Abigail Marsh
@aa_marsh
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Studies empathy, altruism, and aggression @Georgetown . Author of The Fear Factor (). Co-Founder of @PsychopathyIs
Washington, DC
Joined June 2013
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@DonaldJTrumpJr
I am a psychology professor. It's not weird. A selective fear is a phobia, and 19 million Americans have at least one. Most of them manage to function and push through their extreme fear at least some of the time to do the right thing, which is called courage.
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It would be a major disservice to the 100,000+ people who need kidneys if donors and potential donors were deterred from sharing their stories out of a fear that they would be perceived as narcissistic or attention-seeking. 6/
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I want to start by saying I have no interest in taking sides or commenting on any specific person’s motivations when it comes to the Bad Art Friend story in the Times. But… 1/
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To those donors: know that most people who hear about kidney donation (from donors themselves or elsewhere) perceive it as I do: as a remarkable act of compassion and generosity. Thank you for what you do, and don’t be deterred from sharing your stories. 7/
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I have had the joy and privilege of conducting research with people who donate kidneys to strangers for 10+ years. I have learned a lot about non-directed (altruistic) kidney donation in the process. And lots of evidence shows donors' primary motive is alleviating suffering. 3/
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I’m concerned that some people who read the story could come away with the perception that people who donate kidneys do so out of narcissism and attention-seeking, and that their sharing the story of their donation with others is evidence of those motivations. 2/
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Most donors I have worked with said that they decided to donate after learning about someone else who donated. So everyone who donates and shares their experiences could help save more lives. Given this, many donors seek to share their experiences with others. 5/
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Because the need for donor kidneys is ENORMOUS (100,000+ people are waiting for one now), donor and transplant organizations are eager to get the word out about donation. Donors and recipients are encouraged to talk about their donations to help inform others about donating. 4/
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The single best predictor of performance in college classes is attendance. Better than high school GPA, SAT scores, study habits, or study skills. Students: come to class! (This is why I now make attendance mandatory, with up to 2 unexcused absences.)
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Sleep makes us nicer: worse sleep (both quantity and quality) reduces how much people help each other, including real-world altruistic acts), observable at 3 societal scales: within individuals, across individuals, and at a nationwide level.
@PLOSBiology
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This is a really important paper. I don't know what the RMET (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test) measures, and neither does anyone else. There is very little evidence for its validity as a measure of "empathy" or other constructs it's purported to measure.
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In 2013 my PhD mentor Nalini Ambady died of leukemia. A bone marrow transplant could have saved her. Sadly, several of the people identified as potential matches for her decided not to donate after all when they were approached by
@BeTheMatch
@NationalMarrow
1/
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This terrific paper's results make it clear that the belief "people are fundamentally selfish" is predominantly held by people who are themselves exploitative and untrustworthy and is endorsed in part because it helps them justify their behavior.
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Totally agree w
@DKThomp
: "Every social crisis in the U.S. could be helped somewhat if people spent a little more time with other people and a little less time gazing into digital content that’s designed to make us anxious and despondent about the world."
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Did you know psychologists agree that the Myers-Briggs is NOT a valid personality test?
It is appealing but doesn't capture fundamental personality constructs or predict meaningful outcomes.
Hear more on the new
@PsychScience
podcast Under the Cortex:
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To learn more, check out:
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If you want to predict your life outcomes using a personality test:
• Astrology has zero value
• A Myers-Briggs type test has a little value
• A real psychological test like the Big 5 or HEXACO is by far the best
@sciam
@SpencrGreenberg
@SethS_D
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The younger a kid is when they get their first smartphone, the worse their mental health as a young (18-24 yo) adult. Parents: resist the urge to get your pre-teen a smartphone! They will be better off in the long-term if you wait. (The longer the better)
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Seek out opportunities to experience awe--whether in nature, a religious service, or a museum. It will improve your health, your well-being, your sense of connectedness to others--and might even make you a kinder person.
@PsychScience
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50 years after Paul MacLean first used the word "empathy" in a neuroscience article, I think he'd be amazed and pleased by all we've learned. I review the recent literature on the neuroscience of empathy
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Cool new meta-analysis reinforces that it may be more appropriate to talk about "empathies" instead of "empathy" as if it were a single phenomenon. The neural systems that support empathic responding are different for different states (e.g., pain versus fear).
Super thrilled to share our newest meta-analysis paper on neural correlates of empathy, showing that empathy for pain is unique in its neural correlates compared to empathy for non-pain negative affective states (e.g., fear)
@BPPLab
@Laura_Simons
@LCHeathcote
(link in comment)
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So excited that this paper is out (at long last) with thanks to
@NSF
and the Kuno Foundation for their support. For the first time ever, we test SIX populations of rare, extraordinary altruists to see what distinguishes them from typical adults. 1/
Out now in
@NatureComms
! 🎉
6 populations of real-world extraordinary altruists are best distinguished from typical adults by their unusually unselfish traits & decision-making patterns
@KrutiVekaria
@kmo5128
@hannahsavitz
@DG_Rand
Megan Kozak
@aa_marsh
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Altruism is minimally related to self-reported empathy. Examining 347 real-world altruists, we found they don't self-report more empathy (and report LESS personal distress). Are altruists more empathic? Yes, but self-reported empathy≠empathy.
@NatureComms
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So happy this paper is out!
This is the 1st study of brain activity as real-world extreme altruists make decisions to be generous. Evidence does NOT suggest altruists are overriding selfish urges, but rather that they truly value others' welfare--even distant others.
@PNASNexus
📢 Out now in
@PNASNexus
w/
@aa_marsh
@kmo5128
@kathrynberluti
@MontanaPloe
@hannahsavitz
@PaigeAmormino
@JLL2299
Mary Ann Dutton
@ashleyphd15
We characterize the neural basis of altruistic kidney donors' generosity for socially close and distant others
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A semi-regular reminder that self-reported empathy is not "empathy." We have found that empathic responding to others' pain and fear in the brain is strongly associated with altruism, whereas self-reported empathy is not.
The measure is not the construct.
Lack of empathy failed to predict bullying perpetration in longitudinal study.
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Out today in
@TrendsCognSci
: Although empathy is sometimes thought to impede equitable altruism,
@law_fiore
@PaigeAmormino
@BrenBoOconnor
and I argue that empathy is compatible with rationality, and may even promote (not prevent) equitable giving. /
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As an empathy researcher, I have been frustrated for a long time by the jumble of definitions we use, which is preventing progress. Grateful to the authors for taking this important step, and will GLADLY go with these definitions moving forward.
"Theory of mind" "Mentalization" "Cognitive empathy" and so on. These are all important concepts, but the terminology on mental state attribution is inconsistent. This paper makes useful recommendations.
Defining key concepts for mental state attribution
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Simply being assigned to talk more to strangers for a week made people less pessimistic about the possibility of rejection and more optimistic about their conversational ability—and these benefits persisted for at least a week after the study ended.
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I was so honored to have received this years
@Georgetown
Deans Award for Excellence in Teaching--and grateful to work in a university where teaching is so valued, and where I have such wonderful students to teach!
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Empathy can be hard to define. But researchers are starting to converge on defining it as shared representations ("the attempted representation, or simulation, of another's subjective internal experiences")--which I love! See my
@Emotion_Review
commentary:
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This explains a lot. Apparently, people are biased to assume cynical people are unusually intelligent, when the opposite is actually true--cynical people tend to be LESS intelligent than non-cynical people.
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@BeTheMatch
@NationalMarrow
@KrutiVekaria
@ToddRogers
Proud to have conducted this research in honor of Nalini. And proud to have learned from
@nmdp
that after they incorporated changes drawn from our work, over 400 MORE registry members said yes to donation in the following year—that means lives saved!
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Out today! THE FEAR FACTOR ( )--named one of the 10 most anticipated books of October by
@PasteMagazine
;
@HachetteUS
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Unsurprisingly, having empathy for those most vulnerable to COVID-19 is associated with more physical distancing and wearing face masks.
@PsychScience
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Meta-analysis of cooperation in social dilemmas from 1956 to 2017 finds Americans became more cooperative toward strangers over that time period. Positive predictors of increased cooperation include GDP per capita, urbanization, and % living alone.
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Results of randomized controlled trial at West Point suggests laptop use in class causes worse exam scores
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Protective factor against depression: mood homeostasis, or engaging in mood-elevating activities when mood is low, and useful but mood-depressing activities when mood is high. Key takeaway--the single best mood-elevating activity: exercise!
@JAMAPsych
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Why is children's well-being plummeting? Peter Gray and colleagues blame plummeting opportunities for independent play, which is the ONLY way kids get opportunities to solve problems independently and develop confidence in themselves.
@LetGrowOrg
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Perceiving others to be morally bad reduces our desire to alleviate their suffering, finds
@PsyHongbo
lab.
(Related to
@PaigeAmormino
's finding that extraordinary altruists are less likely to believe other people are morally bad! )
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Some people are not nice. It's a fact of people.
Social media's problem is that it rewards hostility and trolling in ways that real interactions don't.
So social media may not make people more hostile, but it makes the rest of us perceive our social *environment* as hostile.
The internet doesn't turn people into trolls. It just makes their trolling more visible.
8 studies, over 8k people: if you're an asshole online, you're probably an asshole in person too.
Trolls choose aggression to get attention. It's better to ignore them than feed them.
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Extraordinary altruists are distinguished by their
#empathy
, showing greater self-other conjunction in left insula when experiencing pain/observing a stranger's pain. Awesome work by lab members
@BrethelHaurwitz
@EliseCardinale
@KrutiVekaria
@ELRobertson16
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Feeling anxious or cynical? Limiting your news diet might help. National US media (across the political spectrum) WILDLY overweights bad news compared to international or local media.
Raising issues is good, creating widespread anxiety and cynicism is not.
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Nice graphic about the safety of various energy sources from
@OurWorldInData
. Nuclear energy in particular gets an unfair bad rap. It's clearly safer than coal, oil, gas, biomass, or hydropower (as well as MUCH cleaner):
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Kids can accomplish tasks at MUCH younger ages than US law and caregivers believe. (My kids' expert caregivers from Ghana/Indonesia encouraged them to do things on their own earlier than books recommended.) Are we robbing kids of independence?
@SRCDtweets
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I got goosebumps the first time I heard the wonderful Suzanne Simard speak about social networks in forests--turns out trees engage in the same kinds of prosocial interactions animals do, including altruism and cooperation, via subterranean fungal threads.
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Wow--amazing example of spontaneous collective altruism for strangers!
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There seems to be something powerful about breaking bread together. A pre-registered study finds eating from shared bowls promotes cooperation between both friends and strangers. General lesson: eat more group meals. Science lesson: bring food to lab meetings!
@PsychScience
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Want a lab measure that predicts actual variation in human altruism? Skip empathy scales and transparent prosociality questionnaires.
Your best bets are:
- Honesty-Humility (HEXACO)
- Social Discounting
- Social Value Orientation (SVO)
Rhoads '23, Thielmann '20, Böckler '16
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Telling people "not to be afraid" of a virus that has killed 200,000+ people is awful leadership.
It also confuses being fearless with being brave. Brave people confront danger in the service of a higher cause. Fearless people pretend there is no danger and make foolish choices.
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I love the dialogue across differences initiatives
@dartmouth
under
@sianbeilock
's leadership. A fantastic example of using fundamental principles of psychology for positive social change. I hope more universities (like
@georgetown
?) follow suit.
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Interested in studying the neural and cognitive basis of empathy, altruism, and/or aggression? We have a lab manager opening in my lab
@GUPsychology
! Join us!
Apply by sending a cover letter and CV to lsan
@georgetown
.edu
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Psychologists should know more about ravens! Not only are they crazy intelligent, they are long-lived, learn language, cooperate, dislike inequity, and solve problems using insight. Their brains also look absolutely nothing like ours. They are worth understanding better...
It’s Sunday, let’s learn some fun stuff. Here are 10 things you should know about ravens:
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So-called "gentle parents" may seek to protect their children from distress. But the long-term outcomes of this approach can be catastrophic. Children who don't experience distress don't learn to tolerate distress and are at high risk for anxiety.
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Giving smartphones to adolescents was the largest uncontrolled experiment humans have ever run on their children (even bigger than 12-18 month lockdowns and school closures). The evidence is overwhelming that the experiment failed. Something has to change.
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New meta-analysis of fMRI studies of emotion processing in youths with conduct problems (CD/ODD) in
@Transl_Psych
.
@kathrynberluti
and
@MontanaPloe
find reduced amygdala activation in kids with CP to all negative images and to fearful expressions. 1/
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Researchers taught rats to play hide and seek using purely social rewards (tickling). The best part? The rats REALLY got into the game--using strategies to win, deliberately prolonging playtime, and doing "joy jumps" when found.
To study the neuroscience of play, a group of scientists taught rats to play hide-and-seek with them. (They rewarded the rodents with tickles.)
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Awesome new work by
@zakijam
and colleagues finds that one way to reduce polarization is to believe that the ability to empathize with people you disagree with is a valuable resource, not a weakness.
@PsychScience
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"Let us be clear: Donald Trump is a psychopath."
This is true. I am a psychopathy researcher and have yet to talk to any psychopathy researcher (there aren't that many of us) who disagrees.
And it's a real bummer we aren't able to speak frankly about that fact.
The greatest of many failures of journalism in the Trump time was its failure to cover his mental illness and the danger of his many pathologies.
This could all have been prevented: How mental health experts were silenced
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The Pareto principle is key to understanding antisocial behavior (lying, theft, aggression, etc), the vast majority of which is perpetrated by <20% of all people. These 9 studies find the Pareto principle may apply to discrimination, too...
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Ravens avoid those who have cheated them out of cheese even a month later
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"Scientists spend up to 40 percent of their time working on research grants rather than on research."
Think about that. FORTY PERCENT. Think of all the problems we could have solved were it not true.
It is a bad system, one which is in dire need of an update.
"what if one scientist sees extraordinary promise in a wacky idea but the rest of the board sees only its wackiness? The sheer amount of work required to get a grant also penalizes radical creativity."
@TheAtlantic
@DKThomp
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A huge congratulations to Dr.
@ShawnRhoads56
for a fantastic defense of his dissertation on Wednesday AND being honored with
@georgetown
's Karen Gale Exceptional PhD Student Award last night! What a week!
LSAN and
@GUPsychology
are so proud of you, Shawn! 🍾🎉🎊🎈
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The core of narcissism: "Narcissistic individuals demand attention and respect while withholding both from others."
It's important to know what you're dealing with when you spot these traits.
@drl4567
@mitja_back
@JMill_er
@aidangcw
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I am grateful beyond words to Lisa Michael for her gift to my lab
@Georgetown
--the largest private gift for psychopathy research to date. We will use it to seek better understanding of what
@psychopathyis
and how to help affected individuals and families.
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Our lab
@GUPsychology
is excited to be hiring a new lab manager to start Summer 2024. Please send cover letters and CVs to lsan
@georgetown
.edu! The application portal will open soon. (And please forward to trainees interested in the neuroscience of empathy & social behavior.)
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"Behavioral and social science research is underrepresented and under-resourced at
@NIH
given the important connections behavioral and social factors have with human health and disease."
@psychscience
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The number is much higher when you have kids. One of the parts of having kids that I think isn't appreciated enough: they are so funny. Households with kids have a lot of laughter, up to and including laughing fits.
People laughed spontaneously on average 2.5 times a day, and about once every 4 days, this resulted in a fit of laughter. Interestingly, rather little is known about how often we laugh and how laughter is associated with our personality. In a large,…
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Thanks
@junegruber
@jayvanbavel
@WilCunningham
@leahsom
@NeilLewisJr
for the reminder to all academics (although not exclusively!) that:
This. Is. Not. Normal.
Expecting business as usual from colleagues is expecting the impossible and the inhumane.
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"Nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And... it takes [only!] around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change"
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Hi Twitter friends--I'm excited to report I have co-founded a new organization dedicated to improving understanding of
#psychopathy
, providing support for affected people/families, and fundraising for research.
Check out and follow
@psychopathyis
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@pegobry_en
The opposite! If the only way to get anywhere is driving, kids are trapped and dependent on parents until they are nearly adults. It's the pits. Living somewhere where people can get places by walking/biking/public transportation gives kids the independence they need and deserve.
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Boredom promotes sadistic aggression!
Makes sense, and helps to explain some aggression in psychopathy, which is a combination of high stimulation-seeking (which makes people easily bored, motivating sadistic aggression) plus callousness (which reduces restraint on aggression).
*Very* excited to finally share these results! Across 15 studies and over 7000 participants, we find boredom causes sadistic behavior. Now in press at JPSP.
Many thanks to Stefan,
@Lili_Lazarevic
, & Simon for including me in this project! 1/n
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Over-protecting children from distress, risk, and independence when they are young puts them at greater risk of more distress, risk-intolerance, and low self-efficacy as adults, according to Peter Gray.
@LetGrowOrg
@washingtonpost
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I know it's tempting to be cynical about people. I know. Please don't be. Ignore what you learn about people through a screen. It's all manipulated and warped by corporations to make us fear and mistrust each other. Let me tell you what happened today on my university campus. 1/n
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In a beautiful example of allomothering, Officer Celeste Ayala breastfeeds a neglected baby, treating him "like a mother without a second thought, even though [she] didn’t know him.”
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@paulbloomatyale
@Marc_M_Andersen
@MorbidPsych
@MathiasClasen
Love this study! We did something similar--we tested people emerging from a "haunted" forest (also featuring men in masks & chainsaws) and found people who were less scared were themselves scarier (more psychopathic, more prior violence)
@EliseCardinale
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Huge new study of social connectedness finds people who have adhered most strictly to social distancing guidelines and people who do more video conferencing feel less socially connected.
The last 16 months have taken a real toll. Be kind to each other.
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The more similar your values are to another person's, the more accurately you can predict their choices and the less likely you are to attribute harmful intent to them.
@nicholaraihani
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Let's not forget Washington, DC: 93% Biden!
The cities Trump and his enablers have relentlessly insulted for 4 years:
Atlanta: 70% Biden
Philadelphia: 81% Biden
Detroit: 68% Biden
Chicago: 72% Biden
Baltimore: 85% Biden
Los Angeles: 70% Biden
New York: 85% Biden
Funny how that works.
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New findings about extraordinary altruists' religious beliefs and beliefs in other people by
@PaigeAmormino
@kmo5128
@KrutiVekaria
and
@ELRobertson16
. Altruists are mainly distinguished by being less likely to believe other people can be truly evil.
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Thanks to
@olgakhazan
@TheAtlantic
for this reminder that the Myers-Briggs personality test is virtually meaningless. (Psychologists call it astrology for consultants.) If you want a test that will accurately map your personality, I recommend the HEXACO:
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That is real life! 7 people who helped a stranger in need. I know that violates the narrative that people are selfish and uncaring. But data back me up. One study looked at CCTV footage in several countries and found that 9/10 strangers in need are helped.
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It is common for acts of extraordinary altruism to perceived as deeply moral.
@PaigeAmormino
and
@MontanaPloe
present the first research to explore the actual moral foundations, values, and judgments of extraordinary altruists, out today in
@SciReports
1/
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Calling prospective PhD students--our
@GUPsychology
lab will be interviewing this fall! Applications welcome for those interested in human neuroimaging, empathy, altruism, and psychopathy.
Information about our department and application process are here:
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Yet another reason not to confuse self-reported empathy with actual empathy. This paper by Lilienfeld et al finds major limitations of the IRI, including, as we find in extraordinary altruists, that it doesn't capture empathy well at high trait levels
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I have never been so moved by the sight of trucks. I want to bang my pots and pans out the windows in gratitude to all of the scientists, manufacturers, research participants (I'm looking at you, vaccine volunteers) and drivers who are making this incredible moment possible.
Breaking - UPS and FedEx trucks carrying the first U.S. shipment of coronavirus vaccine have left Pfizer’s facility near Kalamazoo, Michigan.
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Please join me in congratulating
@jennDSN
and
@cate_hartley
, the new President-Elect and Member At Large of SANS!
@SANS_news
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Amazing study--rats show an empathic fear response in the basolateral and centromedial amygdala when the person handling them has just undergone fear conditioning, exactly paralleling empathic fear reactions between two humans. Awww!
@PNASNews
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Exposure to others’ kindness alleviates the aversive effects of viewing others’ acts of immorality.
@PLOSONE
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The literature on giving and happiness suggests that generosity is most likely to yield happiness:
1. During the act of giving
2. When giving is a choice, not a requirement
3. When the results are clear and concrete
@DunnHappyLab
@lbaknin
@ashleywhillans
)
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Looking for a post-doc position? Have a PhD in psychology, neuroscience or similar field? Interested in using behavioral & neuroimaging approaches to study emotion, social decision-making, and behavior? Apply to our open post-doctoral position
@GUPsychology
!
@SANS_news
@SPSPnews
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Lovely data on whether facial expressions signal emotion or social communication goals. It's (satisfyingly) BOTH: "Individuals actively tune their facial expressions in social settings to communicate their experiences to others"
@wcraigwilliams
@zakijam
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"Forming coalitions around scientific or factual questions is disastrous, because it pits our urge for scientific truth-seeking against the nearly insuperable human appetite to be a good coalition member."
-John Tooby (Incredible short essay!)
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OH NO IS RIGHT. We are all going to have so much to undo. No one can "see" "emotional trauma" or any psychological diagnosis on any brain scan. But there are definitely people out there eager to take your $$$ who will tell you they can.
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Disorders of aggression (psychopathy, conduct disorder, APSD, etc.) are real disorders. And they can be treated. But first they need to be acknowledged and given parity with other psychological disorders.
@sciam
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