Mind & Life International Research Institute

Graduate student Steven Anderson presented his research on the relationship between emotion regulation ability and empathy for pain at the first Mind & Life International Research Institute in Kyoto, Japan, held September 1-5. Steven presented data that he collected in Shihui Han's Culture and Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Peking University under the auspices of the National Science Foundation (NSF) East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) Program. Investigating how belief in the social appropriateness of outward pain expression relates to emotion regulation and empathy for pain, Steven found that individuals who habitually suppress their emotions are more likely to deem outward pain expression as inappropriate. He also found neuroimaging evidence that suggests that greater belief that outward pain expression is inappropriate is associated with decreases in activity in brain regions previously associated with visual and empathic responding when passively viewing faces of individuals in pain.

Steven Anderson discussing his poster. Image courtesy of Mind & Life International Research Institute.

The Mind & Life International Research Institute 2018 was held in the Rinzai Zen Buddhist Myōshin-ji Temple Complex in Kyoto, Japan.