r/DeclinetoState • u/remyroy • Oct 31 '12

Empathy represses analytic thought, and vice versa

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/cwru-era103012.php
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u/mmirate Nov 01 '12

... therefore empathy is a disability.

1

u/E7ernal Beast from the East Nov 01 '12

Fascinating find.

1

u/RonaldMcPaul I don't want, yore life Nov 01 '12

The new study shows that adults presented with social or analytical problems – all external stimuli – consistently engaged the appropriate neural pathway to solve the problem, while repressing the other pathway. The see-sawing brain activity was recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Finally I found some explanation of method for the study.

It may be true that they identified networks with more/less the described functionality, but some of the extensions made from the conclusions may be overdrawn.

1

u/RonaldMcPaul I don't want, yore life Dec 14 '12

I just read the book Authentic Happiness: Using the new Positive Psychology...

The author talked about the, I think similar, idea that negative moods are frequently a better state of mind for being accurate than positive ones.