Editing Sadness (section)

== Pupil empathy ==
[[Pupil]] size may be an indicator of sadness. A sad [[facial expression]] with small pupils is judged to be more intensely sad as the pupil size decreases.<ref name="pup-cont" >{{cite journal |last1=Harrison |first1=Neil A. |last2=Singer |first2=Tania |last3=Rotshtein |first3=Pia |last4=Dolan |first4=Ray J. |last5=Critchley |first5=Hugo D. |date=1 June 2006 |title=Pupillary contagion: central mechanisms engaged in sadness processing |journal=[[Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=5–17 |doi=10.1093/scan/nsl006 |pmc=1716019 |pmid=17186063 }}</ref> A person's own pupil size also [[mirror neuron|mirrors]] this and becomes smaller when viewing sad faces with small pupils. No parallel effect exists when people look at neutral, happy or angry expressions.<ref name="pup-cont" /> The greater degree to which a person's pupils mirror another predicts a person's greater score on [[empathy]].<ref name="Harrison_Wilson_Critchley">{{cite journal |last1=Harrison |first1=Neil A. |last2=Wilson |first2=C.E. |last3=Critchley |first3=H.D. |title=Processing of observed pupil size modulates perception of sadness and predicts empathy |journal=Emotion |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=724–9 |date=November 2007 |pmid=18039039 |doi=10.1037/1528-3542.7.4.724 |url=http://content.apa.org/journals/emo/7/4/724|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In disorders such as autism and psychopathy, facial expressions that represent sadness may be subtle, which may show a need for a more non-linguistic situation to affect their level of empathy.<ref name="Harrison_Wilson_Critchley"/>