Is Low Empathy a Reason to Refuse to Cooperate with Strangers?
[1]
Ángel Romero-Martínez, Department of Psychobiology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
[2]
Patricia Sariñana-González, Department of Psychobiology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
[3]
Luis Moya-Albiol, Department of Psychobiology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
A previous study analyzed how being forced to cooperate or compete without contemplates participants’ preferences or skills between strangers in a face-to-face same-gender dyad affects their salivary cortisol (Csal) or stress response to a laboratory task. Moreover, during the tasks participants were not allowed to talk, they should communicate with facial expressions. This research demonstrated that cooperation is more stressful (high salivary cortisol levels) than competition. Nevertheless, it was not explored how empathy and cooperativeness explain participants’ Csal response. Hence, this study aims to analyze how these socio-cognitive variables predict Csal response to a cooperative and a competitive task. Participants were 115 healthy young adults (mean age of 20 years, 51% females). Csal was measured in 5-point times (before and after the task). The results point out that being forced to cooperate with strangers was stressful for those individuals with low empathy and cooperativeness. Our research targeted that poor socio-cognitive skills may interfere in the coalition building and difficulty trust among strangers.
Competition, Cooperation, Empathy, Salivary Cortisol, Stress
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