Botox Study: Users Lose The Ability To Empathize

Sitcoms love to make fun of botox injects, typically with the same played out scenario in which a character on the show gets injections and is then unable to show pain or laughter or frustration on their faces when desperately needed. While TV shows provide a comical take on those small injections of poison, there may be more lost to those lack of emotions than users realize, a lack of empathy.

The treatment, which freezes the facial muscles to prevent wrinkling caused by “wear and tear” could be interfering with the patients ability to empathize according to Social Psychology and Personality Science. According to the journal a person empathizes by miming the other persons facial expressions, a practice halted by Botox injections:

“People who use Botox are less able to read others’ emotions,” says Neal, who worked with a researcher at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

People read emotions partly by mimicking facial expressions, Neal says, so “if muscular signals from the face to the brain are dampened, you’re less able to read emotions.”

The researchers finds were based on two studies which used Botox and the facial filler Restylane. [Kim LaCapria via Inquisitr]