intramurals for his House and helped with his House Committee. After graduation, he plans to take a year or two off before returning to graduate school. He would ultimately like to have the kind of career where the work is fulfilling and rewarding.

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

Experiment 1

He considers himself a typical college student. While he respects religion, his politics are relatively left of center. He deeply wanted Kerry to win the last election, and still can’t quite believe that Bush managed to be re-elected. In addition to his academic interests, he keeps himself busy at college with a variety of extra-curricular activities; for example, over the last year, he has participated in intramurals for his House and helped with his House Committee. After graduation, he plans to take a year or two off before returning to graduate school. He would ultimately like to have the kind of career where the work is fulfilling and rewarding.

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

Experiment 1

He has considered himself a fundamentalist Christian for the past four years. He attends church every Sunday, in addition to several prayer services on his college campus, the University of Missouri. Because of his religious convictions, he is a strong supporter of the Republican party. He feels strongly about the Republican party’s social platform. In fact, during the last election, he was a very active member of the United Republican Brethren group on campus, which helped raise money for the Bush campaign through a variety of faith-based fundraising events. After college, he hopes to be able to settle down and start a family. He hopes to have the kind of career that would allow his future wife to stay at home and have a large family.

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

Experiment 1

L R

Worry about getting a good summer job?

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

1 = very unlikely2 = somewhat unlikely3 = somewhat likely4 = very likely

Experiment 1

L R

Worry about getting a good summer job?

1 = very unlikely2 = somewhat unlikely3 = somewhat likely4 = very likely

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

How do we mentalize? Experiment 4Experiment 1

L R

Worry about getting a good summer job?

1 = very unlikely2 = somewhat unlikely3 = somewhat likely4 = very likely

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

Experiment 1

L R

prefer to go grocery shopping over doing laundry prefer to go grocery shopping over doing laundry

• Prefer to go grocery shopping over doing laundry• Enjoy spending a few hours in a contemporary art museum• Believe that a man should pay for dinner on a date• Enjoy having a roommate from another country• Get frustrated sitting in traffic

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

Experiment 1

L R

prefer to go grocery shopping over doing laundry

me not-mememinemy

theytheirsthem

prefer to go grocery shopping over doing laundry

not-me me

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

Experiment 1

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Similarity to liberal target (IAT diff)

Mean diff = 81.3 mst(14) = 2.67, p < .02

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

Experiment 1

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Similarity to liberal target (IAT diff)

Implicitly similar to liberal other

Implicitly dissimilar from liberal other

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

Experiment 1

Simlar > Dissimilar

-0.4

-0.2

0.0

0.2

similar to liberal dissimilar from liberal

Mean parameter estimate

self liberal conservative

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

Experiment 1

Simlar > Dissimilar

Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006, Neuron

-0.4

-0.2

0.0

0.2

similar to liberal dissimilar from liberal

Mean parameter estimate

self liberal conservative

-2

-1.6

-1.2

-0.8

-0.4

0

0.4

0.8

1.2

-50 50 150 250 350

IAT difference (ms)

BOLD signal diff (con > lib)

r = .54, p < .05

Experiment 1

Experiment 1

Thinking about self

Experiment 2

Experiment 2

L R

hates traffic?

enjoys action movies?

L R

likes laundry?

looks forward to Xmas?

L R

enjoys skiing?

likes romance novels?

Experiment 2

L R

+

enjoys travel?

BUSH+

talkativeSELF+

daring+

BUSH+

politeSELF+

dependable

Explicit self-reference task

Experiment 2

Jenkins, Macrae, & Mitchell (2008), Proc Natl Acad Sci

BUSH+

talkativeSELF+

daring+

BUSH+

politeSELF+

dependable

Explicit self-reference task

Experiment 2

Jenkins, Macrae, & Mitchell (2008), Proc Natl Acad Sci

-0.2

-0.15

-0.1

-0.05

0self other

Parameter estimate

Self > Bush

Experiment 2

Jenkins, Macrae, & Mitchell (2008), Proc Natl Acad Sci

Experiment 2

Jenkins, Macrae, & Mitchell (2008), Proc Natl Acad Sci

self only-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

Parameter estimate

L R

+

enjoys skiing?

L R

enjoys skiing?

enjoys skiing?

Experiment 2

Jenkins, Macrae, & Mitchell (2008), Proc Natl Acad Sci

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

Parameter estimate

self-after-self

self only

L R

likes laundry?

likes laundry?

Experiment 2

Jenkins, Macrae, & Mitchell (2008), Proc Natl Acad Sci

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

Parameter estimate

self-after-self

self-after-dissimilar

self only

Jenkins, Macrae, & Mitchell (2008), Proc Natl Acad Sci

self-after-self

self-after-similar

self-after-dissimilarL R

hates traffic?

hates traffic?

Experiment 2

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

Parameter estimate

self only

Can we affect the use of self-reference to understand others?

Experiment 3

Meeting a friend for lunch

Ames, Jenkins, Banaji & Mitchell (2008), Psych Science

Experiment 3

I came back from the Guster concert around 3 in the morning & managed to catch a few hours of sleep before getting up to teach at the local Saturday school. My eyes are puffy from the lack of sleep; I hope Jennifer doesn’t notice when I meet her for lunch this afternoon. She’s been having trouble with her boss & I’ll have to try my hardest to look attentive & concerned.

“I came back from the Guster concert around 3 in the morning & managed to catch a few hours of sleep before getting up to teach at the local Saturday school. My eyes are puffy from the lack of sleep; I hope Jennifer doesn’t notice when I meet her for lunch this afternoon. She’s been having trouble with her boss & I’ll have to try my hardest to look attentive & concerned.”

Ames, Jenkins, Banaji & Mitchell (2008), Psych Science

Experiment 3

Going to class on the first day of a new semester

Ames, Jenkins, Banaji & Mitchell (2008), Psych Science

Experiment 3

“She was just dropped off at college. After a long drive to her new school, she is finally there. Her parents helped her move into her dormroom. As she was moving in, her roommate showed up. She seemed quiet and a little different from any of her old friends. After unpacking, she said goodbye to her parents. Her mom cried while her dad tried not to. It was sad, but she was happy to finally be at college and on her own. She went off to orientation a little concerned about fitting in and making new friends, but still excited to begin a new journey.”

Ames, Jenkins, Banaji & Mitchell (2008), Psych Science

Experiment 3

Generally prefers juice to soda

1 = very unlikely2 = somewhat unlikely3 = somewhat likely4 = very likely

Ames, Jenkins, Banaji & Mitchell (2008), Psych Science

Experiment 3

Generally prefers juice to soda

1 = very unlikely2 = somewhat unlikely3 = somewhat likely4 = very likely

Ames, Jenkins, Banaji & Mitchell (2008), Psych Science

Experiment 3

Generally prefers juice to soda

1 = very unlikely2 = somewhat unlikely3 = somewhat likely4 = very likely

Ames, Jenkins, Banaji & Mitchell (2008), Psych Science

Experiment 3

-0.5

-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

Self First-person Third-person

self > (first + third)

p < .05

Ames, Jenkins, Banaji & Mitchell (2008), Psych Science

Experiment 3