Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the study included an equal number of African-American and Caucasian-American study participants. After showing them either African-American or Caucasian-American individuals in painful (i.e. in the midst of a natural disaster) or neutral (attending an outdoor picnic) situations, researchers found out blacks showed greater empathy for African-Americans facing adversity as victims of Hurricane Katrina than whites demonstrated for Caucasian-Americans in pain。

　　"We found that everybody reported empathy toward the Hurricane Katrina victims," said Assistant Professor Joan Chiao. "But African-Americans showed greater empathic response to other African-Americans in emotional pain."

　　She said the findings suggests our ability to identify with another person dramatically changes how much we can feel the pain of another. "We think this is really interesting because it suggests mechanisms by which we can enhance our empathy and altruistic motivation simply by finding ways in which we have commonality across individuals and across groups," Chiao said。

　　据美国合众国际社26日报道，美国西北大学一项研究表明，从神经科学角度看，人类同情心因人种不同存在明显差异。

　　该大学的一个研究小组对相同数量的黑人和白人志愿者进行研究，先给他们看在2005年“卡特里娜”飓风重创新奥尔良市时的灾民照片。作为对比，又给他们看了那些市民在受灾前外出野餐等休闲娱乐生活的照片。在这些志愿者看照片的过程中，研究人员用仪器记录他们大脑中的情感变化，并进行后续分析。结果显示，黑人对受灾黑人表现出来的同情心要远大于白人对受灾白人表现出来的同情心。

　　该研究小组的负责人说，每个人看到灾民的照片都会表现出同情心，这一点毫无疑问。有意思的是，肤色不同，同情心的多寡有明显差异。黑人在看到别的黑人受灾时，心理表现出的痛苦和同情程度非常高。

　　研究人员表示，这个发现反映了人们关注对象发生变化时同情心的显著变化。如果能确切了解这种变化机制，人们就可以想出办法不让同情和奉献仅局限在族群内部，而是平衡到不同族群的每个人身上。