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Home Exclusive Social Psychology


FEMALE SUBMISSIVES HAVE REDUCED EMPATHY TO OTHERS’ SUFFERING, STUDY ON BDSM
FINDS

by Eric W. Dolan
February 27, 2017
in Social Psychology


(Photo credit: Andrey Kiselev)



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Female “subs” show reduced empathic responses to others’ suffering, according to
preliminary research on BDSM practitioners.

“Our behavioral and neuroimaging findings cast new light on the relationship
between BDSM activities and empathy by yielding evidence that BDSM experience
might moderate empathic tendencies an empathic neural responses,” the
researchers wrote in their study, which was published in the journal
Neuropsychologia.

Two experiments conducted in the study indicated that women who adopted a
submissive role (subs) also tended to be less empathetic.

The first experiment of 365 Chinese adults found female subs showed decreased
empathic ability compared with a control group of non-practitioners. But there
was no difference between female “switches” — meaning women who switch between
dominant and submissive roles — and the control group. Likewise, there was no
difference in empathic ability between male practitioners and the control group.

Both male and female practitioners, however, reported diminished feelings of
subjective pain intensity when viewing facial expressions indicating pain.

“These findings are consistent with previous findings suggesting that the
reduction in empathic responses to others’ suffering was associated with
frequent exposure to pain-inflicting situations,” the researchers explained.



In the second experiment, the researchers monitored the brain activity of 64
Chinese women using an EEG while the women viewed images of painful and neutral
facial expressions. This experiment found a “reliable reduction in empathic
brain responses to perceived pain in others in the female submissive group.”

The authors of the study cautioned that researchers are still in the beginning
stages of understanding how BDSM impacts empathy.

“Future research should aim to further clarify whether and how variety in
practices and interpersonal relationships during BDSM practices shape
individuals’ perceptions of others’ feelings.”



The study, “Empathy in female submissive BDSM practitioners“, was authored by
Siyang Luo and Xiao Zhang.

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