Dr. David Eagleman

They see six hands on the screen.

All the hands look pretty much alike.

And the computer goes around and it picks one of the hands.

And then you see that hand get stabbed with a syringe needle.

What happens is you have this empathic response, specifically this network of areas that we summarize as the pain matrix comes online.

It's not your hand getting stabbed, nonetheless you're watching a hand getting stabbed and you, this is the neural basis of empathy.

You're feeling, what would it feel like if that were my hand?

Great.

Okay.

Now what we do is we put a one-word label on each hand.

Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Scientologist, Hindu, Atheist.

Computer goes around, picks a hand.

You see that hand gets stabbed.

And the question is, does your brain care as much if it's a member of one of your out-groups versus your in-group?

Turns out the answer, depressingly, is that your brain cares much less.

So the size of the empathic response, if it's your in-group, is enhanced from what it was.

And if it's any one of your out-groups, it's diminished.

By the way, this is not a criticism of religion because we find exactly the same thing with atheists.

People who profess themselves as atheists really care when they see the atheist hand get stabbed.

Yeah.