How far are we willing to go to help someone we care about – even a little?

Under certain circumstances, to the point of aggression, according to a recent study by two University at Buffalo researchers.

Two neurohormones appear to be at play in such cases, according to Michael J. Poulin, whose study, “Empathy, Target Distress and Neurohormone Genes Interact to Predict Aggression for Others – Even Without Provocation,” with Anneke E.K. Buffone, a graduate student in the UB Department of Psychology, was recently published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

“Both oxytocin and vasopressin seem to serve a function leading to increased ‘approach behaviors,’ ” Poulin, an associate professor of psychology, said in a news release.

The researchers conducted a two-part study. “The results of both indicate that the feelings we broadly call empathic concern, or compassion, can predict aggression on behalf of those in need,” Poulin said. People aggressing on behalf of others has been widely researched, but Buffone and Poulin said, “The idea that empathy can drive aggression absent of provocation or injustice is quite novel.”

In the experiment, participants provided a saliva sample in order to measure neurohormone levels, then heard a compassion-evoking story about someone they never met, a fictional participant who was supposedly in another room with a second fictional participant. The actual participants were told the pair in the other room, strangers to each other, who were to take a math test, would be exposed to a painful but harmless stimulus (hot sauce) to measure the effects of physical pain on performance. During the test, the real subject had a choice on how much of a painful stimulus they would provide to the third party who was competing with the person they had compassion toward.

“The results of both the survey and the experiment indicate that the feelings we have when other people are in need … can predict aggression on behalf of those in need,” said Poulin. “In situations where we care about someone very much, as humans, we were motivated to benefit them, but if there is someone else in the way, we may do things to harm that third party.”

Consider parents who, in order to benefit their child in competition, might do something destructive to another challenger, Poulin said. “Our study adds that our response is because of love or compassion for those we care about,” he said.