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Fourth, in the current experiment we only included emotional expressions related to pain and not to other negatively valenced stimuli. Although some previous studies have shown that observation of other negative emotions (such as sad faces) can increase pain perception (Bayet et al., 2014), but it is not investigated whether they can influence action readiness or not. This is something that needs to be investigated in future research to test the specificity of the effect we observed in the current study. Finally, action readiness was assessed for simple classification responses. This task does not represent an approach or avoidance oriented action. The literature of research on the empathy has widely selleck discussed the importance of observation of emotion in others and selection of approach oriented action (altruistic behavior) or avoidance oriented action (defensive behavior; Preston and de Waal, 2002). Activation of any of these two mechanisms is dependent upon a number of other factors (e.g., the relationship between the observed person and the observer, contextual factor, and etc). Future studies should use more complex tasks to investigate the effect of the observation of painful facial expressions on the performance in more cognitive demanding situations and to differentiate its effect on the activation of approach or avoidance oriented actions. Conclusion Sub-optimal presentation of painful facial expressions facilitated observers�� responses on a non-pain-related behavioral task when these expressions were followed by electrocutaneous stimulation. Furthermore, the painful expressions increased participants�� perception of painfulness of the electrocutaneous stimulation. This is in accordance with literature on the vicarious facilitation of responses and shows that this facilitation can also occur under sub-optimal observation conditions. Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Acknowledgments AK was supported by a scholarship from interfaculty council for development (IRO) at KU Leuven and a fellowship from the ��Minist��re de l��?ducation, du Loisir et du Sport�� of Canda (MELS). The contribution of JV and MS was supported by the Odysseus Grant ��the Psychology of Pain and Disability Research Program�� funded by the Research Foundation �C Flanders (FWO Vlaanderen, Belgium). MS is also supported by a career-building research position at ?rebro University. Authors declare no conflict of interests regarding the current submission. EVDB is supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek �C Vlaanderen, project G023213N). Footnotes 1There was not enough variability in the error rates to allow for parametric analyses (see Supplementary Table S1 in supplementary materials).