Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine (정신신체의학)

Korean Psychosomatic Society (한국정신신체의학회)
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The Empathy and Justice Contemplated From the Neuroscientific Perspective in the Age of Social Divisions and Conflicts

분열과 반목의 시대에 신경과학적 관점에서 고찰해보는 공감과 정의

  • Ji-Woong, Kim (Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Konyang University)
  • 김지웅 (건양대학교 의과대학 정신건강의학과)
  • Received : 2022.08.01
  • Accepted : 2022.10.13
  • Published : 2022.12.31
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Abstract

Although humans exist as Homo Empathicus, human society is actually constantly divided and conflicted between groups. The human empathy response is very sensitive to the justice of others, and depending on the level of others' justice, they may feel empathy or schadenfreude to the suffering of them. However, our empathy to others' suffering are not always fair, and have inherent limitations of ingroup-biased empathy. Depending on whether the suffering other persons belongs to an ingroup or an outgroup, we may feel biased empathy or biased schadenfreude to them without even realizing it. Recent advances in information and communication technology facilitate biased access to ingroup-related SNS or ingroup media, thereby deepening the establishment of a more biased semantic information network related groups. These processes, through interacting with the inherent limitation of empathy, can form a vicious cycle of more biased ingroup empathy and ingroup-related activities, and accelerate divisions and conflicts. This research investigated the properties and limitations of empathy by reviewing studies on the neural mechanism of empathy. By examining the relationship between empathy and justice from a neuroscientific point of view, this research tried to illuminate the modern society of division and conflict in a different dimension from the classical perspective of social science.

공감적 존재인 Homo Empathicus로서의 인간들이 살아가는 세상임에도 불구하고, 실제로 우리 사회는 집단간의 분열과 갈등이 끊이지 않고 있다. 인간의 공감 반응은 타자의 정의로움에 민감하여, 타인의 정의로움 여부에 따라 타인의 고통에 공감 반응을 보이기도 하고 쾌감을 느끼기도 한다. 그러나, 타자에 대한 우리의 공감 반응은 항상 정의로운 것은 아니며, 내집단 편향성이라는 내재적 한계를 가지고 있다. 즉, 자신과 같은 집단이나 범주에 속하는 사람인지 아닌지에 따라, 우리는 스스로 의식하지도 못한 채 타인의 고통에 편향적으로 공감하기도 하고, 편향적으로 쾌감을 느끼기도 한다. 최근의 정보통신기술 발전은, 내집단 관련 SNS혹은 내집단 매체에 대한 편향적 접근을 용이하게 하며, 이를 통해 집단과 관련한 보다 편향된 의미론적 정보 네트워크의 구축을 심화시킨다. 이러한 현상들은 공감의 내재적 한계 속성들과 상호작용하여 더욱 편향된 내집단 공감 및 내집단 활동을 하게 하는 악순환의 고리를 형성함으로써 분열과 대립을 가속화할 수 있다. 저자는 공감의 신경 기전에 대한 이해를 통해 공감의 속성과 한계를 고찰해보고, 신경과학적 관점에서 공감과 정의의 관련성을 탐색해봄으로써, 분열과 갈등의 현대 사회를 기존의 사회과학적 시각과는 다른 차원에서 조명해보고자 하였다.

Keywords

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