Moral transgression modulates empathy for pain: Evidence from ERP and EEG data

Empathy for others' pain plays a critical role in human social interactions; however, the influence of moral transgression remains unclear. We examined the effect of moral transgression on the behavioral and underlying neural processes of empathy for others' pain. Participants performed a pain-empathy task separately in a moral transgression condition and a neutral behavior condition, while an electroencephalogram was recorded. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that empathic response, as reflected in the late positive component, was smaller when participants performed the task in the moral transgression condition than in the neutral behavior condition. Time-frequency results also showed decreased empathic effect on the beta event-related desynchronization response in the moral transgression as compared to the neutral behavior condition. However, empathic response as reflected in the N2 component was comparable between the moral conditions. These findings demonstrate a moral transgression effect on both cognitive evaluations and sensorimotor processes of empathy for others' pain. Furthermore, spontaneous alpha-oscillation power recorded prior to the onset of empathy-inducing stimuli was significantly higher in the moral transgression condition than in the neutral behavior condition. Consequently, differences in sustained attention may be the physiological foundation of the impact of moral transgression of the observed person on the cognitive and sensorimotor processes of empathy for pain.