Lecture 9 Flashcards
What is trust?
Trust is a positively valence interpersonal attitude. Within a stage of high trust there is hope, assurance, faith and comfort.
What is distrust?
Distrust represents a negatively valenced interpersonal attitude. In a high distrust phase there is fear, suspicion, cynicism, paranoia and anger.
Distrust is the belief that the other one will behave in a way that will produce harm, and not the absence of trust. It is an active expectation that the other party will behave in a way that violates one’s welfare and security. It has been negatively linked to loyalty, communication and/or cooperative behaviour.
Can trust and distrust co-exist?
Yes. Positive consequences of trust are not necessarily influenced negatively by increased distrust.
Which brain regions are associated with trust?
caudate nucleus, putamen, striatum (linked to anticipating rewards, predicting behaviours and calculating uncertainty)
Which brain regions are associated with distrust?
amygdala, insula (linked to loss aversion)
Which is heritable? Trust or distrust?
Trust is heritable, distrust is not, based on a monozygotic vs dizygotic twins study. The AE model (heritable factors & unshared environmental factors) appears to be the best-fitting model for trust. The CE model (environmental factors & unshared environmental factors) appears to be the best-fitting model of distrust.
What is the role of the mirror neuron system?
Mirror neurons are a set of neurons that respond both when an individual performs a goal-directed action, and when another person performs the same action, and that individual observes.
What is the role of TOM system?
Theory of mind argues that mentalizing invokes the very conscious and deliberate processes we use to infer or predict what others are thinking and feeling.
What role does oxytocin play within the TOM system?
It improves the ability to infer the mental state of others from social cues. Since it is involved in social learning, infering the mental state of others is of critical importance.
What are the effects of age on the TOM system?
It develops after the age of 4, which is why kids after this age can actively discriminate between helpers and trickers.
What is the relation between the theory of mind and mirror neurons?
You must have a good mirror neurons system to have a good theory of mind system. Hence, they are dependent on each other.
What is the role of the empathy system?
Empathy allows us to understand and even share other’s emotional and feeling states. Empathy relies on affective neural networks, which are activated when we feel our own emotions, as well as when we observe others feeling emotions. The nature and extent of their activation can vary according to the nature of the relationship, situation, and how we perceive the other person. E.g. if we perceive the other person as being unfair or somehow deserving of pain or punishment, we may experience much less empathetic activation in the insula.
What is the relationship between empathy and TOM?
In a study, individuals with autism show difficulties with TOM, not with empathy. Individuals with psychopathy show clear difficulties with empathy but no indications of impairment with TOM. Hence, they are independent of each other.
What is the relationship between empathy and mirror neurons?
Widely held assumption in the general public is that mirror neurons are a prerequisite for empathy. Hence, empathy depends on bottom-up signalling from mirror neurons.
However, a study has shown that this is a top-down process. Hence, the mirror neurons system is not a prerequisite for empathy, they are independent.
