This is a study that has a lot of relevance for virtually every person living in a “developed” country. Multiple studies have documented the decrease in empathy and increase in psychopathic tendencies in Western populations over the last 2-3 decades. Despite vehement denials by mainstream medicine, there is solid evidence that elevations in extracellular serotonin can cause a drastic reduction in empathetic behavior. This makes the widespread usage of SSRI drugs a prime suspect for the reductions of empathy seen across virtually all Western countries, and virtually absent in countries where SSRI usage is low or lacking. However, the increase in pychopathic behavior/tendencies is also seen in people not taking SSRI drugs, so there is probably more than one culprit. The study below suggests that anti-anxiety drugs (the benzodiazepine class), much more widely prescribed than SSRI drugs, can also reduce empathy. To make matters worse, while SSRI and other “stronger” psychotropic drugs are still not very widely used in people under 18 years of age, that is not the case for anti-anxiety drugs, which are prescribed to even children under the age of two. Certainly not a good omen for any any society if many of its children are pharmacologically conditioned to be psychopaths from a very early age. Perhaps just as importantly, the study demonstrated that cortisol levels determine the levels of empathy. High-cortisol blocked empathetic behavior while low or moderate levels did not. So, chronic stress (resulting in chronically elevated cortisol) not only makes us physiologically sick, but also callous and psychopathic towards others. Now, since people under chronic stress often suffer from anxiety, such people are often put on anti-anxiety drugs. While the study did not explore this topic, it would be truly tragic if it turns out that cortisol/stress has additive (or even worse – synergistic) effects with the anti-anxiety drugs and causes even stronger reductions in empathy! With that mind, there is little mystery as to why “developed” countries are turning into psychopathic cesspools, given that chronic and unavoidable stress (which raises both serotonin and cortisol) is with us 24×7, even if nobody was taking any drugs.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27375528/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37209151/
“…Rats given midazolam, an anti-anxiety medication, were less likely to free trapped companions because the drug lessened their empathy, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists. The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, validates studies that show rats are emotionally motivated to help other rats in distress. In the latest study, rats treated with midazolam did not open the door to a restrainer device containing a trapped rat, although control rats routinely freed their trapped companions. Midazolam did not interfere with the rats’ physical ability to open the restrainer door, however. In fact, when the restrainer device contained chocolate instead of a trapped rat, the test rats routinely opened the door. The findings show that the act of helping others depends on emotional reactions, which are dampened by the anti-anxiety medication. “The rats help each other because they care,” said Peggy Mason, PhD, professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago. “They need to share the affect of the trapped rat in order to help, and that’s a fundamental finding that tells us something about how we operate, because we’re mammals like rats too.”
“…Mason and her team also tested levels of corticosterone, a stress hormone, in the rats when first exposed to the trapped cage mate and compared them to their later behavior. Those with low- to mid-level responses were most likely to free their companions later. They found that those with the highest levels of corticosterone, or those that were under the most stress from the situation, were the least likely to help their cage mates. This fits well with findings in humans suggesting that eventually high stress becomes immobilizing rather than motivating.”
