Psychology The suffering of others can strengthen psychological resilience

Observing traumatic experiences in others can strengthen one's own resilience and protect against depression. Swiss researchers have demonstrated the existence of such "emotional contagion" in a new study on mice.

"We found that mice that briefly observe a conspecific being injured become more resilient," wrote the research team led by Manuel Mameli from the University of Lausanne in the study published on Thursday in the journal Science. For example, mice reacted less desperately to electric shocks if they had previously observed how conspecifics dealt with them.

In order to understand this effect, the researchers examined the activity in the brain region called the habenula, which is important for processing negative emotions, in the brains of the mice. They found that the observer mice showed an increased release of serotonin in this brain region. These results could be helpful in the treatment of depression in the future.