Inbal Ben Ami Bartal

During her fellowship year, Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal will develop a neurobiological framework for understanding mammalian behavior during intergroup conflict. Building on her research on empathy and ingroup bias in a rat model, Ben-Ami Bartal proposes that across species, intergroup conflict has evolved to elicit a distinct neurobiological shift, in which motivational systems are reorganized in response to perceived threats to group survival. This framework seeks to explain how the same biological systems that support care, protection, and cooperation can be redirected toward heightened group cohesion, self-sacrifice, and hostility toward outgroups.

By integrating neuroscience with insights from psychology, sociology, and evolutionary biology, her work aims to advance a deeper understanding of collective action, identify the mechanisms that trigger and sustain conflict, and ultimately illuminate pathways toward greater social resilience.

Ben-Ami Bartal is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, where she directs the Prosocial Behavior Lab. Her research investigates the neurobiological mechanisms underlying empathy and helping behavior and focuses on understanding how social identity shapes neural circuits involved in the selectivity of prosocial behavior. Her pioneering studies demonstrated that rats engage in helping behavior motivated by the distress of others and helped establish empathy as a topic of rigorous neuroscientific investigation.

For more information, please visit: https://www.bartallab.sites.tau.ac.il/