Why do we stand up against social injustices?

Isha Nagpal | Ashoka University

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Holding a newspaper in the morning, going through the innumerable instances of injustices often deeply disturbs us even though we have never experienced them first-hand. While some of those articles remain mere stories in the newspapers, others often gather country-wide activism and protests. One such incident was the Nirbhaya gang rape case which gathered public voices like no other before it.

When some of us are reading newspapers there are others who go out on streets, raise funds and establish remedial institutions for things that do not directly affect them in any way. So the question arises that when we see such injustices happening around us every day, how does the human brain understand and process them? While answering this, we need to acknowledge that reactions upon observing injustices vary largely across individuals. There are many factors that guide these reactions, from personality to past experiences and from emotional states to attitudes towards others.

Activism, in general, has many layers to it and one of the factors that lead to activism is a sense of altruism. In fact, Professor Florence Passy has argued that social movements are instances of “political altruism” in themselves (Giugni & Passy, 2002). Altruism can be defined as actions or behaviours that help others without any gain for oneself. Many factors like personality and mood can affect how altruistic a person would be and to what extent will they help out others. A ground-breaking paper by Batson introduced an important aspect of altruism. He produced what is known now as the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis which says that the more empathetic a person, the more likely they are to help someone in need (Batson, et.al., 2015).

So we can now say that one of the most important aspects of understanding injustices and others’ misery is Empathy. Empathy is understood as a level-up to sympathy and has been popularly known as putting oneself in the other person’s shoes. While this phrase adequately puts across the central idea behind empathy, it can better be defined as an ability to cognitively and emotionally recognize others’ feelings or experiences like one’s own. It also extends into being able to imagine oneself in the place of the other person to be able to fully acknowledge their needs and wants.

From an evolutionary perspective, it has been hypothesized that empathy, as an ability, developed so that humans are able to help each other endure which in turn will aid in the collective survival of our species (Riess, 2017). Interestingly, this evolution has been recognized in the neuroanatomy of our brain as well. After years of research, an Italian researcher Pellegrino and his colleagues first identified a set of neurons, or brain cells, in monkeys which were active when they were imitating others’ behaviours (Pellegrino, 1992). These are now known as mirror neurons in human brains. These mirror neurons are speculated to be the reason that humans are able to observe and imitate behaviour and to understand and be able to feel what another human must be feeling.

The neuroscientist responsible behind linking mirror neurons to empathy in humans is V.S. Ramachandran. He has widely popularised the notion that these neurons are what enables us to empathise with another person, especially through his article in the Edge, 20 years ago. Although he has been supported and criticized by many fellow neuroscientists and researchers, his theory was the closest that we have ever reached to tangibly watching empathy in our brains (Ramachandran, 2000). We still cannot completely trust this link, given the many researches which have criticized it, however, one thing which stands out is that we all seem to possess the skill of empathising.

Empathy was one of the reasons that the Nirbhaya case got the reaction that it did. We were able to empathise because the victim was just like any other girl living in the National Capital, going out to watch a movie. Most of us living in Delhi or even other cities, have at some point either experienced or observed some form of harassment which makes it easier to put ourselves in the victim’s position. This led to a massive outcry from the general public, especially the youth for justice for the victim and subsequent steps to ensure that such an act is never repeated.

Being able to put ourselves in another person’s shoes helps us understand what they might need. We are, as a species, hardwired to lend support and help in order to sustain. It is so intuitive that we hardly ever stop to question this feeling and stand up for what we feel is wrong. In this world of political and social chaos with the backdrop of a pandemic, empathy might be our only weapon. So why not go ahead and stand up against social injustices for people who might not be able to do it for themselves.

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References

1. Batson, C. D., Lishner, D. A., & Stocks, E. L. (2015). The empathy—Altruism hypothesis. In D. A. Schroeder & W. G. Graziano (Eds.), Oxford library of psychology. The Oxford handbook of prosocial behavior (p. 259–281). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195399813.013.023

2. di Pellegrino, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (1992). Understanding motor events: a neurophysiological study. Experimental brain research, 91(1), 176–180. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00230027

3. Giugni, M. G., & Passy, F. (2002). Political altruism: Solidarity movements in international perspective. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

4. Ramachandran, V.S. (2000). Mirror neurons and imitation learning as the driving force behind "the great leap forward" in human evolution.

5. Riess H. (2017). The Science of Empathy. Journal of patient experience, 4(2), 74–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373517699267