View source for Empathy

{{Short description|Capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing}}
{{About||other uses|Empathy (disambiguation)|and|Empath (disambiguation)}}
{{Distinguish|Sympathy|Empath}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2014}}
[[File:There's no crying in baseball! (4549295140) 2.jpg|alt=A small child hugs an older, injured child|thumb|[[Hugging]] is a common display of empathy]]
{{Emotion}}
'''Empathy''' is generally described as the ability to perceive another person's perspective, to understand, feel, and possibly share and respond to their experience.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Bellet PS, Maloney MJ |date=October 1991 |title=The importance of empathy as an interviewing skill in medicine |journal=JAMA |volume=266 |issue=13 |pages=1831–2 |doi=10.1001/jama.1991.03470130111039 |pmid=1909761 }}</ref><ref name="Rothschild-2006">{{multiref2|{{cite book|vauthors=Rothschild B, Rand ML|year=2006|title=Help for the Helper: The psychophysiology of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma|publisher=Norton|isbn=978-0-393-70422-8}}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Read H |title=A typology of empathy and its many moral forms |journal=Philosophy Compass |date=22 August 2019 |volume=14 |issue=10 |article-number=e12623 |doi=10.1111/phc3.12623|s2cid=202396600 }}|{{cite journal|title=The relationship of nursing students' spiritual care perspectives to their expressions of spiritual empathy|last1=Chism|first1=Lisa Astalos|last2=Magnan|first2=Morris A.|journal=The Journal of Nursing Education|year=2009|volume=48|number=11|pages=597–605|publisher=S&P Global|location=United States|doi=10.3928/01484834-20090716-05 |pmid=19650610}}
}}</ref><ref name="Hall-2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Judith A. |last2=Schwartz |first2=Rachel |last3=Duong |first3=Fred |date=2021-01-02 |title=How do laypeople define empathy? |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224545.2020.1796567 |journal=The Journal of Social Psychology |language=en |volume=161 |issue=1 |pages=5–24 |doi=10.1080/00224545.2020.1796567 |pmid=32870130 |issn=0022-4545|url-access=subscription }}</ref> There are other (sometimes conflicting) definitions of empathy that include but are not limited to social, cognitive, and [[emotion]]al processes primarily concerned with understanding others.<ref name="Rothschild-2006" /><ref name="Hall-2021" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Judith A. |last2=Schwartz |first2=Rachel |date=2019-05-04 |title=Empathy present and future |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224545.2018.1477442 |journal=The Journal of Social Psychology |language=en |volume=159 |issue=3 |pages=225–243 |doi=10.1080/00224545.2018.1477442 |pmid=29781776 |issn=0022-4545|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Empathy is often considered to be a broad term, and can be divided into more specific concepts and categories, such as cognitive empathy, emotional (or affective) empathy, [[wiktionary:somatic#Etymology|somatic]] empathy, and spiritual empathy.<ref name="Rothschild-2006" /><ref name="Hall-2021" />

Empathy is still a topic being studied. The major areas of research include the development of empathy, the genetics and neuroscience of empathy, cross-species empathy, and the impairment of empathy. Some researchers have attempted to quantify empathy through different methods, such as questionnaires that participants can fill out and then be scored on their answers.

The ability to imagine oneself as another person is a sophisticated process. However, the basic capacity to recognize emotions in others may be innate<ref name="Baird, James D., and Laurie Nadel, 2010">{{cite book | vauthors = Baird JD, Nadel L | title = Happiness Genes: Unlock the Positive Potential Hidden in Your DNA | publisher = New Page Books | date = April 2010 | isbn = 978-1-60163-105-3 }}</ref> and may be achieved unconsciously. Empathy exists on a spectrum, an individual can be more or less empathetic toward another individual and empirical research supports a variety of interventions that are able to improve empathy.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | vauthors = O'Malley WJ | year = 1999 | title = Teaching Empathy | journal = America | volume = 180 | issue = 12| pages = 22–6 }}
|2={{cite journal |last1=Teding van Berkhout |first1=Emily |last2=Malouff |first2=John M.|title=The efficacy of empathy training: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. |journal=Journal of Counseling Psychology |date=January 2016 |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=32–41 |doi=10.1037/cou0000093|pmid=26191979 }}
|3={{cite journal |last1=Singer |first1=Tania |last2=Engert |first2=Veronika |title=It matters what you practice: differential training effects on subjective experience, behavior, brain and body in the ReSource Project |journal=Current Opinion in Psychology |date=August 2019 |volume=28 |pages=151–8 |doi=10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.12.005|pmid=30684917 |s2cid=59291558 }}
|4={{cite journal |last1=Rathje |first1=Steve |last2=Hackel |first2=Leor |last3=Zaki |first3=Jamil|title=Attending live theatre improves empathy, changes attitudes, and leads to pro-social behavior |journal=Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |date=July 2021 |volume=95 |article-number=104138 |doi=10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104138|s2cid=233549299 |url=https://psyarxiv.com/feqr8/}}
|5={{cite journal |last1=Weisz |first1=Erika |last2=Ong |first2=Desmond C. |last3=Carlson |first3=Ryan W. |last4=Zaki |first4=Jamil|title=Building empathy through motivation-based interventions. |journal=Emotion |date=August 2021 |volume=21 |issue=5 |pages=990–9 |doi=10.1037/emo0000929|pmid=33211508 |s2cid=227079997 |doi-access=free}}
}}</ref>

The English word ''empathy'' is derived from the [[Ancient Greek]] {{lang|grc|ἐμπάθεια}} ({{transliteration|grc|empatheia}}, meaning "physical affection or passion").<ref>{{OEtymD|empathy}}</ref> That word derives from {{lang|grc|ἐν}} ({{transliteration|grc|en}}, "in, at") and {{lang|grc|πάθος}} ({{transliteration|grc|[[pathos]]}}, "passion" or "suffering").<ref>{{LSJ|e)mpa/qeia|ἐμπάθεια|ref}}.</ref> [[Theodor Lipps]] adapted the German aesthetic term {{lang|de|Einfühlung}} ("feeling into") to psychology in 1903,{{r|AssessingEmpathy|at=ch. 1}} and [[Edward B. Titchener]] translated {{lang|de|Einfühlung}} into English as "empathy" in 1909.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | vauthors = Titchener EB | url = https://www.crossingdialogues.com/Ms-E14-01.pdf | title = Introspection and empath | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140726132552/http://www.crossingdialogues.com/Ms-E14-01.pdf | archive-date= 26 July 2014| journal = Dialogues in Philosophy, Mental and Neuro Sciences | year = 2014 | volume = 7 | pages = 25–30 }}
|2={{cite journal | vauthors = Gallese V | title = The roots of empathy: the shared manifold hypothesis and the neural basis of intersubjectivity | journal = Psychopathology | volume = 36 | issue = 4 | pages = 171–80 | year = 2003 | pmid = 14504450 | doi = 10.1159/000072786 | s2cid = 9422028 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.143.2396 }}
|3={{Cite journal| vauthors = Koss J |date=March 2006|title=On the Limits of Empathy|journal=The Art Bulletin|volume= 88| issue = 1|pages=139–57|jstor=25067229|doi=10.1080/00043079.2006.10786282|s2cid=194079190}}
}}</ref> In modern Greek {{lang|el|εμπάθεια}} may mean depending on the context, [[prejudice]], [[Hostility|malevolence]], [[Malice (law)|malice]], or hatred.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://el.glosbe.com/el/en/εμπάθεια |title=εμπάθεια |website=Glosbe |publisher=Glosbe dictionary |access-date=26 April 2019}}</ref>

== Definitions ==
Since its introduction into the English language, ''empathy'' has had a wide range of (sometimes conflicting) definitions among both researchers and laypeople.<ref>{{cite book|last=Batson|first=C. Daniel|title=Altruism in Humans|year=2011}}</ref><ref name="Lanzoni2018">{{cite book |last1=Lanzoni |first1=Susan Marie |title=Empathy: a history |year=2018 |publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven |isbn=978-0-300-22268-5}}</ref><ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Judith A. |last2=Schwartz |first2=Rachel |title=Empathy present and future |journal=The Journal of Social Psychology |date=4 May 2019|volume=159 |issue=3 |pages=225–43 |doi=10.1080/00224545.2018.1477442|pmid=29781776 |s2cid=29167108 }}
|2={{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Judith A. |last2=Schwartz |first2=Rachel |last3=Duong |first3=Fred |title=How do laypeople define empathy? |journal=The Journal of Social Psychology |date=2 January 2021|volume=161 |issue=1 |pages=5–24 |doi=10.1080/00224545.2020.1796567|pmid=32870130 |s2cid=221405375}}
}}</ref> Empathy definitions encompass a broad range of phenomena, including caring for other people and having a desire to help them, experiencing emotions that match another person's, discerning what another person is thinking or feeling,<ref name="Pijnenborg2012">{{cite journal | vauthors = Pijnenborg GH, Spikman JM, Jeronimus BF, Aleman A | title = Insight in schizophrenia: associations with empathy | journal = European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience | volume = 263 | issue = 4 | pages = 299–307 | date = June 2013 | pmid = 23076736 | doi = 10.1007/s00406-012-0373-0 | s2cid = 25194328 }}</ref> and making less distinct the differences between the self and the other.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Hodges SD, Klein KJ | title = Regulating the costs of empathy: the price of being human. | journal = The Journal of Socio-Economics | date = September 2001 | volume = 30 | issue = 5 | pages = 437–52 | doi = 10.1016/S1053-5357(01)00112-3 | url = https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/4/2521/files/2013/03/Hodges-Klein_2001-1tl1rsl.pdf }}</ref>

Since empathy involves understanding the emotional states of other people, the way it is characterized derives from the way emotions are characterized. For example, if emotions are characterized by bodily feelings, then understanding the bodily feelings of another will be considered central to empathy. On the other hand, if emotions are characterized by a combination of beliefs and desires, then understanding those beliefs and desires will be more essential to empathy.

Paradigmatically, a person exhibits empathy when they communicate an accurate recognition of the significance of another person's ongoing intentional actions, associated emotional states, and personal characteristics in a manner that seems accurate and tolerable to the recognized person.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | vauthors = Schwartz W | title = From passivity to competence: a conceptualization of knowledge, skill, tolerance, and empathy | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_psychiatry_winter-2002_65_4/page/339 | journal = Psychiatry | volume = 65 | issue = 4 | pages = 339–45 | year = 2002 | pmid = 12530337 | doi = 10.1521/psyc.65.4.338.20239 | s2cid = 35496086 }}
|2={{cite journal | vauthors = Schwartz W | year = 2013 | title = The parameters of empathy: Core considerations for psychotherapy and supervision | doi = 10.2139/ssrn.2393689 | journal = Advances in Descriptive Psychology | volume = 10}}
}}</ref> This is a nuanced perspective on empathy which assists in the understanding of complex human emotions and interactions. Acknowledging subjective experiences highlights the need for balance and understanding when engaging in empathy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Håkansson |first1=Jakob |last2=Montgomery |first2=Henry |date=2003-06-01 |title=Empathy as an Interpersonal Phenomenon |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0265407503020003001 |journal=Journal of Social and Personal Relationships |language=en |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=267–284 |doi=10.1177/0265407503020003001 |issn=0265-4075|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

One's ability to recognize the bodily feelings or emotions of another is related to one's imitative capacities, and seems to be grounded in an innate capacity to associate the bodily movements and facial expressions one sees in another with the [[proprioception|proprioceptive]] feelings of producing those corresponding movements or expressions oneself.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Meltzoff AN, Decety J | title = What imitation tells us about social cognition: a rapprochement between developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences | volume = 358 | issue = 1431 | pages = 491–500 | date = March 2003 | pmid = 12689375 | pmc = 1351349 | doi = 10.1098/rstb.2002.1261 }}</ref> 
{{Further|Empathy in media research}}

=== Distinctions between empathy and related concepts ===
[[Compassion]] and [[sympathy]] are terms associated with empathy. A person feels compassion when they notice others are in need, and this feeling motivates that person to help. Like empathy, compassion has a wide range of definitions and purported facets (which overlap with some definitions of empathy).<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal |last1=Strauss |first1=Clara |last2=Lever Taylor |first2=Billie |last3=Gu |first3=Jenny |last4=Kuyken |first4=Willem |last5=Baer |first5=Ruth |last6=Jones |first6=Fergal |last7=Cavanagh |first7=Kate|title=What is compassion and how can we measure it? A review of definitions and measures |journal=Clinical Psychology Review |date=July 2016 |volume=47 |pages=15–27 |doi=10.1016/j.cpr.2016.05.004|pmid=27267346 |doi-access=free }}
|2={{cite journal |last1=Gu |first1=Jenny |last2=Cavanagh |first2=Kate |last3=Baer |first3=Ruth |last4=Strauss |first4=Clara|title=An empirical examination of the factor structure of compassion |journal=PLOS ONE |date=17 February 2017|volume=12 |issue=2 |article-number=e0172471 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0172471|pmid=28212391 |pmc=5315311 |bibcode=2017PLoSO..1272471G |doi-access=free
}}}}</ref> Sympathy is a feeling of care and understanding for someone in need. Some include in sympathy an [[empathic concern]] for another person, and the wish to see them better off or happier.<ref name="Batson, C.D. 2009 pp. 3">{{cite book | vauthors = Batson CD | year = 2009 | chapter = These things called empathy: Eight related but distinct phenomena. | veditors = Decety J, Ickes W | title = The Social Neuroscience of Empathy | url = https://archive.org/details/socialneuroscien0000unse | pages = [https://archive.org/details/socialneuroscien0000unse/page/n3 3]–15 | location = Cambridge | publisher = [[MIT Press]] | isbn = 978-0-262-01297-3 }}</ref>

Empathy is also related to [[pity]] and [[emotional contagion]].<ref name="Coplan2011">{{cite journal |last1=Coplan |first1=Amy|title=Will the real empathy please stand up? A case for a narrow conceptualization |journal=The Southern Journal of Philosophy |date=September 2011 |volume=49 |pages=40–65 |doi=10.1111/j.2041-6962.2011.00056.x}}</ref><ref name="Batson, C.D. 2009 pp. 3"/> One feels pity towards others who might be in trouble or in need of help. This feeling is described as "feeling sorry" for someone.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Geller |first=Jesse D. |date=April 2006 |title=Pity, Suffering, and Psychotherapy |journal=American Journal of Psychotherapy |language=en |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=187–205 |doi=10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.2006.60.2.187 |pmid=16892954 |issn=0002-9564|doi-access=free }}</ref> Emotional contagion is when a person (especially an infant or a member of a [[crowd|mob]]) imitatively "catches" the emotions that others are showing without necessarily recognizing this is happening.<ref>{{cite journal| vauthors = Hatfield E, Cacioppo JL, Rapson RL |year=1993 |title=Emotional contagion |url=http://www.elainehatfield.com/ch50.pdf |journal=Current Directions in Psychological Science |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=96–9 |doi=10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770953 |s2cid=220533081 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119002643/http://www.elainehatfield.com/ch50.pdf |archive-date=November 19, 2012 }}</ref>

''[[Alexithymia]]'' describes a deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing one's own emotions (unlike empathy which is about someone else's emotions).<ref name="Bar-On">{{cite book | vauthors = Bar-On RE, Parker JD | year = 2000 | title = The Handbook of Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Development, Assessment, and Application at Home, School, and in the Workplace | location = San Francisco, Calif. | publisher = Jossey-Bass | isbn = 0-7879-4984-1 }}</ref>

== Classification ==
Empathy has two major components:<ref name="Rogers">{{cite journal | vauthors = Rogers K, Dziobek I, Hassenstab J, Wolf OT, Convit A | title = Who cares? Revisiting empathy in Asperger syndrome | journal = Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | volume = 37 | issue = 4 | pages = 709–15 | date = April 2007 | pmid = 16906462 | doi = 10.1007/s10803-006-0197-8 | url = http://www.cog.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/papers/2007/Rogers(2007)_JAutismDevDisord.pdf | s2cid = 13999363 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150716062645/http://www.cog.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/papers/2007/Rogers(2007)_JAutismDevDisord.pdf | archive-date = July 16, 2015 }}</ref>

# '''{{vanchor|Affective empathy}}''', also called ''emotional empathy'',<ref name="Shamay-Tsoory">{{cite journal |vauthors=Shamay-Tsoory SG, Aharon-Peretz J, Perry D |date=March 2009 |title=Two systems for empathy: a double dissociation between emotional and cognitive empathy in inferior frontal gyrus versus ventromedial prefrontal lesions |journal=Brain |volume=132 |issue=Pt 3 |pages=617–27 |doi=10.1093/brain/awn279 |pmid=18971202 |doi-access=free }}</ref> is the ability to respond with an appropriate emotion to another's mental states.<ref name="Rogers" /> Our ability to empathize emotionally is based on emotional contagion:<ref name="Shamay-Tsoory" /> being affected by another's emotional or arousal state.<ref name="Waal2008">{{cite journal | vauthors = de Waal FB | title = Putting the altruism back into altruism: the evolution of empathy | journal = Annual Review of Psychology | volume = 59 | issue = 1 | pages = 279–300 | year = 2008 | pmid = 17550343 | doi = 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093625 | url = http://www.life.umd.edu/faculty/wilkinson/BIOL608W/deWaalAnnRevPsych2008.pdf | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120417084738/http://www.life.umd.edu/faculty/wilkinson/BIOL608W/deWaalAnnRevPsych2008.pdf | archive-date = April 17, 2012 }}</ref> Affective empathy can be subdivided into the following scales:<ref name="Rogers" /><ref name="Davis1983">{{cite journal |vauthors=Davis M |year=1983 |title=Measuring individual differences in empathy: evidence for a multidimensional approach |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-personality-and-social-psychology_1983-01_44_1/page/113 |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=113–26 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10983/25968}}</ref>
#* [[Empathic concern]]: sympathy and compassion for others in response to their suffering.<ref name="Rogers" /><ref name="response">{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | vauthors = Minio-Paluello I, Lombardo MV, Chakrabarti B, Wheelwright S, Baron-Cohen S | title = Response to Smith's Letter to the Editor "''Emotional Empathy in Autism Spectrum Conditions: Weak, Intact, or Heightened?''" | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-autism-and-developmental-disorders_2009-12_39_12/page/1749 | journal = [[Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders]] | volume = 39 | issue = 12 | page = 1749 | doi = 10.1007/s10803-009-0800-x | date = December 2009 | s2cid = 42834991 }} [http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/bc249/papers/minio-paluello_2009_jadd.pdf PDF] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050227/http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/bc249/papers/minio-paluello_2009_jadd.pdf |date=March 4, 2016}}
|2={{cite journal | vauthors = Smith A | title = Emotional empathy in autism spectrum conditions: weak, intact, or heightened? | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-autism-and-developmental-disorders_2009-12_39_12/page/1747 | journal = Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | volume = 39 | issue = 12 | pages = 1747–8; author reply 1749–54 | date = December 2009 | pmid = 19572192 | doi = 10.1007/s10803-009-0799-z | ref = none | s2cid = 13290717}}
}}</ref><ref name="Lamm">{{cite journal | vauthors = Lamm C, Batson CD, Decety J | title = The neural substrate of human empathy: effects of perspective-taking and cognitive appraisal | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-cognitive-neuroscience_2007-01_19_1/page/42 | journal = Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience | volume = 19 | issue = 1 | pages = 42–58 | date = January 2007 | pmid = 17214562 | doi = 10.1162/jocn.2007.19.1.42 | s2cid = 2828843 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.511.3950 }}</ref>
#* [[Personal distress]]: feelings of discomfort and anxiety in response to another's suffering.<ref name="Rogers" /><ref name="response" /><ref name="Lamm" /> There is no consensus regarding whether personal distress is a form of empathy or instead is something distinct from empathy.<ref name="Coplan2011" /><ref name="response" /> There may be a developmental aspect to this subdivision. Infants respond to the distress of others by getting distressed themselves; only when they are two years old do they start to respond in other-oriented ways: trying to help, comfort, and share.<ref name="response" />
#* Affective mentalizing: uses clues like body language, facial expressions, knowledge about the other's beliefs & situation, and context to understand more about what one is empathizing with.<ref name=AssessingEmpathy>{{cite book|first1=Elizabeth A.|last1=Segal|first2=Karen E.|last2=Gerdes|first3=Cynthia A.|last3=Lietz|first4=M. Alex|last4=Wagaman|first5=Jennifer M.|last5=Geiger|title=Assessing Empathy|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-18191-4|year=2017}}</ref>
# '''{{vanchor|Cognitive empathy}}''' is the ability to understand another's perspective or mental state.<ref name="Baron-Cohen 2003">{{cite book | vauthors = Baron-Cohen S | author-link = Simon Baron-Cohen | title = The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain | publisher = Basic Books | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-0-7382-0844-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/essentialdiffere00baro }}</ref><ref name="Rogers" /><ref name=Gerace>{{cite journal| vauthors = Gerace A, Day A, Casey S, Mohr P |title=An exploratory investigation of the process of perspective taking in interpersonal situations|journal=Journal of Relationships Research|year=2013|volume=4|pages=e6, 1–12|article-number=e6 |doi=10.1017/jrr.2013.6|doi-access=free|hdl=10536/DRO/DU:30055549|hdl-access=free}}<!--|access-date=8 May 2015--></ref> The terms ''[[empathic accuracy]]'', ''[[social cognition]]'', ''[[perspective-taking]]'', ''[[theory of mind]]'', and ''[[mentalizing]]'' are often used synonymously, but due to a lack of studies comparing theory of mind with types of empathy, it is unclear whether these are equivalent.{{r|Rogers}} Although measures of cognitive empathy include self-report questionnaires and behavioral measures, a 2019 meta-analysis<ref name="Murphy2019">{{cite journal | vauthors = Murphy BA, Lilienfeld SO | title = Are self-report cognitive empathy ratings valid proxies for cognitive empathy ability? Negligible meta-analytic relations with behavioral task performance | journal = Psychological Assessment | volume = 31 | issue = 8 | pages = 1062–72 | date = August 2019 | pmid = 31120296 | doi = 10.1037/pas0000732 | s2cid = 162181339 }}</ref> found only a negligible association between self-report and behavioral measures, suggesting that people are generally not able to accurately assess their own cognitive empathy abilities. Cognitive empathy can be subdivided into the following scales:<ref name="Rogers" /><ref name="Davis1983" />
#* [[Perspective-taking]]: the tendency to spontaneously adopt others' psychological perspectives.<ref name="Rogers" /><ref name="Radzvilavicius-2019">{{cite journal | vauthors = Radzvilavicius AL, Stewart AJ, Plotkin JB | title = Evolution of empathetic moral evaluation | journal = eLife | volume = 8 | article-number = e44269 | date = April 2019 | pmid = 30964002 | pmc = 6488294 | doi = 10.7554/eLife.44269 | doi-access = free }}</ref>
#* Fantasy: the tendency to identify with fictional characters.<ref name="Rogers" />
#* Tactical (or strategic) empathy: the deliberate use of perspective-taking to achieve certain desired ends.<ref>{{Cite web|vauthors=Allyn D|date=30 November 2012|url=https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_tao_of_doing_good|title=The Tao of Doing Good (SSIR)|website=ssir.org|language=en-us|access-date=2017-02-13|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213090151/https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_tao_of_doing_good|archive-date=February 13, 2017}}</ref>
#* Emotion regulation: a damper on the emotional contagion process that allows you to empathize without being overwhelmed by the emotion you are empathizing with.<ref>{{cite book|first=Karla|last= McLaren|title= The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life's Most Essential Skill|publisher=Sounds True|isbn=978-1-62203-061-3|year= 2013}}</ref>

The scientific community has not coalesced around a precise definition of these constructs, but there is consensus about this distinction.<ref name="Cox">{{cite journal | vauthors = Cox CL, Uddin LQ, Di Martino A, Castellanos FX, Milham MP, Kelly C | title = The balance between feeling and knowing: affective and cognitive empathy are reflected in the brain's intrinsic functional dynamics | journal = Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience | volume = 7 | issue = 6 | pages = 727–37 | date = August 2012 | pmid = 21896497 | pmc = 3427869 | doi = 10.1093/scan/nsr051 }}</ref><ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | vauthors = Winczewski LA, Bowen JD, Collins NL | title = Is Empathic Accuracy Enough to Facilitate Responsive Behavior in Dyadic Interaction? Distinguishing Ability From Motivation | journal = Psychological Science | volume = 27 | issue = 3 | pages = 394–404 | date = March 2016 | pmid = 26847609 | doi = 10.1177/0956797615624491 | s2cid = 206588127 }}
|2={{Cite journal |last1=Schurz |first1=Matthias |last2=Radua |first2=Joaquim |last3=Tholen |first3=Matthias G. |last4=Maliske |first4=Lara |last5=Margulies |first5=Daniel S. |last6=Mars |first6=Rogier B. |last7=Sallet |first7=Jerome |last8=Kanske |first8=Philipp|date=March 2021 |title=Toward a hierarchical model of social cognition: A neuroimaging meta-analysis and integrative review of empathy and theory of mind. |url=https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2020-82377-001.html |journal=Psychological Bulletin |language=en |volume=147 |issue=3 |pages=293–327 |doi=10.1037/bul0000303 |pmid=33151703 |hdl=2066/226714 |s2cid=226272359 |issn=1939-1455|hdl-access=free}}
}}</ref> Affective and cognitive empathy are also independent from one another; someone who strongly empathizes emotionally is not necessarily good in understanding another's perspective.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | vauthors = Kanske P, Böckler A, Trautwein FM, Parianen Lesemann FH, Singer T | title = Are strong empathizers better mentalizers? Evidence for independence and interaction between the routes of social cognition | journal = Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience | volume = 11 | issue = 9 | pages = 1383–92 | date = September 2016 | pmid = 27129794 | pmc = 5015801 | doi = 10.1093/scan/nsw052 }}
|2={{cite journal | vauthors = Kanske P, Böckler A, Trautwein FM, Singer T | title = Dissecting the social brain: Introducing the EmpaToM to reveal distinct neural networks and brain-behavior relations for empathy and Theory of Mind | journal = NeuroImage | volume = 122 | pages = 6–19 | date = November 2015 | pmid = 26254589 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.07.082 | s2cid = 20614006}}
}}</ref>

Additional constructs that have been proposed include ''behavioral empathy''<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Toi M, Batson CD|title=More evidence that empathy is a source of altruistic motivation|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|volume=43|year=1982|issue=2 |pages=281–92|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.43.2.281 }}</ref> (which governs how one chooses to respond to feelings of empathy), ''social empathy'' (in which the empathetic person integrates their understanding of broader social dynamics into their empathetic modeling),<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal|vauthors=Segal EA|title=Social empathy: A model built on empathy, contextual understanding, and social responsibility that promotes social justice|journal=Journal of Social Service Research|volume=37|year=2011|issue=3 |pages=266–7|doi=10.1080/01488376.2011.564040 |s2cid=76656353 }}
|2={{cite journal|vauthors=Segal EA etal|title=Developing the Social Empathy Index: An Exploratory Factor Analysis|journal=Advances in Social Work|volume=13|year=2012|issue=3 |pages=541–560 |doi=10.18060/2042 |s2cid=143341962 |url=https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/advancesinsocialwork/article/download/2042/3904|doi-access=free}}
}}</ref> and ''[[ecological empathy]]'' (which encompasses empathy directed towards the natural world).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Litong |last2=Sheng |first2=Guanghua |last3=She |first3=Shengxiang |last4=Xu |first4=Jiaqi |date=2023 |title=Impact of empathy with nature on pro-environmental behaviour |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijcs.12856 |journal=International Journal of Consumer Studies |language=en |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=652–668 |doi=10.1111/ijcs.12856 |issn=1470-6423|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In addition, [[Fritz Alwin Breithaupt|Fritz Breithaupt]] emphasizes the importance of empathy ''suppression'' mechanisms in healthy empathy.<ref name=Breithaupt>{{cite book|vauthors=Breithaupt F|translator-last=Hamilton|translator-first=AB|title=The Dark Sides of Empathy|year=2019|publisher=Cornell University Press}}</ref>{{rp|ch.2}}

=== Empathic anger ===
Empathic anger is an emotion, a form of empathic distress.<ref name="springerlink.com">{{cite journal|title= Empathy and justice motivation|url= https://archive.org/details/sim_motivation-and-emotion_1990-06_14_2/page/151|doi=10.1007/BF00991641 |year=1990| vauthors = Hoffman ML |journal=Motivation and Emotion|volume=14|issue=2|pages=151–72|s2cid=143830768 }}</ref> Empathic anger is felt in a situation where someone else is being hurt by another person or thing.{{sfn|Hoffman|2000|p=101}}

Empathic anger affects desires to help and to punish. Two sub-categories of empathic anger are state empathic anger (current empathic anger) and trait empathic anger (tendency or predisposition to experience empathic anger).<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Vitaglione GD, Barnett MA | title = Assessing a new dimension of empathy: Empathic anger as a predictor of helping and punishing desires | journal = Motivation and Emotion | date = December 2003 | volume = 27 | issue = 4 | pages = 301–25 | doi = 10.1023/A:1026231622102 | s2cid = 143276552 | url = http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15290642 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110514194128/http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15290642 |archive-date= 14 May 2011| url-access = subscription }}</ref>

The higher a person's perspective-taking ability, the less angry they are in response to a provocation. Empathic concern does not, however, significantly predict anger response, and higher personal distress is associated with increased anger.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | vauthors = Mohr P, Howells K, Gerace A, Day A, Wharton M | year = 2007 | title = The role of perspective taking in anger arousal | journal = Personality and Individual Differences | volume = 43 | issue = 3| pages = 507–17 | doi = 10.1016/j.paid.2006.12.019 |hdl=2328/36189 | url = https://unisa.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/delivery/61USOUTHAUS_INST/12143192300001831 | hdl-access = free }}
|2={{cite journal | vauthors = Day A, Mohr P, Howells K, Gerace A, Lim L | title = The role of empathy in anger arousal in violent offenders and university students | journal = International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology | volume = 56 | issue = 4 | pages = 599–613 | date = June 2012 | pmid = 22158909 | doi = 10.1177/0306624X11431061 | url = https://fac.flinders.edu.au/dspace/api/core/bitstreams/a8e54cca-3d58-4e42-aa76-79997e6e4bd4/content | s2cid = 46542250 | hdl = 2328/35889}}
}}</ref>

=== Empathic distress ===
{{Main|Personal distress}}
Empathic distress is feeling the perceived pain of another person. This feeling can be transformed into empathic anger, feelings of injustice, or guilt. These emotions can be perceived as pro-social; however, views differ as to whether they serve as motives for moral behavior.<ref name="springerlink.com"/><ref name="Bloom2017" />

Stoic philosophers believed that to condition your emotional disposition on the emotions or fortunes of someone else is foolish. Cicero said that someone who feels distress at another's misfortune is committing as much of an error as an envious person who feels distress at another's good fortune.<ref>{{cite book|vauthors=Cicero MT|title=Tusculan Disputations|chapter=On Grief of Mind}}</ref>

== Measurement ==
Efforts to measure empathy go back to at least the mid-twentieth century.<ref name="Lanzoni2018" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chlopan |first1=Bruce E. |last2=McCain |first2=Marianne L. |last3=Carbonell |first3=Joyce L. |last4=Hagen |first4=Richard L. |year=1985 |title=Empathy: Review of available measures. |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-personality-and-social-psychology_1985-03_48_3/page/635 |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=635–53 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.48.3.635}}</ref> Researchers approach the measurement of empathy from a number of perspectives.

Behavioral measures normally involve raters assessing the presence or absence of certain behaviors in the subjects they are monitoring. Both verbal and non-verbal behaviors have been captured on video by experimenters.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Therapeutic Relationship and its Impact. A Study of Psychotherapy with Schizophrenics |vauthors=Truax CB |publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press |year=1967 |veditors=Rogers CR, Gendlin ET, Kiesler DJ, Truax CB |location=Madison, Wisconsin |pages=555–68 |chapter=Rating of Accurate Empathy}}</ref> Other experimenters required subjects to comment upon their own feelings and behaviors, or those of other people involved in the experiment, as indirect ways of signaling their level of empathic functioning to the raters.<ref name="MehrabianEpstein">{{cite journal |vauthors=Mehrabian A, Epstein N |date=December 1972 |title=A measure of emotional empathy |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-personality_1972-12_40_4/page/525 |journal=Journal of Personality |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=525–43 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-6494.1972.tb00078.x |pmid=4642390}}</ref>

Physiological responses tend to be captured by elaborate electronic equipment that has been physically connected to the subject's body. Researchers then draw inferences about that person's empathic reactions from the electronic readings produced.<ref name="egLevensonRuef1992Leslieetal2004">{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Levenson RW, Ruef AM | title = Empathy: a physiological substrate | journal = Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | volume = 63 | issue = 2 | pages = 234–46 | date = August 1992 | pmid = 1403614 | doi = 10.1037/0022-3514.63.2.234 | s2cid = 12650202 }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Leslie KR, Johnson-Frey SH, Grafton ST | title = Functional imaging of face and hand imitation: towards a motor theory of empathy | journal = NeuroImage | volume = 21 | issue = 2 | pages = 601–7 | date = February 2004 | pmid = 14980562 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.09.038 | s2cid = 1723495}}
}}</ref>

Bodily or "somatic" measures can be seen as behavioral measures at a micro level. They measure empathy through facial and other non-verbally expressed reactions. Such changes are presumably underpinned by physiological changes brought about by some form of "emotional contagion" or mirroring.<ref name="egLevensonRuef1992Leslieetal2004" /> These reactions, while they appear to reflect the internal emotional state of the empathizer, could also, if the stimulus incident lasted more than the briefest period, reflect the results of emotional reactions based on cognitions associated with role-taking ("if I were him I would feel...").

Picture or puppet-story indices for empathy have been adopted to enable even very young, pre-school subjects to respond without needing to read questions and write answers.<ref name="Denham McKinley Couchoud Holt 1990 p=1145">{{cite journal |vauthors=Denham SA, McKinley M, Couchoud EA, Holt R |date=August 1990 |title=Emotional and behavioral predictors of preschool peer ratings |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_child-development_1990-08_61_4/page/1145 |journal=Child Development |publisher=JSTOR |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=1145–52 |doi=10.2307/1130882 |jstor=1130882 |pmid=2209184}}</ref> Dependent variables (variables that are monitored for any change by the experimenter) for younger subjects have included self reporting on a seven-point smiley face scale and filmed facial reactions.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Barnett MA |year=1984 |title=Similarity of experience and empathy in preschoolers |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-genetic-psychology_1984-12_145_2/page/241 |journal=Journal of Genetic Psychology |volume=145 |issue=2 |pages=241–50 |doi=10.1080/00221325.1984.10532271}}</ref>

In some experiments, subjects are required to watch video scenarios (either staged or authentic) and to make written responses which are then assessed for their levels of empathy;<ref>e.g. {{cite journal |vauthors=Geher G, Warner RM, Brown AS |year=2001 |title=Predictive validity of the emotional accuracy research scale |journal=Intelligence |publisher=Elsevier BV |volume=29 |issue=5 |pages=373–88 |doi=10.1016/s0160-2896(00)00045-3 |issn=0160-2896}}</ref> scenarios are sometimes also depicted in printed form.{{r|MehrabianEpstein}}

=== Self-report measures ===

Measures of empathy also frequently require subjects to self-report upon their own ability or capacity for empathy, using [[Likert scale|Likert]]-style numerical responses to a printed questionnaire that may have been designed to reveal the affective, cognitive-affective, or largely cognitive substrates of empathic functioning. Some questionnaires claim to reveal both cognitive and affective substrates.<ref>e.g. {{cite journal |vauthors=Davis MH |year=1980 |title=A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy |journal=JSAS Catalogue of Selected Documents in Psychology |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=1–17}}</ref> However, a 2019 meta analysis questions the validity of self-report measures of cognitive empathy, finding that such self-report measures have negligibly small correlations with corresponding behavioral measures.<ref name="Murphy2019" /> Balancing subjective self-perceptions along with observable behaviors can help to contribute to a more reliable assessment of empathy.

Such measures are also vulnerable to measuring not empathy but the difference between a person's felt empathy and their standards for how much empathy is appropriate. For example, one researcher found that students scored themselves as less empathetic after taking her empathy class. After learning more about empathy, the students became more exacting in how they judged their own feelings and behavior, expected more from themselves, and so rated themselves more severely.{{r|AssessingEmpathy}}

In the field of medicine, a measurement tool for carers is the ''Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, Health Professional Version (JSPE-HP)''.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Chen D, Lew R, Hershman W, Orlander J |date=October 2007 |title=A cross-sectional measurement of medical student empathy |journal=Journal of General Internal Medicine |volume=22 |issue=10 |pages=1434–8 |doi=10.1007/s11606-007-0298-x |pmc=2305857 |pmid=17653807}}</ref>

The [[Interpersonal Reactivity Index|Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)]] is among the oldest published measurement tools still in frequent use (first published in 1983) that provides a multi-dimensional assessment of empathy. It comprises a self-report questionnaire of 28 items, divided into four seven-item scales covering the subdivisions of affective and cognitive empathy described above.<ref name="Rogers" /><ref name="Davis1983" /> More recent self-report tools include The [[Empathy Quotient]] (EQ) created by [[Simon Baron-Cohen|Baron-Cohen]] and Wheelwright<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S |date=April 2004 |title=The empathy quotient: an investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences |url=http://www.queensu.ca/rarc/services/ASDAssessmentTemplate/ResourcesfromRobertGauthierfromRARCworkshop2014/EQArticle.pdf |journal=Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=163–75 |doi=10.1023/B:JADD.0000022607.19833.00 |pmid=15162935 |s2cid=2663853 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150304035846/http://www.queensu.ca/rarc/services/ASDAssessmentTemplate/ResourcesfromRobertGauthierfromRARCworkshop2014/EQArticle.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2015}}</ref> which comprises a self-report questionnaire consisting of 60 items. Another multi-dimensional scale is the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE, first published in 2011).<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Reniers RL, Corcoran R, Drake R, Shryane NM, Völlm BA |date=January 2011 |title=The QCAE: a Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy |journal=Journal of Personality Assessment |volume=93 |issue=1 |pages=84–95 |doi=10.1080/00223891.2010.528484 |pmid=21184334 |s2cid=3035172}}</ref>

The Empathic Experience Scale is a 30-item questionnaire that measures empathy from a [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] perspective on [[intersubjectivity]], which provides a common basis for the perceptual experience (vicarious experience dimension) and a basic cognitive awareness (intuitive understanding dimension) of others' emotional states.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Innamorati M, Ebisch SJ, Gallese V, Saggino A |date=29 April 2019 |title=A bidimensional measure of empathy: Empathic Experience Scale |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=14 |issue=4 |article-number=e0216164 |bibcode=2019PLoSO..1416164I |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0216164 |pmc=6488069 |pmid=31034510 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

It is difficult to make comparisons over time using such questionnaires because of how language changes. For example, one study used a single questionnaire to measure 13,737 college students between 1979 and 2009, and found that empathy scores fell substantially over that time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Konrath |first1=Sara H. |last2=O'Brien |first2=Edward H. |last3=Hsing |first3=Courtney |year=2011 |title=Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time: A Meta-Analysis |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Review |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=180–98 |doi=10.1177/1088868310377395 |pmid=20688954 |s2cid=7645344}}</ref> A critic noted these results could be because the wording of the questionnaire had become anachronistically quaint (it used idioms no longer in common use, like "tender feelings", "ill at ease", "quite touched", or "go to pieces" that today's students might not identify with).{{r|Breithaupt}}

== Development ==
=== Ontogenetic development ===
By the age of two, children normally begin to exhibit fundamental behaviors of empathy by having an emotional response that corresponds with another person's emotional state.<ref name=Hoffman2000>{{cite book| vauthors = Hoffman ML |year=2000|title=Empathy and Moral Development|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-58034-2}}</ref> Even earlier, at one year of age, infants have some rudiments of empathy; they understand that, as with their own actions, other people's actions have goals.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | vauthors = Decety J, Meyer M | title = From emotion resonance to empathic understanding: a social developmental neuroscience account | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_development-and-psychopathology_fall-2008_20_4/page/1053 | journal = Development and Psychopathology | volume = 20 | issue = 4 | pages = 1053–80 | year = 2008 | pmid = 18838031 | doi = 10.1017/S0954579408000503 | s2cid = 8508693 }}
|2={{cite book | vauthors = Eisenberg N, Spinrad TL, Sadovsky A | year = 2006 | chapter = Empathy-related responding in children. | veditors = Killen M, Smetana J | title = Handbook of Moral Development | url = https://archive.org/details/handbookmoraldev00kill | pages = [https://archive.org/details/handbookmoraldev00kill/page/n535 517]–49 | location = Mahwah, New Jersey | publisher = Lawrence Erlbaum Associates | isbn = 978-0-8058-4751-2 }}
|3={{cite journal | vauthors = Falck-Ytter T, Gredebäck G, von Hofsten C | title = Infants predict other people's action goals | journal = Nature Neuroscience | volume = 9 | issue = 7 | pages = 878–9 | date = July 2006 | pmid = 16783366 | doi = 10.1038/nn1729 | s2cid = 2409686}}
}}</ref> Toddlers sometimes comfort others or show concern for them. During their second year, they play games of falsehood or pretend in an effort to fool others. Such actions require that the child knows what others believe in order that the child can manipulate those beliefs.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Zahn-Waxler C, Radke-Yarrow M | year = 1990 | title = The origins of empathic concern | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1232472| journal = Motivation and Emotion | volume = 14 | issue = 2| pages = 107–30 | doi = 10.1007/BF00991639 |s2cid=143436918 }}</ref>

According to researchers at the [[University of Chicago]] who used [[functional magnetic resonance imaging]] (fMRI), children between the ages of seven and twelve, when seeing others being injured, experience brain activity similar that which would occur if the child themself had been injured.<ref name="Decety 2008">{{cite journal | vauthors = Decety J, Michalska KJ, Akitsuki Y | title = Who caused the pain? An fMRI investigation of empathy and intentionality in children | journal = Neuropsychologia | volume = 46 | issue = 11 | pages = 2607–14 | date = September 2008 | pmid = 18573266 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.05.026 | s2cid = 19428145 }}</ref> Their findings are consistent with previous fMRI studies of [[pain empathy]] with adults, and previous findings that vicarious experiencing, particularly of others' distress, is hardwired and present early in life.<ref name="Decety 2008"/> The research found additional areas of the brain, associated with social and moral cognition, were activated when young people saw another person intentionally hurt by somebody, including regions involved in moral reasoning.<ref name="Decety 2008"/>

Although children are capable of showing some signs of empathy, including attempting to comfort a crying baby, from as early as 18 months to two years, most do not demonstrate a full [[theory of mind]] until around the age of four.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Wimmer H, Perner J | title = Beliefs about beliefs: representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_cognition_1983-01_13_1/page/103 | journal = Cognition | volume = 13 | issue = 1 | pages = 103–28 | date = January 1983 | pmid = 6681741 | doi = 10.1016/0010-0277(83)90004-5 | s2cid = 17014009 }}</ref> Theory of mind involves the ability to understand that other people may have beliefs that are different from one's own, and is thought to involve the cognitive component of empathy.<ref name="Baron-Cohen 2003"/> Children usually can pass false-belief tasks (a test for a theory of mind) around the age of four. It is theorised that people with [[autism]] find using a theory of mind to be very difficult, but there is quite a bit of controversy on this subject. (e.g. the [[Sally–Anne test]]).<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal | vauthors = Baron-Cohen S, Leslie AM, Frith U | title = Does the autistic child have a "theory of mind"? | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_cognition_1985-10_21_1/page/37 | journal = Cognition | volume = 21 | issue = 1 | pages = 37–46 | date = October 1985 | pmid = 2934210 | doi = 10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8 | s2cid = 14955234 }}
|2={{cite journal | vauthors = Leslie AM, Frith U | title = Autistic children's understanding of seeing, knowing and believing | journal = [[British Journal of Developmental Psychology]] | volume = 6 | issue = 4 | pages = 315–24 | doi = 10.1111/j.2044-835X.1988.tb01104.x | date = November 1988}}
}}</ref>

Empathic maturity is a cognitive-structural theory developed at the Yale University School of Nursing. It addresses how adults conceive or understand the personhood of patients. The theory, first applied to nurses and since applied to other professions, postulates three levels of cognitive structures. The third and highest level is a meta-ethical theory of the moral structure of care. Adults who operate with level-III understanding synthesize systems of justice and care-based ethics.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Olsen DP | title = Empathetic maturity: theory of moral point of view in clinical relations | journal = Advances in Nursing Science | volume = 24 | issue = 1 | pages = 36–46 | date = September 2001 | pmid = 11554532 | doi = 10.1097/00012272-200109000-00006 | url = https://www.nursingcenter.com/journalarticle?Article_ID=430999 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090907234403/http://www.nursingcenter.com/library/JournalArticle.asp?Article_ID=430999 | archive-date = September 7, 2009 | url-access = subscription }}</ref>

=== Individual differences ===

The Empathic Concern scale assesses other-oriented feelings of sympathy and concern and the Personal Distress scale measures self-oriented feelings of personal anxiety and unease.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Davis MH | year = 1983 | title = Measuring Individual Differences in Empathy: Evidence for a Multidimensional Approach | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-personality-and-social-psychology_1983-01_44_1/page/113 | journal = Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | volume = 44 | issue = 1| pages = 113–26 | doi=10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113| hdl = 10983/25968 | hdl-access = free }}</ref> Researchers have used behavioral and neuroimaging data to analyze extraversion and agreeableness. Both are associated with [[empathic accuracy]] and increased brain activity in two brain regions that are important for empathic processing (medial prefrontal cortex and [[temporoparietal junction]]).<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Haas BW, Brook M, Remillard L, Ishak A, Anderson IW, Filkowski MM | title = I know how you feel: the warm-altruistic personality profile and the empathic brain | journal = PLOS ONE | volume = 10 | issue = 3 | article-number = e0120639 | year = 2015 | pmid = 25769028 | pmc = 4359130 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0120639 | bibcode = 2015PLoSO..1020639H | doi-access = free }}</ref>

=== Sex differences ===
{{Sex differences}}
<!-- As of 4 January 2022, this is where [[Sex differences in empathy]] redirects. If this section is renamed from "Sex differences", please update the redirect. -->
{{See also|Sex differences in psychology#Empathy|Sex differences in emotional intelligence#Empathy}}
On average, females score higher than males on measures of empathy,<ref name="Bosson">{{Cite book|last1=Bosson|first1=Jennifer K.|last2=Buckner|first2=Camille E.|last3=Vandello|first3=Joseph A.|title=The Psychology of Sex and Gender|year=2021|publisher=Sage Publications|isbn=978-1-5443-9403-9|page=330|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B74IEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT330}}</ref> such as the [[Empathy Quotient]] (EQ), while males tend to score higher on the [[Systemizing Quotient]] (SQ). Both males and females with [[Autism spectrum|autistic spectrum disorders]] usually score lower on the EQ and higher on SQ ([[Empathy#Autism and controversy|see below]] for more detail on autism and empathy).<ref name="Baron-Cohen 2003"/>

Other studies show no significant sex differences, and instead suggest that gender differences are the result of motivational differences, such as upholding stereotypes.<ref name="Bosson"/><ref name="Ickes, W. 1997">{{cite book | vauthors = Ickes W | year = 1997 | title = Empathic accuracy | location = New York | publisher = The Guilford Press }}</ref> [[Gender stereotypes]] about men and women can affect how they express emotions. The sex difference is small to moderate, somewhat inconsistent, and is often influenced by the person's motivations or social environment.<ref name="Bosson"/> Bosson ''et al.'' say "physiological measures of emotion and studies that track people in their daily lives find no consistent sex differences in the experience of emotion", which "suggests that women may amplify certain emotional expressions, or men may suppress them".<ref name="Bosson"/>

However, a 2014 review from ''[[Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews]]'' reported that there is evidence that "sex differences in empathy have [[phylogenetic]] and [[ontogenetic]] roots in biology and are not merely cultural byproducts driven by socialization."<ref name="Christov-Moore">{{cite journal | vauthors = Christov-Moore L, Simpson EA, Coudé G, Grigaityte K, Iacoboni M, Ferrari PF | title = Empathy: gender effects in brain and behavior | journal = Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews | volume = 46 Pt 4 | pages = 604–27 | date = October 2014 | issue = Pt 4 | pmid = 25236781 | pmc = 5110041 | doi = 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.09.001 | url =https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265859585| url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170814055810/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265859585_Empathy_Gender_Effects_in_Brain_and_Behavior | archive-date = August 14, 2017 }}</ref> The review found sex differences in empathy from birth, growing larger with age, and consistent and stable across lifespan.<ref name="Christov-Moore" /> Females, on average, had higher empathy than males, while children with higher empathy, regardless of gender, continue to be higher in empathy throughout development.<ref name="Christov-Moore" /> Analysis of brain event-related potentials found that females who saw human suffering tended to have higher [[Event-related potential|ERP]] waveforms than males.<ref name="Christov-Moore"/> An investigation of [[N400 (neuroscience)|N400]] amplitudes found, on average, higher N400 in females in response to social situations, which positively correlated with self-reported empathy.<ref name="Christov-Moore"/> Structural fMRI studies also found females to have larger [[grey matter]] volumes in posterior [[Inferior frontal gyrus|inferior frontal]] and anterior [[Inferior parietal lobule|inferior parietal cortex]] areas which are correlated with [[mirror neuron]]s in [[Functional magnetic resonance imaging|fMRI]] literature.<ref name="Christov-Moore"/> Females also tended to have a stronger link between emotional and cognitive empathy.<ref name="Christov-Moore"/> The researchers believe that the stability of these sex differences in development are unlikely to be explained by environmental influences but rather by human evolution and inheritance.<ref name="Christov-Moore"/> Throughout prehistory, women were the primary nurturers and caretakers of children; so this might have led to an evolved neurological adaptation for women to be more aware and responsive to non-verbal expressions. According to the "Primary Caretaker Hypothesis", prehistoric men did not have such selective pressure as primary caretakers. This might explain modern day sex differences in emotion recognition and empathy.<ref name="Christov-Moore"/>

A review published in ''[[Neuropsychologia]]'' found that females tended to be better at recognizing facial affects, expression processing, and emotions in general.<ref name="Kret 2012">{{cite journal | vauthors = Kret ME, De Gelder B | title = A review on sex differences in processing emotional signals | journal = Neuropsychologia | volume = 50 | issue = 7 | pages = 1211–21 | date = June 2012 | pmid = 22245006 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.12.022 | url = https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=3aea49a9-7521-4aae-863d-6f351a012b88 | s2cid = 11695245 }}</ref> Males tended to be better at recognizing specific behaviors such as anger, aggression, and threatening cues.<ref name="Kret 2012" /> A 2014 meta-analysis, in ''Cognition and Emotion'', found a small female advantage in non-verbal emotional recognition.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Thompson AE, Voyer D | title = Sex differences in the ability to recognise non-verbal displays of emotion: a meta-analysis | journal = Cognition & Emotion | volume = 28 | issue = 7 | pages = 1164–95 | year = 2014 | pmid = 24400860 | doi = 10.1080/02699931.2013.875889 | s2cid = 5402395 }}</ref>

=== Environmental influences ===
Some research theorizes that environmental factors, such as [[parenting style]] and relationships, affect the development of empathy in children. Empathy promotes [[pro-social]] relationships<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Decety|first1=Jean|last2=Bartal|first2=Inbal Ben-Ami|last3=Uzefovsky|first3=Florina|last4=Knafo-Noam|first4=Ariel|date=2016-01-19|title=Empathy as a driver of prosocial behaviour: highly conserved neurobehavioural mechanisms across species|journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences]]|volume=371|issue=1686|article-number=20150077|doi=10.1098/rstb.2015.0077|issn=0962-8436|pmc=4685523|pmid=26644596}}</ref> and helps mediate aggression.

Caroline Tisot studied how environmental factors like parenting style, parent empathy, and prior social experiences affect the development of empathy in young children. The children studied were asked to complete an effective empathy measure, while the children's parents completed a questionnaire to assess parenting style and the Balanced Emotional Empathy scale. The study found that certain parenting practices, as opposed to parenting style as a whole, contributed to the development of empathy in children. These practices include encouraging the child to imagine the perspectives of others and teaching the child to reflect on his or her own feelings. The development of empathy varied based on the gender of the child and parent. Paternal warmth was significantly positively related to empathy in children, especially boys. Maternal warmth was negatively related to empathy in children, especially girls.<ref>{{cite thesis|degree=PhD| vauthors = Tisot CM |year=2003|title=Environmental contributions to empathy development in young children|publisher=[[Temple University]]|oclc=56772472}}</ref>

Empathy may be disrupted due to brain trauma such as [[stroke]]. In most cases, empathy is impaired if a [[lesion]] or stroke occurs on the right side of the brain.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Leigh R, Oishi K, Hsu J, Lindquist M, Gottesman RF, Jarso S, Crainiceanu C, Mori S, Hillis AE | title = Acute lesions that impair affective empathy | journal = Brain | volume = 136 | issue = Pt 8 | pages = 2539–49 | date = August 2013 | pmid = 23824490 | pmc = 3722353 | doi = 10.1093/brain/awt177 | author-link5 = Rebecca Gottesman }}</ref> Damage to the [[frontal lobe]], which is primarily responsible for emotional regulation, can profoundly impact a person's capacity to experience empathy.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = de Sousa A, McDonald S, Rushby J | title = Changes in emotional empathy, affective responsivity, and behavior following severe traumatic brain injury | journal = Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology | volume = 34 | issue = 6 | pages = 606–23 | date = 2012-07-01| pmid = 22435955 | doi = 10.1080/13803395.2012.667067 | s2cid = 44373955 }}</ref> People with an acquired brain injury also show lower levels of empathy. More than half of those people with a traumatic brain injury self-report a deficit in their empathic capacity.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = de Sousa A, McDonald S, Rushby J, Li S, Dimoska A, James C | title = Why don't you feel how I feel? Insight into the absence of empathy after severe traumatic brain injury | journal = Neuropsychologia | volume = 48 | issue = 12 | pages = 3585–95 | date = October 2010 | pmid = 20713073 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.08.008 | s2cid = 25275909 }}</ref>

There is some evidence that empathy is a skill that one can improve in with training.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=E. Teding |last1=van Berkhout |first2=J.M. |last2=Malouff|title=The efficacy of empathy training: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials|journal= Journal of Counseling Psychology |volume=63 |year=2016|issue=1 |pages= 32–41|doi=10.1037/cou0000093 |pmid=26191979 }}</ref>

=== Evolution across species ===
Studies in [[ethology|animal behavior]] and [[neuroscience]] indicate that empathy is not restricted to humans (however the interpretation of such research depends in part on how expansive a definition of empathy researchers adopt<ref name="Coplan2011" />).

Empathy-like behaviors have been observed in [[primate]]s, both in captivity and in the wild, and in particular in [[bonobo]]s, perhaps the most empathic primate.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite book| vauthors = Sandin J |title=Bonobos: Encounters in Empathy|year=2007|publisher=Zoological Society of Milwaukee & The Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Inc.|location=Milwaukee|isbn=978-0-9794151-0-4|page=109}}|{{cite book | title = The age of empathy: nature's lessons for a kinder society | url = https://archive.org/details/ageofempathynatu0000waal | vauthors = de Waal FB | publisher = Harmony Books | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-0-307-40776-4}}
}}</ref>

One study demonstrated [[prosocial behavior]] elicited by empathy in rodents.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Ben-Ami Bartal I, Decety J, Mason P |date=December 2011 |title=Empathy and pro-social behavior in rats |journal=Science |volume=334 |issue=6061 |pages=1427–30 |bibcode=2011Sci...334.1427B |doi=10.1126/science.1210789 |pmc=3760221 |pmid=22158823}}</ref> Rodents demonstrate empathy for cagemates (but not strangers) in pain.<ref>{{cite journal |author8-link=Daniel Levitin |vauthors=Langford DJ, Crager SE, Shehzad Z, Smith SB, Sotocinal SG, Levenstadt JS, Chanda ML, Levitin DJ, Mogil JS |date=June 2006 |title=Social modulation of pain as evidence for empathy in mice |url=https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/articles/76537484n?locale=en |journal=Science |volume=312 |issue=5782 |pages=1967–70 |bibcode=2006Sci...312.1967L |doi=10.1126/science.1128322 |pmid=16809545 |s2cid=26027821}}</ref>

An influential study on the evolution of empathy by Stephanie Preston and Frans de Waal<ref name="DeWaal">{{cite journal |vauthors=de Waal FB |year=2008 |title=Putting the altruism back into altruism: the evolution of empathy |journal=Annual Review of Psychology |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=279–300 |doi=10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093625 |pmid=17550343}}</ref> discusses a neural perception-action mechanism and postulates a bottom-up model of empathy that ties together all levels,{{clarify|reason=what is a "level" in this context, what are these levels, what is the bottom in "bottom-up"?|date=March 2022}} from state matching{{clarify|reason=what is "state matching"?|date=March 2022}} to perspective-taking.

University of Chicago neurobiologist Jean Decety agrees that empathy is not exclusive to humans, but that empathy has deep evolutionary, biochemical, and neurological underpinnings, and that even the most advanced forms of empathy in humans are built on more basic forms and remain connected to core mechanisms associated with affective communication, social [[attachment theory|attachment]], and [[parental care]].<ref name="Decety, J">{{cite journal |vauthors=Decety J |date=August 2011 |title=The neuroevolution of empathy |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |volume=1231 |issue=1 |pages=35–45 |bibcode=2011NYASA1231...35D |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06027.x |pmid=21651564 |s2cid=9895828}}</ref> Neural circuits involved in empathy and caring include the [[brainstem]], the [[amygdala]], [[hypothalamus]], [[basal ganglia]], [[insular cortex|insula]], and [[orbitofrontal cortex]].<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Decety J, Svetlova M |date=January 2012 |title=Putting together phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspectives on empathy |journal=Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–24 |doi=10.1016/j.dcn.2011.05.003 |pmc=6987713 |pmid=22682726 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

== Other animals and empathy between species ==
{{See also|Emotion in animals|Ecological empathy}}
Researchers Zanna Clay and [[Frans de Waal]] studied the socio-emotional development of the [[bonobo]] chimpanzee.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Clay Z, de Waal FB |date=November 2013 |title=Development of socio-emotional competence in bonobos |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=110 |issue=45 |pages=18121–6 |bibcode=2013PNAS..11018121C |doi=10.1073/pnas.1316449110 |pmc=3831480 |pmid=24127600 |doi-access=free}}</ref> They focused on the interplay of numerous skills such as empathy-related responding, and how different rearing backgrounds of the juvenile bonobo affected their response to stressful events—events related to themselves (e.g. loss of a fight) as well as stressful events of others. They found that bonobos sought out body contact with one another as a coping mechanism. Bonobos sought out more body contact after watching an event distress other bonobos than after their individually experienced stressful event. Mother-reared bonobos sought out more physical contact than orphaned bonobos after a stressful event happened to another. This finding shows the importance of mother-child attachment and bonding in successful socio-emotional development, such as empathic-like behaviors. De Waal suggests the advantages provided to mothers who understand the needs of their children are the reason empathy evolved in the first place.<ref>{{cite podcast |url=https://think.kera.org/2019/05/20/do-these-meerkats-have-deep-emotions-yeah-probably/ |publisher=[[KERA-FM]] |title=Do These Meerkats Have Deep Emotions? Yeah, Probably. |date=May 20, 2019}}</ref>

Empathic-like behavior has been observed in [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzees]] in different aspects of their natural behaviors. For example, chimpanzees spontaneously contribute comforting behaviors to victims of aggressive behavior in both natural and unnatural settings, a behavior recognized{{by whom|date=March 2022}} as consolation. Researchers led by Teresa Romero observed these empathic and sympathetic-like behaviors in chimpanzees in two separate {{clarify|text=outdoor housed|reason=oxymoronic|date=March 2022}} groups.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Romero T, Castellanos MA, de Waal FB |date=July 2010 |title=Consolation as possible expression of sympathetic concern among chimpanzees |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=107 |issue=27 |pages=12110–5 |bibcode=2010PNAS..10712110R |doi=10.1073/pnas.1006991107 |pmc=2901437 |pmid=20547864 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Acts of consolation were observed in both groups. This behavior is also found in humans, particularly in human infants. Another similarity found between chimpanzees and humans is that empathic-like responding was disproportionately provided to kin. Although comforting towards non-family chimpanzees was also observed, as with humans, chimpanzees showed the majority of comfort and concern to close/loved ones. Another similarity between chimpanzee and human expression of empathy is that females provided more comfort than males on average. The only exception to this discovery was that high-ranking males showed as much empathy-like behavior as their female counterparts. This is believed to be because of policing-like behavior and the authoritative status of high-ranking male chimpanzees.

[[Dog]]s have been hypothesized to share empathic-like responding towards humans. Researchers Custance and Mayer put individual dogs in an enclosure with their owner and a stranger.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Custance D, Mayer J |date=September 2012 |title=Empathic-like responding by domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) to distress in humans: an exploratory study |url=https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/7074/2/Custance_and_Mayer_draft_prior_to_publication.pdf |journal=Animal Cognition |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=851–9 |doi=10.1007/s10071-012-0510-1 |pmid=22644113 |s2cid=15153091}}</ref> When the participants were talking or humming, the dog showed no behavioral changes; however when the participants were pretending to cry, the dogs oriented their behavior toward the person in distress whether it be the owner or stranger. The dogs approached the participants when crying in a submissive fashion, by sniffing, licking, and nuzzling the distressed person. The dogs did not approach the participants in the usual form of excitement, tail wagging, or panting. Since the dogs did not direct their empathic-like responses only towards their owner, it is hypothesized that dogs generally seek out humans showing distressing body behavior. Although this could suggest that dogs have the cognitive capacity for empathy, it could also mean that domesticated dogs have learned to comfort distressed humans through generations of being rewarded for that specific behavior.

When witnessing chicks in distress, domesticated hens (''[[Gallus gallus domesticus]]'') show emotional and physiological responding. Researchers found that in conditions where the chick was susceptible to danger, the mother hen's heart rate increased, she sounded vocal alarms, she decreased her personal preening, and her body temperature increased.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Edgar JL, Paul ES, Nicol CJ |date=August 2013 |title=Protective Mother Hens: Cognitive influences on the avian maternal response |journal=British Journal of Animal Behaviour |volume=86 |issue=2 |pages=223–9 |doi=10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.05.004 |s2cid=53179718}}</ref> This responding happened whether or not the chick felt as if it were in danger. Mother hens experienced stress-induced hyperthermia only when the chick's behavior correlated with the perceived threat.

Humans can empathize with other species. One study of a sample of organisms showed that the strength of human empathic perceptions (and compassionate reactions) toward an organism is negatively correlated with how long ago our species' had a common ancestor. In other words, the more phylogenetically close a species is to us, the more likely we are to feel empathy and compassion towards it.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Miralles A, Raymond M, Lecointre G |date=December 2019 |title=Empathy and compassion toward other species decrease with evolutionary divergence time |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=9 |issue=1 |article-number=19555 |bibcode=2019NatSR...919555M |doi=10.1038/s41598-019-56006-9 |pmc=6925286 |pmid=31862944}}</ref>

==Genetics==
Measures of empathy show evidence of being genetically influenced.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Davis MH, Luce C, Kraus SJ |date=September 1994 |title=The heritability of characteristics associated with dispositional empathy |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-personality_1994-09_62_3/page/369 |journal=Journal of Personality |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=369–91 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-6494.1994.tb00302.x |pmid=7965564}}</ref> For example, carriers of the deletion variant of [[ADRA2B]] show more activation of the amygdala when viewing emotionally arousing images.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Todd RM, Anderson AK | title = The neurogenetics of remembering emotions past | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 106 | issue = 45 | pages = 18881–2 | date = November 2009 | pmid = 19889977 | pmc = 2776429 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.0910755106 | bibcode = 2009PNAS..10618881T | doi-access = free }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Todd RM, Ehlers MR, Müller DJ, Robertson A, Palombo DJ, Freeman N, Levine B, Anderson AK | title = Neurogenetic variations in norepinephrine availability enhance perceptual vividness | journal = The Journal of Neuroscience | volume = 35 | issue = 16 | pages = 6506–16 | date = April 2015 | pmid = 25904801 | pmc = 6605217 | doi = 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4489-14.2015}}
}}</ref> The gene [[5-HTTLPR]] seems to influence sensitivity to negative emotional information and is also attenuated by the deletion variant of ADRA2b.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Naudts KH, Azevedo RT, David AS, van Heeringen K, Gibbs AA |date=September 2012 |title=Epistasis between 5-HTTLPR and ADRA2B polymorphisms influences attentional bias for emotional information in healthy volunteers |url=https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Epistasis_between_5-HTTLPR_and_ADRA2B_polymorphisms_influences_attentional_bias_for_emotional_information_in_healthy_volunteers/23316200 |journal=The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology |volume=15 |issue=8 |pages=1027–36 |doi=10.1017/S1461145711001295 |pmid=21854681 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023232342/http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/7218/1/IJNP_proof.pdf |archive-date=October 23, 2017 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Carriers of the double G variant of the [[Oxytocin receptor|OXTR]] gene have better social skills and higher self-esteem.{{clarify|reason=how is this connected to empathy specifically?|date=March 2022}}<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Saphire-Bernstein S, Way BM, Kim HS, Sherman DK, Taylor SE |date=September 2011 |title=Oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) is related to psychological resources |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=108 |issue=37 |pages=15118–22 |bibcode=2011PNAS..10815118S |doi=10.1073/pnas.1113137108 |pmc=3174632 |pmid=21896752 |doi-access=free}}</ref> A gene located near LRRN1 on chromosome 3 influences the human ability to read, understand, and respond to emotions in others.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Warrier V, Grasby KL, Uzefovsky F, Toro R, Smith P, Chakrabarti B, Khadake J, Mawbey-Adamson E, Litterman N, Hottenga JJ, Lubke G, Boomsma DI, Martin NG, Hatemi PK, Medland SE, Hinds DA, Bourgeron T, Baron-Cohen S |date=June 2018 |title=Genome-wide meta-analysis of cognitive empathy: heritability, and correlates with sex, neuropsychiatric conditions and cognition |journal=Molecular Psychiatry |volume=23 |issue=6 |pages=1402–9 |doi=10.1038/mp.2017.122 |pmc=5656177 |pmid=28584286}}</ref>

=== Neuroscientific basis of empathy ===
Contemporary neuroscience offers insights into the neural basis of the mind's ability to understand and process emotion. Studies of [[mirror neuron]]s attempt to measure the neural basis for human mind-reading and emotion-sharing abilities and thereby to explain the basis of the empathy reaction.<ref name="Keen Suzanne 2006 207–36">{{cite journal |vauthors=Keen S |year=2006 |title=A Theory of Narrative Empathy |journal=Narrative |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=207–36 |doi=10.1353/nar.2006.0015 |s2cid=52228354}}</ref> People who score high on empathy tests have especially busy mirror neuron systems.<ref name="Gazzola_2006">{{cite journal |vauthors=Gazzola V, Aziz-Zadeh L, Keysers C |date=September 2006 |title=Empathy and the somatotopic auditory mirror system in humans |journal=Current Biology |volume=16 |issue=18 |pages=1824–9 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2006.07.072 |pmid=16979560 |s2cid=5223812 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2006CBio...16.1824G }}</ref> Empathy is a spontaneous sharing of affect, provoked by witnessing and sympathizing with another's emotional state. The empathic person mirrors or mimics the emotional response they would expect to feel if they were in the other person's place. Unlike personal distress, empathy is not characterized by aversion to another's emotional response. This distinction is vital because empathy is associated with the moral emotion sympathy, or empathic concern, and consequently also prosocial or altruistic action.<ref name="Keen Suzanne 2006 207–36" />

Empathy involves two interconnected elements: '''cognitive empathy''', which is understanding or recognising the emotions another person is experiencing, and '''affective empathy''', which refers to actually feeling or sharing those emotions yourself.<ref name="Pijnenborg2012" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=The different types of empathy {{!}} Embrace Autism |url=https://embrace-autism.com/the-different-types-of-empathy/#:~:text=These%20two%20types%20of%20empathy,though%20their%20emotions%20are%20contagious. |access-date=2025-03-24 |language=en-US}}</ref> For social beings, negotiating interpersonal decisions is as important to survival as being able to navigate the physical landscape.<ref name="Bartlett, M. 2006">{{cite journal |vauthors=Bartlett MY, DeSteno D |date=April 2006 |title=Gratitude and prosocial behavior: helping when it costs you |journal=Psychological Science |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=319–25 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01705.x |pmid=16623689 |s2cid=6491264}}</ref>

Meta-analysis of fMRI studies of empathy confirms that different brain areas are activated during affective-perceptual empathy than during cognitive-evaluative empathy. Affective empathy is correlated with increased activity in the [[Insular cortex|insula]] while cognitive empathy is correlated with activity in the mid [[cingulate cortex]] and adjacent dorsomedial [[prefrontal cortex]].<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Fan Y, Duncan NW, de Greck M, Northoff G | title = Is there a core neural network in empathy? An fMRI based quantitative meta-analysis | journal = Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews | volume = 35 | issue = 3 | pages = 903–11 | date = January 2011 | pmid = 20974173 | doi = 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.10.009 | s2cid = 20965340 }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Eres R, Decety J, Louis WR, Molenberghs P | title = Individual differences in local gray matter density are associated with differences in affective and cognitive empathy | journal = NeuroImage | volume = 117 | pages = 305–10 | date = August 2015 | pmid = 26008886 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.05.038 | url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277251990 | url-status = live | s2cid = 15373798 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170908154545/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277251990_Individual_differences_in_local_gray_matter_density_are_associated_with_differences_in_affective_and_cognitive_empathy | archive-date = September 8, 2017}}
}}</ref> A study with patients who experienced different types of brain damage confirmed the distinction between emotional and cognitive empathy.<ref name="Shamay-Tsoory" /> Specifically, the [[inferior frontal gyrus]] appears to be responsible for emotional empathy, and the [[Ventromedial prefrontal cortex|ventromedial prefrontal gyrus]] seems to mediate cognitive empathy.<ref name="Shamay-Tsoory" />

fMRI has been employed to investigate the functional anatomy of empathy.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Keysers C, Gazzola V | title = Expanding the mirror: vicarious activity for actions, emotions, and sensations | journal = Current Opinion in Neurobiology | volume = 19 | issue = 6 | pages = 666–71 | date = December 2009 | pmid = 19880311 | doi = 10.1016/j.conb.2009.10.006 | s2cid = 2692907 }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Decety J, Moriguchi Y | title = The empathic brain and its dysfunction in psychiatric populations: implications for intervention across different clinical conditions | journal = BioPsychoSocial Medicine | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | page = 22 | date = November 2007 | pmid = 18021398 | pmc = 2206036 | doi = 10.1186/1751-0759-1-22 | doi-access = free}}
}}</ref> Observing another person's emotional state activates parts of the neuronal network that are involved in processing that same state in oneself, whether it is disgust,<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Wicker B, Keysers C, Plailly J, Royet JP, Gallese V, Rizzolatti G |date=October 2003 |title=Both of us disgusted in My insula: the common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust |journal=Neuron |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=655–64 |doi=10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00679-2 |pmid=14642287 |doi-access=free}}</ref> touch,<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Keysers C, Wicker B, Gazzola V, Anton JL, Fogassi L, Gallese V | title = A touching sight: SII/PV activation during the observation and experience of touch | journal = Neuron | volume = 42 | issue = 2 | pages = 335–46 | date = April 2004 | pmid = 15091347 | doi = 10.1016/S0896-6273(04)00156-4 | doi-access = free }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Blakemore SJ, Bristow D, Bird G, Frith C, Ward J | title = Somatosensory activations during the observation of touch and a case of vision-touch synaesthesia | journal = Brain | volume = 128 | issue = Pt 7 | pages = 1571–83 | date = July 2005 | pmid = 15817510 | doi = 10.1093/brain/awh500 | doi-access = free}}
}}</ref> or pain.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Morrison I, Lloyd D, di Pellegrino G, Roberts N | title = Vicarious responses to pain in anterior cingulate cortex: is empathy a multisensory issue? | journal = Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience | volume = 4 | issue = 2 | pages = 270–8 | date = June 2004 | pmid = 15460933 | doi = 10.3758/cabn.4.2.270 | doi-access = free }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Jackson PL, Meltzoff AN, Decety J | title = How do we perceive the pain of others? A window into the neural processes involved in empathy | journal = NeuroImage | volume = 24 | issue = 3 | pages = 771–9 | date = February 2005 | pmid = 15652312 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.09.006 | s2cid = 10691796 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.391.8127 }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Singer T, Seymour B, O'Doherty J, Kaube H, Dolan RJ, Frith CD | title = Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain | journal = Science | volume = 303 | issue = 5661 | pages = 1157–62 | date = February 2004 | pmid = 14976305 | doi = 10.1126/science.1093535 | bibcode = 2004Sci...303.1157S | hdl-access = free | s2cid = 14727944 | hdl = 21.11116/0000-0001-A020-5}}
}}</ref><ref name="Lamm" /> As these emotional states are being observed, the brain is able activate a network of the brain that is involved in empathy. There are two separate systems of the brain involved with the feeling of empathy: a cognitive system and an emotional system. The cognitive system helps an individual understand another's perspective while the emotional system enables our ability to empathize emotionally.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shamay-Tsoory |first=Simone G. |date=February 2011 |title=The Neural Bases for Empathy |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1073858410379268 |journal=The Neuroscientist |language=en |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=18–24 |doi=10.1177/1073858410379268 |issn=1073-8584 |pmid=21071616 |s2cid=2646438|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The neuronal network that is activated controls the observers response to these emotional states thus prompting an empathetic response.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Riess |first=Helen |date=2017 |title=The Science of Empathy |journal=Journal of Patient Experience |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=74–77 |doi=10.1177/2374373517699267 |pmc=5513638 |pmid=28725865}}</ref>

The study of the neural underpinnings of empathy received increased interest following a paper published by S.D. Preston and [[Frans de Waal]]<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Preston SD, de Waal FB |date=February 2002 |title=Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_behavioral-and-brain-sciences_2002-02_25_1/page/1 |journal=The Behavioral and Brain Sciences |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=1–20; discussion 20–71 |doi=10.1017/s0140525x02000018 |pmid=12625087}}</ref> after the discovery of mirror neurons in monkeys that fire both when the creature watches another perform an action and when they themselves perform it. Researchers suggest that paying attention to perceiving another individual's state activates neural representations, and that this activation primes or generates the associated autonomic and somatic responses (perception-action coupling), unless inhibited.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Gutsell JN, Inzlicht M |year=2010 |title=Empathy constrained: Prejudice predicts reduced mental simulation of actions during observation of outgroups |journal=Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |volume=46 |issue=5 |pages=841–5 |doi=10.1016/j.jesp.2010.03.011}}</ref> This mechanism resembles the [[common coding theory]] between perception and action.

Another study provides evidence of separate neural pathways activating reciprocal suppression in different regions of the brain associated with the performance of "social" and "mechanical" tasks. These findings suggest that the [[cognition]] associated with reasoning about the "state of another person's mind" and "causal/mechanical properties of inanimate objects" are neurally suppressed from occurring at the same time.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Jack AI, Dawson AJ, Begany KL, Leckie RL, Barry KP, Ciccia AH, Snyder AZ | title = fMRI reveals reciprocal inhibition between social and physical cognitive domains | journal = NeuroImage | volume = 66 | pages = 385–401 | date = February 2013 | pmid = 23110882 | pmc = 3602121 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.10.061 }}|{{cite news | author = Case Western Reserve University | author-link = Case Western Reserve University | title = Empathy represses analytic thought, and vice versa: Brain physiology limits simultaneous use of both networks | url = https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030161416.htm | work = [[Science Daily]] | date = October 30, 2012 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171024095451/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030161416.htm | archive-date = October 24, 2017 }}
}}</ref>

Mirroring-behavior in motor neurons during empathy may help duplicate feelings.<ref>{{cite news |date=November 6, 2012 |title=What's so special about mirror neurons? (guest blog) |work=[[Scientific American]] |publisher=Scientific American
|location=New York |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/whats-so-special-about-mirror-neurons/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150521030923/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/whats-so-special-about-mirror-neurons/ |archive-date=May 21, 2015 |vauthors=Thomas B }}</ref> Such sympathetic action may afford access to sympathetic feelings and, perhaps, trigger emotions of kindness and forgiveness.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite news | vauthors = Marsh J | title = Do mirror neurons give us empathy? | url = https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/do_mirror_neurons_give_empathy | work = [[Greater Good Science Center#Print magazine|Greater Good Magazine]] | publisher = [[Greater Good Science Center]] | date = March 29, 2012 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171024095502/https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/do_mirror_neurons_give_empathy | archive-date = October 24, 2017 }}|{{cite book | vauthors = Ramachandran VS | author-link = Vilayanur S. Ramachandran | title = The tell-tale brain: a neuroscientist's quest for what makes us human | publisher = W.W. Norton | location = New York | year = 2011 | isbn = 978-0-393-07782-7 | title-link = The Tell-Tale Brain}}
}}</ref>

== Impairment ==
A difference in distribution between affective and cognitive empathy has been observed in various conditions. [[Psychopathy]] and [[narcissism]] are associated with impairments in affective but not cognitive empathy, whereas [[bipolar disorder]] is associated with deficits in cognitive but not affective empathy. People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) may suffer from impairments in cognitive empathy as well as fluctuating affective empathy, although this topic is controversial.<ref name="Cox" /> [[Schizophrenia]], too, is associated with deficits in both types of empathy.<ref name="10.1016/j.psychres.2007.05.017">{{cite journal |vauthors=Bora E, Gökçen S, Veznedaroglu B |date=July 2008 |title=Empathic abilities in people with schizophrenia |journal=Psychiatry Research |volume=160 |issue=1 |pages=23–9 |doi=10.1016/j.psychres.2007.05.017 |pmid=18514324 |s2cid=20896840}}</ref> However, even in people without conditions such as these, the balance between affective and cognitive empathy varies.<ref name="Cox" />

Atypical empathic responses are associated with some [[personality disorders]] such as psychopathy, [[borderline personality disorder|borderline]], [[narcissistic personality disorder|narcissistic]], and [[schizoid personality disorder|schizoid]] personality disorders; [[conduct disorder]];<ref name="Decety_BiologicalPsy2008">{{cite journal |vauthors=Decety J, Michalska KJ, Akitsuki Y, Lahey BB |date=February 2009 |title=Atypical empathic responses in adolescents with aggressive conduct disorder: a functional MRI investigation |journal=Biological Psychology |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=203–11 |doi=10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.09.004 |pmc=2819310 |pmid=18940230}}</ref> schizophrenia; bipolar disorder;<ref name="Cox" /> and [[depersonalization]].<ref name="Grossman 1996">{{Cite book |title=On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society |vauthors=Grossman D |publisher=Back Bay Books |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-316-33000-8}}</ref> Sex offenders who had been raised in an environment where they were shown a lack of empathy and had endured abuse of the sort they later committed, felt less affective empathy for their victims.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Simons D, Wurtele SK, Heil P |date=2002-12-01 |title=Childhood Victimization and Lack of Empathy as Predictors of Sexual Offending Against Women and Children |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-interpersonal-violence_2002-12_17_12/page/1291 |journal=Journal of Interpersonal Violence |language=en |volume=17 |issue=12 |pages=1291–1307 |doi=10.1177/088626002237857 |issn=0886-2605 |s2cid=145525384 }}</ref>

=== Autism and controversy ===
The subject of whether autism affects empathy is a controversial and complex area of study. Several different factors are proposed to be at play, such as mirror neurons, alexithymia, and more. The [[double empathy problem]] theory proposes that prior studies on autism and empathy may have been misinterpreted and that autistic people show the same levels of empathy towards one another as non-autistic people do.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Milton |first=Damian E.M. |author-link=Damian Milton |date=August 16, 2012 |title=On the ontological status of autism: the 'double empathy problem' |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09687599.2012.710008 |journal=Disability & Society |volume=27 |issue=6 |pages=883–7 |doi=10.1080/09687599.2012.710008 |issn=0968-7599 |s2cid=54047060|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often correlated to problems with empathy and social communication skills. However, like ASD itself, these issues are often found to be on a spectrum. The suggestion that people with autism are likely to have issues with personal relationships and empathy is a complex issue that has been addressed in many studies. Various research has been exploring these concepts for more than twenty years.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Autism Spectrum Disorders |date=2018-04-30 |publisher=American Psychiatric Association Publishing |doi=10.1176/appi.books.9781615371921 |isbn=978-1-61537-192-1 |editor-last=Hollander |editor-first=Eric |editor-last2=Hagerman |editor-first2=Randi |editor-last3=Fein |editor-first3=Deborah}}</ref>

Certain studies, like this one from 2004<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bird |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Silani |first2=Giorgia |last3=Brindley |first3=Rachel |last4=White |first4=Sarah |last5=Frith |first5=Uta |last6=Singer |first6=Tania |date=2010 |title=Empathic brain responses in insula are modulated by levels of alexithymia but not autism |journal=Brain |language=en |volume=133 |issue=5 |pages=1515–1525 |doi=10.1093/brain/awq060 |issn=1460-2156 |pmc=2859151 |pmid=20371509}}</ref><ref name="Hill et al.">{{cite journal |vauthors=Hill E, Berthoz S, Frith U |date=April 2004 |title=Brief report: cognitive processing of own emotions in individuals with autistic spectrum disorder and in their relatives |url=http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/2585/1/hill_berth_frith_jadd04.pdf |journal=Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=229–35 |doi=10.1023/B:JADD.0000022613.41399.14 |pmid=15162941 |s2cid=776386 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130619122446/http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/2585/1/hill_berth_frith_jadd04.pdf |archive-date=June 19, 2013}}</ref> found connections between ASD and empathy issues. Another study found that empathy problems may be associated to the comorbidity of alexithymia (a struggle to feel emotions) and ASD.<ref name="Empathic brain responses">{{cite journal |vauthors=Bird G, Silani G, Brindley R, White S, Frith U, Singer T |date=May 2010 |title=Empathic brain responses in insula are modulated by levels of alexithymia but not autism |journal=Brain |volume=133 |issue=Pt 5 |pages=1515–25 |doi=10.1093/brain/awq060 |pmc=2859151 |pmid=20371509}}</ref> However, a more recent study from 2022<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shirayama |first1=Yukihiko |last2=Matsumoto |first2=Kazuki |last3=Osone |first3=Fumio |last4=Hara |first4=Akira |last5=Guan |first5=Siqing |last6=Hamatani |first6=Sayo |last7=Muneoka |first7=Katsumasa |last8=Sato |first8=Koichi |last9=Okada |first9=Akihiro |last10=Yokokawa |first10=Tokuzou |date=January 2024 |title=The Lack of Alterations in Metabolites in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala, but Their Associations with Autistic Traits, Empathy, and Personality Traits in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Preliminary Study |journal=Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |language=en |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=193–210 |doi=10.1007/s10803-022-05778-7 |issn=0162-3257 |pmc=10791770 |pmid=36251207}}</ref> found that there were, in fact, no significant differences between the brain sections (medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala) that are associated with empathy.

Another study (2023) focusing on ASD and empathy with regards to mirror neurons<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhao |first1=Weihua |last2=Liu |first2=Qi |last3=Zhang |first3=Xiaolu |last4=Song |first4=Xinwei |last5=Zhang |first5=Zhao |last6=Qing |first6=Peng |last7=Liu |first7=Xiaolong |last8=Zhu |first8=Siyu |last9=Yang |first9=Wenxu |last10=Kendrick |first10=Keith M. |date=August 2023 |title=Differential responses in the mirror neuron system during imitation of individual emotional facial expressions and association with autistic traits |journal=NeuroImage |language=en |volume=277 |article-number=120263 |doi=10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120263|pmid=37399932 |doi-access=free }}</ref> also reflected on the theory that mirror neurons "'''may''' be dysfunctional in ASD." However, as the researchers state, this connection is not clear and although mirror neurons are correlated to ASD, there is no proven causational relationship between dysfunctional mirror neurons and ASD. The study from 2023 might be considered contradictory to an earlier (2006) study on mirror neurons that found that high-functioning autistic children showed reduced [[mirror neuron]] activity in the brain's [[inferior frontal gyrus]] while imitating and observing emotional expressions in other children who were considered non-autistic.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Dapretto M, Davies MS, Pfeifer JH, Scott AA, Sigman M, Bookheimer SY, Iacoboni M |date=January 2006 |title=Understanding emotions in others: mirror neuron dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorders |journal=Nature Neuroscience |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=28–30 |doi=10.1038/nn1611 |pmc=3713227 |pmid=16327784}}</ref>

The correlation between ASD and empathy is a focus for researchers and many relevant articles can be found in the ''Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.<ref name="Rogers" />''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shirayama |first1=Yukihiko |last2=Matsumoto |first2=Kazuki |last3=Osone |first3=Fumio |last4=Hara |first4=Akira |last5=Guan |first5=Siqing |last6=Hamatani |first6=Sayo |last7=Muneoka |first7=Katsumasa |last8=Sato |first8=Koichi |last9=Okada |first9=Akihiro |last10=Yokokawa |first10=Tokuzou |date=2024-01-01 |title=The Lack of Alterations in Metabolites in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala, but Their Associations with Autistic Traits, Empathy, and Personality Traits in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Preliminary Study |journal=Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |language=en |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=193–210 |doi=10.1007/s10803-022-05778-7 |issn=1573-3432 |pmc=10791770 |pmid=36251207}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Labusch |first1=Melanie |last2=Perea |first2=Manuel |last3=Sahuquillo-Leal |first3=Rosa |last4=Bofill-Moscardó |first4=Isabel |last5=Carrasco-Tornero |first5=Ángel |last6=Cañada-Pérez |first6=Antonio |last7=García-Blanco |first7=Ana |date=2024-02-01 |title=Development of Moral Judgments in Impersonal and Personal Dilemmas in Autistic Spectrum Disorders from Childhood to Late Adolescence |journal=Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |language=en |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=691–703 |doi=10.1007/s10803-022-05795-6 |issn=1573-3432 |pmc=10821967 |pmid=36436146}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=Wenyun |last2=Zhuo |first2=Shiwei |last3=Li |first3=Xiaoyun |last4=Peng |first4=Weiwei |date=2023-05-01 |title=Autistic Traits and Empathy for Others' Pain Among the General Population: Test of the Mediating Effects of First-Hand Pain Sensitivity |journal=Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |language=en |volume=53 |issue=5 |pages=2006–2020 |doi=10.1007/s10803-022-05471-9 |pmid=35217943 |issn=1573-3432}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Belcher |first1=Hannah L. |last2=Morein-Zamir |first2=Sharon |last3=Stagg |first3=Steven D. |last4=Ford |first4=Ruth M. |date=2023-08-01 |title=Shining a Light on a Hidden Population: Social Functioning and Mental Health in Women Reporting Autistic Traits But Lacking Diagnosis |journal=Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |language=en |volume=53 |issue=8 |pages=3118–3132 |doi=10.1007/s10803-022-05583-2 |issn=1573-3432 |pmc=10313531 |pmid=35593995}}</ref>

=== Psychopathy ===
Psychopathy is a personality construct partly characterized by antisocial and aggressive behaviors, as well as emotional and interpersonal deficits including shallow emotions and a lack of [[remorse]] and empathy.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite book| vauthors = Cleckly HC |year=1941|title=The Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Reinterpret the So-Called Psychopathic Personality |location=St. Louis, Mo. |publisher=Mosby}}|{{cite book| vauthors = Hare RD |year=1991|title=The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised|location=Toronto |publisher=Multi Health Systems}}
}}</ref> The ''[[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]]'' (DSM) and ''[[International Classification of Diseases]]'' (ICD) list [[antisocial personality disorder]] (ASPD) and [[dissocial personality disorder]], stating that these have been referred to as or include what is referred to as psychopathy.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Skeem JL, Polaschek DL, Patrick CJ, Lilienfeld SO | title = Psychopathic Personality: Bridging the Gap Between Scientific Evidence and Public Policy | journal = Psychological Science in the Public Interest | volume = 12 | issue = 3 | pages = 95–162 | date = December 2011 | pmid = 26167886 | doi = 10.1177/1529100611426706 | url = https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/journals/pspi/psychopathy.html | url-status = live | s2cid = 8521465 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160222023333/http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/journals/pspi/psychopathy.html | archive-date = February 22, 2016 | url-access = subscription }}|{{cite book | vauthors = Patrick C |title=Handbook of Psychopathy |year=2005 |publisher=Guilford Press |isbn=978-1-60623-804-2}}|{{cite book | vauthors = Andrade J |date=23 Mar 2009|title=Handbook of Violence Risk Assessment and Treatment: New Approaches for Mental Health Professionals |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_zxz3XqE8MkC |location=New York, N.Y. |publisher=Springer Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-8261-9904-1 |access-date=January 5, 2014}}|{{citation|url=https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/bluebook.pdf|author=World Health Organization|year=2010|title=ICD-10: Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines: Disorders of adult personality and behavior|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140323025330/http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/bluebook.pdf |archive-date=March 23, 2014}}
}}</ref>

Psychopathy is associated with atypical responses to distress cues (e.g. facial and vocal expressions of fear and [[sadness]]), including decreased activation of the [[Fusiform gyrus|fusiform]] and [[Extrastriate cortex|extrastriate cortical]] regions, which may partly account for impaired recognition of and reduced autonomic responsiveness to expressions of fear, and impairments of empathy.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite book | vauthors = Decety J, Skelly L | year = 2013 | chapter = The neural underpinnings of the experience of empathy: Lessons for psychopathy. | veditors = Ochsner KN, Kosslyn SM | title = The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Neuroscience | volume = 2 | pages = 228–43 | location = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Kiehl KA | title = A cognitive neuroscience perspective on psychopathy: evidence for paralimbic system dysfunction | journal = Psychiatry Research | volume = 142 | issue = 2–3 | pages = 107–28 | date = June 2006 | pmid = 16712954 | pmc = 2765815 | doi = 10.1016/j.psychres.2005.09.013 }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Blair RJ | title = A cognitive developmental approach to mortality: investigating the psychopath | journal = Cognition | volume = 57 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–29 | date = October 1995 | pmid = 7587017 | doi = 10.1016/0010-0277(95)00676-p | url = http://www.unc.edu/~knobe/PHIL109/blair.pdf | s2cid = 16366546 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130721140948/http://www.unc.edu/~knobe/PHIL109/blair.pdf | archive-date = July 21, 2013 }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Blair RJ | title = Neurobiological basis of psychopathy | journal = The British Journal of Psychiatry | volume = 182 | pages = 5–7 | date = January 2003 | pmid = 12509310 | doi = 10.1192/bjp.182.1.5 | doi-access = free}}
}}</ref><ref name="Quinton">"Psychopathy" by Quinton 2006{{full citation needed|date=July 2023}}</ref> Studies on children with psychopathic tendencies have also shown such associations.<ref name="Blair 2001a">{{cite journal |vauthors=Blair RJ, Colledge E, Mitchell DG |date=December 2001 |title=Somatic markers and response reversal: is there orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction in boys with psychopathic tendencies? |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-abnormal-child-psychology_2001-12_29_6/page/499 |journal=Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology |volume=29 |issue=6 |pages=499–511 |doi=10.1023/A:1012277125119 |pmid=11761284 |s2cid=1951812}}</ref><ref name="Blair 2002">{{cite journal |vauthors=Blair RJ, Mitchell DG, Richell RA, Kelly S, Leonard A, Newman C, Scott SK |date=November 2002 |title=Turning a deaf ear to fear: impaired recognition of vocal affect in psychopathic individuals |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1231468 |journal=Journal of Abnormal Psychology |volume=111 |issue=4 |pages=682–6 |doi=10.1037/0021-843x.111.4.682 |pmid=12428783}}</ref><ref name="Stevens 2001">{{cite journal |vauthors=Stevens D, Charman T, Blair RJ |date=June 2001 |title=Recognition of emotion in facial expressions and vocal tones in children with psychopathic tendencies |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-genetic-psychology_2001-06_162_2/page/201 |journal=The Journal of Genetic Psychology |volume=162 |issue=2 |pages=201–11 |doi=10.1080/00221320109597961 |pmid=11432605 |s2cid=42581610}}</ref> The underlying {{clarify|text=biological surfaces|reason=jargon? needs to be explained.|date=March 2022}} for processing expressions of happiness are functionally intact in psychopaths, although less responsive than in those of controls.<ref name="Quinton" /><ref name="Blair 2001a" /><ref name="Blair 2002" /><ref name="Stevens 2001" /> The neuroimaging literature is unclear as to whether deficits are specific to particular emotions such as fear. Some fMRI studies report that emotion perception deficits in psychopathy are pervasive across emotions (positives and negatives).<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Decety J, Skelly L, Yoder KJ, Kiehl KA | title = Neural processing of dynamic emotional facial expressions in psychopaths | journal = Social Neuroscience | volume = 9 | issue = 1 | pages = 36–49 | date = February 2014 | pmid = 24359488 | pmc = 3970241 | doi = 10.1080/17470919.2013.866905 }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Dawel A, O'Kearney R, McKone E, Palermo R | title = Not just fear and sadness: meta-analytic evidence of pervasive emotion recognition deficits for facial and vocal expressions in psychopathy | journal = Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews | volume = 36 | issue = 10 | pages = 2288–304 | date = November 2012 | pmid = 22944264 | doi = 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.08.006 | s2cid = 2596760 | hdl = 1885/19765}}
}}</ref>

One study on psychopaths found that, under certain circumstances, they could willfully empathize with others, and that their empathic reaction initiated the same way it does for controls. Psychopathic criminals were brain-scanned while watching videos of a person harming another individual. The psychopaths' empathic reaction initiated the same way it did for controls when they were instructed to empathize with the harmed individual, and the area of the brain relating to pain was activated when the psychopaths were asked to imagine how the harmed individual felt. The research suggests psychopaths can switch empathy on at will, which would enable them to be both callous and charming. The team who conducted the study say they do not know how to transform this willful empathy into the spontaneous empathy most people have, though they propose it might be possible to rehabilitate psychopaths by helping them to activate their "empathy switch". Others suggested that it remains unclear whether psychopaths' experience of empathy was the same as that of controls, and also questioned the possibility of devising therapeutic interventions that would make the empathic reactions more automatic.<ref name="empathy switch">{{multiref2|{{cite news |title=Psychopathic criminals have empathy switch | vauthors = Hogenboom M |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23431793 |newspaper=BBC News |date=July 25, 2013 |access-date=July 28, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727080108/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23431793 |archive-date=July 27, 2013 }}|{{cite web | vauthors = Lewis T | title = Cold-hearted Psychopaths Feel Empathy Too | work = Live Science | date = July 24, 2013 | url = https://www.livescience.com/38421-psychopaths-feel-empathy-when-they-try.html}}
}}</ref>

One problem with the theory that the ability to turn empathy on and off constitutes psychopathy is that such a theory would classify socially sanctioned violence and [[punishment]] as psychopathy, as these entail suspending empathy towards certain individuals and/or groups. The attempt to get around this by standardizing tests of psychopathy for cultures with different norms of punishment is criticized in this context for being based on the assumption that people can be classified in discrete cultures while cultural influences are in reality mixed and every person encounters a mosaic of influences. Psychopathy may be an artefact of psychiatry's standardization along imaginary sharp lines between cultures, as opposed to an actual difference in the brain.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite book | title = How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain | year = 2017 | vauthors = Barrett LF |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt}}|{{cite thesis | title = The Role of Culture in Empathy: The Consequences and Explanations of Cultural Differences in Empathy at the Affective and Cognitive Levels | year = 2014 | vauthors = Atkins D |degree=PhD|publisher=University of Kent}}
}}</ref>

Work conducted by Professor [[Jean Decety]] with large samples of incarcerated psychopaths offers additional insights. In one study, psychopaths were scanned while viewing video clips depicting people being intentionally hurt. They were also tested on their responses to seeing short videos of facial expressions of pain. The participants in the high-psychopathy group exhibited significantly less activation in the [[ventromedial prefrontal cortex]], [[amygdala]], and [[periaqueductal gray]] parts of the brain, but more activity in the [[striatum]] and the [[insular cortex|insula]] when compared to control participants.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Decety J, Skelly LR, Kiehl KA |date=June 2013 |title=Brain response to empathy-eliciting scenarios involving pain in incarcerated individuals with psychopathy |journal=JAMA Psychiatry |volume=70 |issue=6 |pages=638–45 |doi=10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.27 |pmc=3914759 |pmid=23615636}}</ref> In a second study, individuals with psychopathy exhibited a strong response in pain-affective brain regions when taking an imagine-self perspective, but failed to recruit the neural circuits that were activated in controls during an imagine-other perspective—in particular the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala—which may contribute to their lack of empathic concern.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Decety J, Chen C, Harenski C, Kiehl KA |year=2013 |title=An fMRI study of affective perspective taking in individuals with psychopathy: imagining another in pain does not evoke empathy |journal=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |volume=7 |page=489 |doi=10.3389/fnhum.2013.00489 |pmc=3782696 |pmid=24093010 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Researchers have investigated whether people who have high levels of psychopathy have sufficient levels of cognitive empathy but lack the ability to use affective empathy. People who score highly on psychopathy measures are less likely to exhibit affective empathy. There was a strong negative correlation, showing that psychopathy and lack of affective empathy correspond strongly. {{clarify|text=The DANVA-2|date=March 2022}} found those who scored highly on the psychopathy scale do not lack in recognising emotion in facial expressions. Therefore, such individuals do not lack in perspective-talking ability but do lack in compassion {{clarify|text=regarding the experiences of others|date=March 2024}}.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Mullins-Nelson JL, Salekin RT, Anne-Marie RT, Leistico RL |year=2006 |title=Psychopathy, Empathy, and Perspective -Taking Ability in a Community Sample: Implications for the Successful Psychopathy Concept |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/MULPEA-7 |journal=International Journal of Forensic Mental Health |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=133–49 |doi=10.1080/14999013.2006.10471238 |s2cid=143760402}}</ref>

Neuroscientist [[Antonio R. Damasio]] and his colleagues showed that subjects with damage to the [[ventromedial prefrontal cortex]] lack the ability to empathically feel their way to moral answers, and that when confronted with moral dilemmas, these brain-damaged patients coldly came up with "end-justifies-the-means" answers, leading Damasio to conclude that the point was not that they reached immoral conclusions, but that when they were confronted by a difficult issue – in this case as whether to shoot down a passenger plane hijacked by terrorists before it hits a major city – these patients appear to reach decisions without the anguish that afflicts those with normally functioning brains. According to [[Adrian Raine]], a clinical neuroscientist also at the University of Southern California, one of this study's implications is that society may have to rethink how it judges immoral people: "Psychopaths often feel no empathy or remorse. Without that awareness, people relying exclusively on reasoning seem to find it harder to sort their way through moral thickets. Does that mean they should be held to different standards of accountability?"<ref>{{cite news |last=Vedantam |first=Shankar |date=May 28, 2007 |title=If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Be Only Natural |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/27/AR2007052701056.html |access-date=23 April 2010 }}</ref>

Despite studies suggesting psychopaths have deficits in emotion perception and imagining others in pain, professor Simon Baron-Cohen claims psychopathy is associated with intact cognitive empathy, which would imply an intact ability to read and respond to behaviors, social cues, and what others are feeling. Psychopathy is, however, associated with impairment in the other major component of empathy—affective (emotional) empathy—which includes the ability to feel the suffering and emotions of others ([[emotional contagion]]), and those with the condition are therefore not distressed by the suffering of their victims. Such a dissociation of affective and cognitive empathy has been demonstrated for aggressive offenders.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Winter K, Spengler S, Bermpohl F, Singer T, Kanske P |date=April 2017 |title=Social cognition in aggressive offenders: Impaired empathy, but intact theory of mind |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |article-number=670 |bibcode=2017NatSR...7..670W |doi=10.1038/s41598-017-00745-0 |pmc=5429629 |pmid=28386118}}</ref>

=== Other conditions ===
Atypical empathic responses are also correlated with a variety of other conditions.

[[Borderline personality disorder]] is characterized by extensive behavioral and interpersonal difficulties that arise from emotional and cognitive dysfunction.<ref name="Minzenberg et al., 2006">{{cite journal |vauthors=Minzenberg MJ, Fisher-Irving M, Poole JH, Vinogradov S |date=February 2006 |title=Reduced Self-Referential Source Memory Performance is Associated with Interpersonal Dysfunction in Borderline Personality Disorder |url=http://ucdirc.ucdavis.edu/people/papers/minzenberg_fisher_etal_JPD2006.pdf |journal=Journal of Personality Disorders |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=42–54 |doi=10.1521/pedi.2006.20.1.42 |pmid=16563078 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516001713/http://ucdirc.ucdavis.edu/people/papers/minzenberg_fisher_etal_JPD2006.pdf |archive-date=May 16, 2013 }}</ref> Dysfunctional social and interpersonal behavior plays a role in the emotionally intense way people with borderline personality disorder react.<ref name="Harari">{{cite journal |vauthors=Harari H, Shamay-Tsoory SG, Ravid M, Levkovitz Y |date=February 2010 |title=Double dissociation between cognitive and affective empathy in borderline personality disorder |journal=Psychiatry Research |volume=175 |issue=3 |pages=277–9 |doi=10.1016/j.psychres.2009.03.002 |pmid=20045198 |s2cid=27303466}}</ref> While individuals with borderline personality disorder may show their emotions excessively, their ability to feel empathy is a topic of much dispute with contradictory findings. Some studies assert impairments in cognitive empathy in BPD patients yet no affective empathy impairments, while other studies have found impairments in both affective and cognitive empathy. Fluctuating empathy, fluctuating between normal range of empathy, reduced sense of empathy, and a lack of empathy has been noted to be present in BPD patients in multiple studies, although more research is needed to determine its prevalence, although it is believed to be at least not uncommon and may be a very common phenomenon. BPD is a very heterogenous disorder, with symptoms including empathy ranging wildly between patients.

One diagnostic criterion of [[narcissistic personality disorder]] is a lack of empathy and an unwillingness or inability to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.<ref name="DSM-IV-TR npd">{{citation |title=[[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]] |year=2000 |chapter=Diagnostic criteria for 301.81 Narcissistic Personality Disorder |chapter-url=https://www.behavenet.com/diagnostic-criteria-30181-narcissistic-personality-disorder |edition=Fourth (DSM-IV-TR) |publisher=[[American Psychiatric Association]]}}</ref>

Characteristics of [[schizoid personality disorder]] include emotional coldness, detachment, and impaired [[Affect (psychology)|affect]] corresponding with an inability to be empathic and sensitive towards others.<ref name="DSM-IV-TR spd">{{multiref2|{{cite book | chapter-url = https://www.behavenet.com/diagnostic-criteria-30120-schizoid-personality-disorder | chapter = Diagnostic criteria for 301.20 Schizoid Personality Disorder | title = [[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]] | edition = Fourth (DSM-IV-TR) | publisher = [[American Psychiatric Association]] | year = 2000 }}|{{cite book | vauthors = Guntrip H | title = Schizoid Phenomena, Object-Relations, and The Self | location = New York|publisher= International Universities Press | year = 1969 }}|{{cite book|first=Ralph|last=Klein|pages=13–23|title=Disorders of the Self: New Therapeutic Horizons|publisher=Brunner/Mazel|year=1995}}
}}</ref>

A study conducted by [[Jean Decety]] and colleagues at the [[University of Chicago]] demonstrated that subjects with aggressive [[conduct disorder]] demonstrate atypical empathic responses when viewing others in pain.<ref name="Decety_BiologicalPsy2008" /> Subjects with conduct disorder were at least as responsive as [[Scientific control|controls]] to the pain of others but, unlike controls, subjects with conduct disorder showed strong and specific activation of the [[amygdala]] and [[ventral striatum]] (areas that enable a general arousing effect of [[Reward system|reward]]), yet impaired activation of the [[Biological neural network|neural]] regions involved in self-regulation and [[metacognition]] (including [[moral reasoning]]), in addition to diminished processing between the amygdala and the [[prefrontal cortex]].<ref name="Decety_BiologicalPsy2008" />

[[Schizophrenia]] is characterized by impaired affective empathy,<ref name="Pijnenborg2012" /><ref name="Cox" /> as well as severe cognitive and empathy impairments as measured by the Empathy Quotient (EQ).<ref name="10.1016/j.psychres.2007.05.017" /> These empathy impairments are also associated with impairments in social cognitive tasks.<ref name="10.1016/j.psychres.2007.05.017" />

[[Bipolar disorder|Bipolar]] individuals have impaired cognitive empathy and theory of mind, but increased affective empathy.<ref name="Cox" /><ref name="10.1176/jnp.2009.21.1.59">{{cite journal |vauthors=Shamay-Tsoory S, Harari H, Szepsenwol O, Levkovitz Y |year=2009 |title=Neuropsychological evidence of impaired cognitive empathy in euthymic bipolar disorder |journal=The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=59–67 |doi=10.1176/jnp.2009.21.1.59 |pmid=19359453}}<!--|access-date=October 30, 2013 --></ref> Despite cognitive flexibility being impaired, planning behavior is intact. Dysfunctions in the [[prefrontal cortex]] could result in the impaired cognitive empathy, since impaired cognitive empathy has been related with neurocognitive task performance involving cognitive flexibility.<ref name="10.1176/jnp.2009.21.1.59" />

[[Dave Grossman (author)|Dave Grossman]], in his book ''[[On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society|On Killing]]'', reports on how military training artificially creates depersonalization in soldiers, suppressing empathy and making it easier for them to kill other people.<ref name="Grossman 1996" />

A deadening of empathic response to workmates, customers and the like is one of the three key components of [[occupational burnout]], according to the conceptualization behind its primary diagnostic instrument, the [[Maslach Burnout Inventory]].

The term Empathy Deficit Disorder (EDD) has gained popularity online, but it is not a diagnosis under the DSM-5. The term was coined in an article by Douglas LaBier.<ref name="LaBier">{{Cite web |last=LaBier |first=Douglas |title=Are You Suffering From Empathy Deficit Disorder? |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-new-resilience/201004/are-you-suffering-empathy-deficit-disorder |access-date=2022-03-18 |website=Psychology Today |language=en }}</ref> In the article, he acknowledges that he "made it up, so you won't find it listed in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" and that his conclusions are derived from personal experience alone.<ref name="LaBier" /> His conclusions have not been validated through clinical studies, nor have studies identified EDD as a separate disorder rather than a symptom associated with previously established diagnoses that do appear in the DSM-5.

== Effects ==
The capacity to empathize is a revered trait in society.<ref name="Rogers" /> Empathy is considered a motivating factor for unselfish, prosocial behavior,<ref name="Eisenberg et al.">{{cite journal |vauthors=Eisenberg N, Miller PA |date=January 1987 |title=The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_psychological-bulletin_1987-01_101_1/page/91 |journal=Psychological Bulletin |volume=101 |issue=1 |pages=91–119 |doi=10.1037/0033-2909.101.1.91 |pmid=3562705}}</ref> whereas a lack of empathy is related to [[Anti-social behaviour|antisocial behavior]].<ref name="Rogers" /><ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal | vauthors = Bjorkqvist K, Osterman K, Kaukiainen A | year = 2000 | title = Social intelligence - empathy = aggression? | journal = Aggression and Violent Behavior | volume = 5 | issue = 2| pages = 191–200 | doi=10.1016/s1359-1789(98)00029-9}}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Geer JH, Estupinan LA, Manguno-Mire GM | year = 2000 | title = Empathy, social skills, and other relevant cognitive processes in rapists and child molesters | journal = Aggression and Violent Behavior | volume = 5 | issue = 1| pages = 99–126 | doi=10.1016/s1359-1789(98)00011-1}}|{{cite book| vauthors = Segal SA, Gerdes KE, Lietz CA |title=Assessing Empathy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1MwdDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT79|year=2017|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-54388-0|pages=79–81}}
}}</ref>

Apart from the automatic tendency to recognize the emotions of others, one may also deliberately engage in empathic reasoning. Such empathic engagement helps an individual understand and anticipate the behavior of another. Two general methods have been identified: An individual may mentally simulate fictitious versions of the beliefs, desires, character traits, and context of another individual to see what emotional feelings this provokes. Or, an individual may simulate an emotional feeling and then analyze the environment to discover a suitable reason for the emotional feeling to be appropriate for that specific environment.<ref name="DeWaal" />

An empathizer's emotional background may affect or distort how they perceive the emotions in others.<ref name="Goleman 2005 p.">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/emotionalintelli00dani |title=Emotional intelligence |vauthors=Goleman D |publisher=Bantam Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-553-38371-3 |location=New York |language=da |oclc=61770783 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Societies that promote individualism have lower ability for empathy{{clarify|reason=in what sense do societies have ability for empathy; is this a sort of average of the individuals in the society?|date=March 2022}}.<ref name="WeinerCraighead2010">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pa5vKqntwikC&pg=PA810 |title=The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology |vauthors=Weiner IB, Craighead WE |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-470-17026-7 |page=810}}</ref> The judgments that empathy provides about the emotional states of others are not certain ones. Empathy is a skill that gradually develops throughout life, and which improves the more contact we have with {{clarify|text=the person with whom one empathizes|reason=why "the person", singular?|date=March 2022}}.

Empathizers report finding it easier to take the perspective of another person in a situation when they have experienced a similar situation,<ref name="Gerace2015">{{cite journal |vauthors=Gerace A, Day A, Casey S, Mohr P |year=2015 |title=Perspective taking and empathy: Does having similar past experience to another person make it easier to take their perspective? |url=https://dspace.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/bitstream/2328/35813/1/Gerace_Perspective_AM2015.pdf |journal=Journal of Relationships Research |volume=6 |pages=e10, 1–14 |article-number=e10 |doi=10.1017/jrr.2015.6 |s2cid=146270695 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2328/35813}}</ref> and that they experience greater empathic understanding.<ref name="Hodges2010">{{cite journal |vauthors=Hodges SD, Kiel KJ, Kramer AD, Veach D, Villanueva BR |date=March 2010 |title=Giving birth to empathy: the effects of similar experience on empathic accuracy, empathic concern, and perceived empathy |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_personality-and-social-psychology-bulletin_2010-03_36_3/page/398 |journal=Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=398–409 |doi=10.1177/0146167209350326 |pmid=19875825 |s2cid=23104368}}</ref> Research regarding whether similar past experience makes the empathizer more accurate is mixed.<ref name="Gerace2015" /><ref name="Hodges2010" />

The extent to which a person's emotions are publicly observable, or mutually recognized as such has significant social consequences. Empathic recognition may or may not be welcomed or socially desirable.{{example needed|date=February 2022}} This is particularly the case when we recognize the emotions that someone has towards us during real time interactions. Based on a metaphorical affinity with touch, philosopher Edith Wyschogrod claims that the proximity entailed by empathy increases the potential vulnerability of either party.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Wyschogrod E |date=February 1981 |title=Empathy and sympathy as tactile encounter |journal=The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=25–43 |doi=10.1093/jmp/6.1.25 |pmid=7229562}}</ref>

=== Benefits of empathizing ===
People who score more highly on empathy questionnaires also report having more positive relationships with other people. Supporting this, a 2017 study measuring dispositional empathy with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) found that individuals with higher empathic concern report having a greater number of close relationships.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kardos |first1=Peter |last2=Leidner |first2=Bernhard |last3=Pléh |first3=Csaba |last4=Soltész |first4=Péter |last5=Unoka |first5=Zsolt |date=July 2017 |title=Empathic people have more friends: Empathic abilities predict social network size and position in social network predicts empathic efforts |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0378873316303033 |journal=Social Networks |language=en |volume=50 |pages=1–5 |doi=10.1016/j.socnet.2017.01.004|url-access=subscription }}</ref> They report "greater life satisfaction, more positive affect, less negative affect, and less depressive symptoms than people who had lower empathy scores".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Grühn |first=D. |year=2008 |title=Empathy across the adult lifespan: Longitudinal and experience-sampling findings &blobtype=pdf |journal=Emotion |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=753–65 |doi=10.1037/a0014123 |pmc=2669929 |pmid=19102586}}</ref>

Children who exhibit more empathy also have more resilience.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bernard |first=B. |title=Resiliency: What we have learned |year=2004 }}</ref> Research by Allemand, Steiger, and Fend (2015) support this by showing many benefits that come with the early development of empathy in [[adolescence]]. The main findings of the research indicate that early development of empathy in adolescence will help "predict social competencies in [[adult]]hood."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Allemand |first1=Mathias |last2=Steiger |first2=Andrea E. |last3=Fend |first3=Helmut A. |date=2015 |title=Empathy Development in Adolescence Predicts Social Competencies in Adulthood |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jopy.12098 |journal=Journal of Personality |language=en |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=229–241 |doi=10.1111/jopy.12098 |pmid=24684661 |issn=1467-6494|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In other words, their future ability to work well in groups, build relationships, and communicate effectively. Others include the development of [[social skills]], [[cooperation]], and positive relations in life, which further proves the benefit of empathy.

Empathy can be an aesthetic pleasure, "by widening the scope of that which we experience... by providing us with more than one perspective of a situation, thereby multiplying our experience... and... by intensifying that experience."{{r|Breithaupt|at=Epilogue}} People can use empathy to borrow joy from the joy of children discovering things or playing make-believe, or to satisfy our curiosity about other people's lives.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bloom |first=Paul |title=Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion |year=2016 |at=chapter 6 }}</ref>

Whether or not the people who express empathy are viewed favorably depends on who they show empathy for. Such is the case in which a third party observes a subject showing empathy for someone of questionable character or generally viewed as unethical; that third party might not like or respect the subject for it. This is called "empathy backfire".<ref>{{cite web |date=December 6, 2020 |title=When Empathy Backfires |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-right-mindset/202012/when-empathy-backfires |website=Psychology Today |vauthors=Robinson BE}}</ref>

=== Empathy and power ===
People tend to empathize less when they have more social or political power. For example, people from lower-class backgrounds exhibit better empathic accuracy than those from upper-class backgrounds.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kraus |first1=M.W. |last2=Côté |first2=S. |last3=Keltner |first3=D. |year=2010 |title=Social class, contextualism, and empathic accuracy |journal=Psychological Science |volume=2 |issue=11 |pages=1716–23 |doi=10.1177/0956797610387613 |pmid=20974714 |s2cid=7306762}}</ref> In a variety of [[Priming (psychology)|"priming"]] experiments, people who were asked to recall a situation in which they had power over someone else then demonstrated reduced ability to mirror others, to comprehend their viewpoints, or to learn from their perspectives.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite journal|first1=J.|last1=Hogeveen|first2=M.|last2=Inzlicht|first3=S.S.|last3= Obhi|title=Power changes how the brain responds to others|journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology |volume=143 |year=2014|issue=2 |pages=755–62|doi=10.1037/a0033477 |pmid=23815455 }}|{{cite journal|first=A.D.|last=Galinsky|title=Power and perspectives not taken|journal=Psychological Science |volume=17|year=2006|issue=12 |pages=1068–74|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01824.x |pmid=17201789 |s2cid=3524097 }}|{{cite journal|first=G.A.|last= Van Kleef|title=Power gets you high: The powerful are more inspired by themselves than by others|journal=Social Psychological and Personality Science|volume= 6 |year=2015|pages=472–80|doi= 10.1177/1948550614566857|s2cid= 8686513|url= https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2496853/167297_486126.pdf}}
}}</ref>

===Empathy and violence===
Bloom says that although [[psychopath]]s have low empathy, the correlation between low empathy and violent behavior as documented in scientific studies is "zero".<ref name="Think!" /> Other measures are much more predictive of violent behavior, such as lack of [[self-control]].<ref name="Think!" />

=== Influence on helping behavior ===
{{See also|Empathy-altruism}}

Investigators into the social response to natural disasters researched the characteristics associated with individuals who help victims. Researchers found that cognitive empathy, rather than emotional empathy, predicted helping behavior towards victims.<ref>{{cite journal| vauthors = Marjanovic Z, Struthers G |title=Who Helps Natural-Disaster Victims? Assessment of Trait and Situational Predictors|journal=Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy|date=August 8, 2011|volume=12|issue=1|pages=245–67|doi=10.1111/j.1530-2415.2011.01262.x}}</ref> Taking on the perspectives of others (cognitive empathy) may allow these helpers to better empathize with victims without as much discomfort, whereas sharing the emotions of the victims (emotional empathy) can cause emotional distress, helplessness, and [[victim-blaming]], and may lead to avoidance rather than helping.<ref>{{cite journal| vauthors = Einolf C |title=Is Cognitive Empathy More Important than Affective Empathy? A Response to 'Who Helps Natural-Disaster Victims?'|journal=Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy|date=March 13, 2012|volume=12|issue=1|pages=268–71|doi=10.1111/j.1530-2415.2012.01281.x}}</ref>

Individuals who expressed concern for the vulnerable (i.e. affective empathy) were more willing to accept the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] lockdown measures that create distress.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Petrocchi |first1=Serena |last2=Bernardi |first2=Sheila |last3=Malacrida |first3=Roberto |last4=Traber |first4=Rafael |last5=Gabutti |first5=Luca |last6=Grignoli |first6=Nicola|title=Affective empathy predicts self-isolation behaviour acceptance during coronavirus risk exposure |journal=Scientific Reports |date=December 2021 |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=10153 |doi=10.1038/s41598-021-89504-w|pmid=33980946 |pmc=8115029 |bibcode=2021NatSR..1110153P }}</ref>

People who understand how empathic feelings evoke altruistic motivation may adopt strategies for suppressing or avoiding such feelings. Such numbing, or loss of the capacity to feel empathy for clients, is a possible factor in the experience of burnout among case workers in helping professions. People can better cognitively control their actions the more they understand how altruistic behavior emerges, whether it is from minimizing sadness or the arousal of mirror neurons.

Empathy-induced altruism may not always produce pro-social effects, as it can create bias by leading one to prioritize those for whom empathy is felt over other potential pro-social goals. Researchers suggest that individuals are willing to act against the greater collective good or to violate their own moral principles of fairness and justice if doing so will benefit a person for whom empathy is felt.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Batson CD, Moran T | year = 1999 | title = Empathy-induced altruism in a prisoner's dilemma | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_european-journal-of-social-psychology_1999-11_29_7/page/909 | journal = Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. | volume = 29 | issue = 7| pages = 909–24 | doi=10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199911)29:7<909::aid-ejsp965>3.0.co;2-l}}</ref>

Empathy-based socialization differs{{how|date=July 2023}} from inhibition of egoistic impulses through shaping, modeling, and internalized guilt. Therapeutic programs to foster altruistic impulses by encouraging perspective-taking and empathic feelings might enable individuals to develop more satisfactory interpersonal relations, especially in the long-term. Empathy-induced altruism can improve attitudes toward stigmatized groups, racial attitudes, and actions toward people with AIDS, the homeless, and convicts. Such resulting altruism also increases cooperation in competitive situations.<ref>{{cite book | veditors = Snyder CR, Lopez SJ | year = 2009 | title = Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology. | url = https://archive.org/details/handbookpositive00lope | edition = Second | location = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | pages = [https://archive.org/details/handbookpositive00lope/page/n261 243]–4 | isbn = 978-0-19-518724-3 }}</ref>

Empathy is good at prompting prosocial behaviors that are informal, unplanned, and directed at someone who is immediately present, but is not as good at prompting more abstractly-considered, long-term prosocial behavior.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Christopher J. |last=Einolf|title=Empathic concern and prosocial behaviors: A test of experimental results using survey data|journal=Social Science Research |volume=37 |year=2008 |issue=4 |pages=1267–79|doi=10.1016/j.ssresearch.2007.06.003 |pmid=19227702 |s2cid=205236870 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24025626}}</ref>

Empathy can not only be a precursor to one's own helpful acts, but can also be a way of inviting help from others. If you mimic the posture, facial expressions, and vocal style of someone you are with, you can thereby encourage them to help you and to form a favorable opinion of you.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal|first1=R.B.|last1= van Baaren|first2=R.W. |last2=Holland|first3= K.|last3= Kawakami|first4= A. |last4=van Knippenberg|title=Mimicry and prosocial behavior|journal=Psychological Science|volume= 15 |year=2004|issue= 1|pages= 71–4|doi= 10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01501012.x|pmid= 14717835|s2cid= 3681430|hdl= 2066/64791|hdl-access= free}}
|2={{cite journal|first1=B.C.N. |last1=Müller|first2= A.J. |last2=Maaskant|first3= R.B.|last3= van Baaren|first4=A.|last4= Dijksterhuis|title=Prosocial consequences of imitation|journal=Psychological Reports|volume= 110 |year=2012|issue=3 |pages=891–8|doi=10.2466/07.09.21.PR0.110.3.891-898 |pmid=22897091 |s2cid=13528009 |hdl=2066/102818|hdl-access=free}}
|3={{cite journal|first1=R.B. |last1=van Baaren|first2=R. |last2=Janssen| first3=T.L.|last3= Chartrand| first4=A. |last4=Dijksterhuis|title=Where is the love? The social aspects of mimicry| journal= Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|volume= 364 |year=2009|issue=1528 |pages=2381–9|doi=10.1098/rstb.2009.0057 |pmid=19620109 |pmc=2865082}}
}}</ref>

=== Conflict Resolution ===
Empathy plays a crucial role in resolving conflicts by shifting the focus to understanding the other person's viewpoint, preventing [[miscommunication]], and taking away [[bias]]es.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Klimecki |first=Olga M. |date=2019-10-01 |title=The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Conflict Resolution |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1754073919838609 |journal=Emotion Review |language=en |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=310–325 |doi=10.1177/1754073919838609 |issn=1754-0739|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Being able to understand the other party's side of the argument gives them a different idea of what is creating the conflict. This helps in communicating the problem in a way that will take away any biases and allow for [[collaboration]] that will help resolve the conflict. While empathy can play an effective role in conflict resolution, there are situations where it may not have a significant impact.<ref name=":0" />

While empathy can foster understanding and aid in resolving conflicts, some scholars argue that its effects are context-dependent and not universally positive. Empathy is not inherently moral and can be directed disproportionately toward in-groups, sometimes leading to empathic bias that exacerbates intergroup tensions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bloom |first=Paul |title=Against empathy: the case for rational compassion |date=2018 |publisher=Ecco |isbn=978-0-06-233934-8 |edition=First ecco paperback |location=New York}}</ref> This phenomenon, often referred to as empathic tribalism, can intensify hostility toward perceived out-groups and be manipulated in political or nationalistic rhetoric. For example, empathy for the suffering of one's own group has historically been used to justify retaliatory aggression or military interventions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Decety |first1=Jean |last2=Cowell |first2=Jason M. |date=2015-07-03 |title=Empathy, Justice, and Moral Behavior |journal=AJOB Neuroscience |language=en |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=3–14 |doi=10.1080/21507740.2015.1047055 |issn=2150-7740 |pmc=4748844 |pmid=26877887}}</ref>

Moreover, in conflict or wartime settings, empathy may be selectively disengaged, allowing individuals to maintain moral self-regard while endorsing or participating in violence against others. This process, known as moral disengagement, creates psychological distance from the suffering of out-groups while reinforcing loyalty to in-group members.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bandura |first=Albert |date=1999-08-01 |title=Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1207/s15327957pspr0303_3 |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Review |language=EN |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=193–209 |doi=10.1207/s15327957pspr0303_3 |pmid=15661671 |issn=1088-8683|url-access=subscription }}</ref> These critiques suggest that while empathy plays a critical role in many conflict-resolution contexts, it is not a universal good and may, under certain conditions, contribute to moral bias, polarization, or even the justification of violence. Scholars such as Paul Bloom have argued for a more measured or rational approach to compassion that avoids the pitfalls of emotionally biased empathy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bloom |first=Paul |title=Against empathy: the case for rational compassion |date=2018 |publisher=Ecco |isbn=978-0-06-233934-8 |edition=First ecco paperback |location=New York}}</ref>

===Selective empathy===
Selective empathy—when emotional concern is reserved for in-group members—has been linked to in-group favoritism and out-group dehumanization, particularly in political or wartime contexts. Paul Bloom and others have argued that such biased empathy may exacerbate social division and lead to ethically problematic decisions, suggesting that rational compassion may offer a more consistent moral framework.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bloom |first=Paul |title=Against empathy: the case for rational compassion |date=2016 |publisher=Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |isbn=978-0-06-233933-1 |edition=First |location=New York, NY}}</ref>
Psychologist [[Paul Bloom (psychologist)|Paul Bloom]], author of ''[[Against Empathy]]'', points out that empathic bias can result in [[tribalism]] and violent responses in the name of helping people of the same "tribe" or social group, for example when empathic bias is exploited by [[demagogue]]s.<ref name="Think!">{{cite podcast |url=https://think.kera.org/2017/01/05/the-case-against-empathy/ |title=The Case Against Empathy |website=Think! |publisher=[[KERA (FM)|KERA]] |date=January 5, 2017}}</ref> He proposes "rational compassion" as an alternative; one example is using [[effective altruism]] to decide on charitable donations rationally, rather than by relying on emotional responses to images in the media.<ref name="Think!" /> 

Bloom also finds empathy can encourage unethical behavior when it causes people to care more about attractive people than ugly people, or people of one's own race vs. people of a different race.<ref name="Think!" /> The attractiveness bias can also affect [[wildlife conservation]] efforts, increasing the amount of money devoted and laws passed to protect cute and photogenic animals, while taking attention away from species that are more ecologically important.<ref name="Think!" />

Some research suggests that people are more able and willing to empathize with those most similar to themselves.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Young |first1=S.G. |last2=Hugenberg |first2=K. |year=2010 |title=Mere socialization categorization modulates identification of facial expressions of emotion |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=99 |issue=6 |pages=964–77 |doi=10.1037/a0020400 |pmid=20919774}}</ref> In particular, empathy increases with similarities in culture and living conditions. Empathy is more likely to occur between individuals whose interaction is more frequent.<ref>{{cite book |title=Empathic Accuracy |vauthors=Levenson RW, Ruef AM |publisher=The Guilford Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-57230-161-0 |veditors=Ickes WJ |location=New York, N.Y. |pages=44–72 |chapter=Physiological aspects of emotional knowledge and rapport.}}</ref>{{r|Hoffman2000|page=62}} {{clarify|text=A measure of how well a person can infer the specific content of another person's thoughts and feelings was developed by William Ickes.|reason=without any description or details, this sentence isn't very helpful|date=March 2022}}<ref name="Ickes, W. 1997" /> In one experiment, researchers gave two groups of men wristbands according to which football team they supported. Each participant received a mild electric shock, then watched another go through the same pain. When the wristbands matched, both {{clarify|text=brains flared|date=March 2022}}: with pain, and empathic pain. If they supported opposing teams, the observer was found to have little empathy.<ref name="HeinSilani2010">{{cite journal |vauthors=Hein G, Silani G, Preuschoff K, Batson CD, Singer T |date=October 2010 |title=Neural responses to ingroup and outgroup members' suffering predict individual differences in costly helping |journal=Neuron |volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=149–60 |doi=10.1016/j.neuron.2010.09.003 |pmid=20920798 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Empathic inaccuracy===
Higher empathy tends to reduce the accuracy of [[deception]] detection, and emotion recognition training does not improve deception detection.<ref name="b741">{{cite journal | last1=Zloteanu | first1=Mircea | last2=Bull | first2=Peter | last3=Krumhuber | first3=Eva G | last4=Richardson | first4=Daniel C | title=Veracity judgement, not accuracy: Reconsidering the role of facial expressions, empathy, and emotion recognition training on deception detection | journal=Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology | volume=74 | issue=5 | date=2021 | issn=1747-0218 | pmid=33234008 | pmc=8056713 | doi=10.1177/1747021820978851 | pages=910–927}}</ref>

People can severely overestimate how much they understand others.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lau |first1=B.K.Y. |last2=Geipel |first2=J. |last3=Wu |first3=Y. |last4=Keysar |first4=B. |year=2022 |title=The extreme illusion of understanding. |url=https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001213 |journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: General |volume=151 |issue=11 |pages=2957–62 |doi=10.1037/xge0001213 |pmid=35377705 |s2cid=247954809 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10871/128740}}</ref> When people empathize with another, they may oversimplify that other person in order to make them more legible.<ref name="Breithaupt" /> It may improve empathic accuracy for the empathizer to explicitly ask the person empathized with for confirmation of the empathic hypothesis.<ref>{{cite book |last=McLaren |first=Karla |title=The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life's Most Essential Skill |publisher=Sounds True |year=2013 |page=32 }}</ref> However, people may be reluctant to abandon their empathic hypotheses even when they are explicitly denied.<ref name="Breithaupt" />

When people empathize with others, they may oversimplify them to make them easier to understand. This can lead to misperceiving how cohesive others are and to feeling, by comparison, that they themselves lack a strong, unified self. Fritz Breithaupt calls this the "empathic endowment effect". Because the empathic person must temporarily dampen their own sense of self in order to empathize with the other, and because the other seems to have a magnified and extra-cohesive sense of self, the empathic person may suffer from this and may "project onto others the self that they are lacking" and envy "that which they must give up in order to be able to feel empathy: a strong self".<ref name="Breithaupt" />

===Gullibility===
{{Main|Gullibility}}
Empathy can also be exploited by sympathetic [[beggar]]s. Bloom points to the example of street children in India, who can get many donations because they are adorable but this results in their enslavement by organized crime. Bloom says that though someone might feel better about themselves and find more meaning in life than they give to the person in front of them, in some cases they would do less harm and in many cases do more good in the world by giving to an effective charity through an impersonal website.<ref name="Think!" /> Bloom believes improper use of empathy and [[social intelligence]] can lead to shortsighted actions and parochialism.<ref name="Bloom2017">{{cite journal |vauthors=Bloom P |date=January 2017 |title=Empathy and Its Discontents |journal=Trends in Cognitive Sciences |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=24–31 |doi=10.1016/j.tics.2016.11.004 |pmid=27916513 |s2cid=3863278}}</ref>

=== Manipulative use ===
{{See also|Dark empath}}
Scholars have noted that empathy can be manipulated or used disingenuously. This form of strategic or performative empathy, sometimes colloquially referred to as ''"fake empathy,"'' can be employed to gain trust, manage impressions, or influence others emotionally without genuine concern for their well-being.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Candace |title=Misery and Company: Sympathy in Everyday Life |date=10 February 1998 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-10757-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cameron |first1=C. Daryl |last2=Payne |first2=B. Keith |date=January 2011 |title=Escaping affect: How motivated emotion regulation creates insensitivity to mass suffering. |url=https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0021643 |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |language=en |volume=100 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1037/a0021643 |pmid=21219076 |issn=1939-1315|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Though not widely used in academic literature, the idea overlaps with the concept of instrumental empathy, in which empathic expressions are used to achieve non-empathic goals, such as persuasion, manipulation, or social control.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vacharkulksemsuk |first1=Tanya |last2=Fredrickson |first2=Barbara L. |date=2012-01-01 |title=Strangers in sync: Achieving embodied rapport through shared movements |journal=Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=399–402 |doi=10.1016/j.jesp.2011.07.015 |issn=0022-1031 |pmc=3290409 |pmid=22389521}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-08-10 |title=Instrumental Empathy: The Basis of Psychological Manipulation |url=https://exploringyourmind.com/instrumental-empathy-the-basis-of-psychological-manipulation/ |access-date=2025-05-21 |website=Exploring your mind |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cameron |first1=C. Daryl |last2=Payne |first2=B. Keith |date=January 2011 |title=Escaping affect: How motivated emotion regulation creates insensitivity to mass suffering. |url=https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0021643 |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |language=en |volume=100 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1037/a0021643 |pmid=21219076 |issn=1939-1315|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Long-term effects===
Bloom points out that parents who have too much short-term empathy might create long-term problems for their children, by neglecting discipline, [[helicopter parenting]], or deciding not to get their children [[vaccinated]] because of the short-term discomfort.<ref name="Think!" /> 

=== Compassion fatigue ===
{{See also|Compassion fatigue}}
Excessive empathy can lead to "empathic distress fatigue", especially if it is associated with [[Altruism#Pathological altruism|pathological altruism]]. The {{clarify|text=medical|reason=are e.g. "guilt" and "shame" medical?|date=March 2022}} risks are [[fatigue]], [[occupational burnout]], [[Guilt (emotion)|guilt]], [[shame]], [[anxiety]], and [[Depression (mood)|depression]].<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite book | vauthors = Klimecki O, Singer T | author-link2 = Tania Singer | chapter = Empathic distress fatigue rather than compassion fatigue? Integrating findings from empathy research in psychology and social neuroscience | veditors = Oakley B, Knafo A, Madhavan G, Wilson DS | author-link1 = Barbara Oakley | title = [[Pathological Altruism]] | publisher = Oxford University Press| location = U.S. | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-0-19-973857-1 | chapter-url = https://legiochristi.com/static/lit/Pathological_Altruism.pdf#page=77 | pages = 368–83 }}|{{cite journal | vauthors = Tone EB, Tully EC | title = Empathy as a 'risky strength': a multilevel examination of empathy and risk for internalizing disorders | journal = Development and Psychopathology | volume = 26 | issue = 4 Pt 2 | pages = 1547–65 | date = November 2014 | pmid = 25422978 | pmc = 4340688 | doi = 10.1017/S0954579414001199}}
}}</ref> [[Tania Singer]] says that [[health care worker]]s and [[caregiver]]s must be objective regarding the emotions of others. They should not over-invest their own emotions in the other, at the risk of [[compassion fatigue|draining away]] their own resourcefulness.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=July 12, 2012 |title=Compassion over empathy could help prevent emotional burnout |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/12/tania-singer-compassion-burnout |url-status=live |magazine=Wired UK |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515020421/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/12/tania-singer-compassion-burnout |archive-date=May 15, 2016 |vauthors=Solon O}}</ref> Paul Bloom points out that high-empathy nurses tend to spend less time with their patients, to avoid feeling negative emotions associated with witnessing suffering.<ref name="Think!" /> This form of burnout can impair moral judgment, reduce caregiving effectiveness, and contribute to depersonalization.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Figley |first=Charles R. |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134862542 |title=Compassion Fatigue |date=2013-06-17 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-86254-2 |edition=0 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780203777381}}</ref>

== Disciplinary approaches ==
=== Philosophy ===
==== Ethics ====

In the 2007 book ''The Ethics of Care and Empathy'', philosopher [[Michael Slote]] introduces a theory of care-based ethics that is grounded in empathy. He claims that moral motivation does, and should, stem from a basis of empathic response, and that our natural reaction to situations of moral significance are explained by empathy. He explains that the limits and obligations of empathy, and in turn morality, are natural. These natural obligations include a greater empathic and moral obligation to family and friends and to those close to us in time and space. Our moral obligation to such people seems naturally stronger to us than that to strangers at a distance. Slote explains that this is due to the natural process of empathy. He asserts that actions are wrong if and only if they reflect or exhibit a deficiency of fully developed empathic concern for others on the part of the agent.<ref>{{cite book |last=Slote |first=Michael |title=The Ethics of Care and Empathy |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 }}</ref> In a 2011 article, philosopher Michael Slote delves deeply into how empathy plays a role in [[Morality|moral judgment]], suggesting that our ability to understand and determine right from wrong is influenced by empathy. He further stated that being able to empathize with others helps us stay away from behaviors that some deem to be unreasonable or heartless, which can happen because of a lack of empathy.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The philosophy of empathy - Document - Gale Academic OneFile Select |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=EAIM&u=lincclin_pbcc&id=GALE%7CA267422896&v=2.1&it=r&sid=bookmark-EAIM&asid=cecfe77d |access-date=2024-12-15 |website=go.gale.com}}</ref>

==== Phenomenology ====
In [[phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]], empathy describes the experience of something from the other's viewpoint, without confusion between self and [[Other (philosophy)|other]]. This is based on the concept of [[sense of agency|agency]]. In the most basic sense, phenomenology is the experience of the other's body as "my body over there." In most other respects, however, it is an experience viewed through the person's own eyes; in experiencing empathy, what is experienced is not "my" experience, even though ''I'' experience it. Empathy is also considered to be the condition of [[intersubjectivity]] and, as such, the source of the constitution of objectivity.<ref>{{cite book |last=Agosta |first=Lou |title=Empathy in the Context of Philosophy |publisher=Palgrave/Macmillan |year=2010 }}</ref>

=== History ===
Some postmodernist historians such as [[Keith Jenkins]] have debated whether or not it is possible to empathize with people from the past. Jenkins argues that empathy only enjoys such a privileged position in the present because it corresponds harmoniously with the dominant [[Liberalism|liberal]] discourse of modern society and can be connected to [[John Stuart Mill]]'s concept of reciprocal freedom. Jenkins argues the past is a foreign country and as we do not have access to the [[epistemological]] conditions of bygone ages we are unable to empathize with those who lived then.<ref>{{cite book |title=Re-thinking History |vauthors=Jenkins K |publisher=Routledge |year=1991 |location=London}}</ref>

=== Psychotherapy ===
[[Heinz Kohut]] introduced the principle of empathy in psychoanalysis. His principle applies to the method of {{clarify|text=gathering|reason=by whom?|date=July 2023}} unconscious material.<ref>{{cite web |title=Empathy and Sympathy in Ethics {{!}} Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://iep.utm.edu/empathy-sympathy-in-ethics/#:~:text=Kohut's%20use%20of%20%E2%80%9Cempathy%E2%80%9D%20is,life%20of%20the%20other%20person. |access-date=13 November 2023}}</ref>

=== Business and management ===
Because empathy seems to have potential to improve customer relations, employee morale, and personnel management capability, it has been studied in a business context.

In the 2009 book ''Wired to Care'', strategy consultant [[Dev Patnaik]] argues that a major flaw in contemporary business practice is a lack of empathy inside large corporations. He states that without empathy people inside companies struggle to make intuitive decisions, and often get fooled into believing they understand their business if they have quantitative research to rely upon. He says that companies can create a sense of empathy for customers, pointing to [[Nike, Inc.|Nike]], [[Harley-Davidson]], and [[IBM]] as examples of "Open Empathy Organizations". Such companies, he claims, see new opportunities more quickly than competitors, adapt to change more easily, and create workplaces that offer employees a greater sense of mission in their jobs.<ref>{{cite book |last=Patnaik |first=Dev |title=Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy |publisher=FT Press |year=2009 }}</ref>

In the 2011 book ''The Empathy Factor'', organizational consultant [[Marie Miyashiro]] similarly argues for bringing empathy to the workplace, and suggests [[Nonviolent Communication]] as an effective mechanism for achieving this.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Empathy Factor: Your Competitive Advantage for Personal, Team, and Business Success |vauthors=Miyashiro MR |publisher=Puddledancer Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-892005-25-0 |page=256}}</ref>

In studies by the Management Research Group, empathy was found to be the strongest predictor of ethical leadership behavior out of 22 competencies in its management model, and empathy was one of the three strongest predictors of senior executive effectiveness.<ref name="FinancialPost20130621">{{cite web |date=June 21, 2013 |title=Forget ethics training: Focus on empathy |url=http://business.financialpost.com/2013/06/21/forget-ethics-training-focus-on-empathy/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727121251/http://business.financialpost.com/2013/06/21/forget-ethics-training-focus-on-empathy/ |archive-date=July 27, 2013 |website=The National Post |vauthors=Dowden C }}</ref> The leadership consulting firm [[Development Dimensions International]] found in 2016 that 20% of U.S. employers offered empathy training to managers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Kaitlin Ugolik |title=The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech-Obsessed World |year=2020 |pages=101–2 }}</ref> A study by the Center for Creative Leadership found empathy to be positively correlated to job performance among employees as well.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Importance of Empathy in the Workplace |url=https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/empathy-in-the-workplace-a-tool-for-effective-leadership/ |access-date=2020-11-10 |website=Center for Creative Leadership |language=en-US }}</ref>

[[Patricia Moore]] pioneered using empathic techniques to better understand customers. For example, she used makeup and prosthetics to simulate the experience of elderly people, and used the insights from this to inspire friendlier products for that customer segment.<ref>{{cite book |last=Krznaric |first=Roman |title=Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It |year=2014 |pages=xi–ii }}</ref> Design engineers at [[Ford Motor Company]] wore prosthetics to simulate pregnancy and old age, to help them design cars that would work better for such customers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Waytz |first=Adam |title=Empathy |publisher=Harvard Business Review Press |year=2007 |chapter=The Limits of Empathy }}</ref> [[Fidelity Investments]] trains its telephone customer service employees in a virtual reality app that puts them in a (dramatized) customer's home so they can experience what it is like to be on the other side of their conversations.<ref>{{cite news |date=16 October 2017 |title=Fidelity exploits virtual reality for "empathy training" |work=Finextra |url=https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/31196/fidelity-exploits-virtual-reality-for-empathy-training }}</ref>

=== Evolution of cooperation ===
Empathic perspective-taking plays important roles in sustaining cooperation in human societies, as studied by evolutionary game theory. In game theoretical models, indirect reciprocity refers to the mechanism of cooperation based on moral reputations that are assigned to individuals based on their perceived adherence a set of moral rules called social norms. It has been shown that if reputations {{clarify|text=are relative|reason=relative to what?|date=March 2022}} and individuals disagree on the moral standing of others (for example, because they use different moral evaluation rules or make errors of judgement), then cooperation will not be sustained. However, when individuals have the capacity for empathic perspective-taking, altruistic behavior can once again evolve.<ref name="Radzvilavicius-2019" /> Moreover, evolutionary models also revealed that empathic perspective-taking itself can evolve, promoting prosocial behavior in human populations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Radzvilavicius |first1=Arunas L |last2=Stewart |first2=Alexander J |last3=Plotkin |first3=Joshua B |date=2019-04-09 |editor-last=Doebeli |editor-first=Michael |editor2-last=Tautz |editor2-first=Diethard |editor3-last=Masuda |editor3-first=Naoki |editor4-last=Nowak |editor4-first=Martin A |title=Evolution of empathetic moral evaluation |journal=eLife |volume=8 |article-number=e44269 |doi=10.7554/eLife.44269 |issn=2050-084X |pmc=6488294 |pmid=30964002 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

== In educational contexts ==
Another growing focus of investigation is how empathy manifests in [[education]] between teachers and learners.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = McAlinden M | contribution = Can teachers know learners' minds? Teacher empathy and learner body language in English language teaching | veditors = Dunworth K, Zhang G | title = Critical perspectives on language education: Australia and the Asia Pacific | pages = 71–100 | publisher = Springer | location = Cham, Switzerland | year = 2014 | isbn = 978-3-319-06185-6 }}</ref> Research shows that empathy is important in developing classroom dynamics, fostering student engagement, and enhancing academic outcomes. In 2022, a systematic review of empathy's effectiveness in teaching shows that empathetic teacher-student relationships can result in a positive learning environment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Aldrup |first1=Karen |last2=Carstensen |first2=Bastian |last3=Klusmann |first3=Uta |date=2022-09-01 |title=Is Empathy the Key to Effective Teaching? A Systematic Review of Its Association with Teacher-Student Interactions and Student Outcomes |journal=Educational Psychology Review |language=en |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=1177–1216 |doi=10.1007/s10648-021-09649-y |issn=1573-336X|doi-access=free }}</ref> Also, a study at Stanford University found that when a teacher applies [[active listening]] and emotional awareness approaches, it can lead to a significant (50%) decrease in suspension rates.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Teacher empathy reduces student suspensions, Stanford research shows |url=https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2016/04/teacher-empathy-reduces-student-suspensions-stanford-research-shows |access-date=2024-12-15 |website=news.stanford.edu |language=en}}</ref> It also shows empathy's ability to lessen discipline issues and create desirable academic outcomes.

Despite the positive outcomes, The Philosophy of Empathy emphasizes that empathy is deeply connected to [[morality]], which helps us understand that developing empathy in teachers is challenging. Learning by teaching is one method used to teach empathy.<ref name=":1" /> Research also found that it is difficult to develop empathy in trainee teachers.<ref name="Tettegah, S. 2007">{{cite journal |vauthors=Tettegah S, Anderson CJ |year=2007 |title=Pre-service teachers' empathy and cognitions: Statistical analysis of text data by graphical models |journal=[[Contemporary Educational Psychology]] |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=48–82 |doi=10.1016/j.cedpsych.2006.10.010}}</ref> [[Learning by teaching]] is one method used to teach empathy. Students transmit new content to their classmates, so they have to reflect continuously on those classmates' mental processes. This develops the students' feeling for group reactions and networking. [[Carl R. Rogers]] pioneered research in effective psychotherapy and teaching which espoused that empathy coupled with unconditional positive regard or caring for students and authenticity or congruence were the most important traits for a therapist or teacher to have. Other research and meta-analyses corroborated the importance of these person-centered traits.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book | vauthors = Cornelius-White JH, Harbaugh AP | year = 2010 | title = Learner-Centered Instruction | location = Thousand Oaks, Calif., London, New Delhi, Singapore | publisher = SAGE Publications }}
|2={{cite book | vauthors = Rogers CR, Lyon Jr HC, Tausch R | year = 2013 | title = On Becoming an Effective Teacher — Person-centered teaching, psychology, philosophy, anddialogues | location = London | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 978-0-415-81698-4}}
}}</ref>

Within medical education, a [[hidden curriculum]] appears to dampen or even reduce medical student empathy.{{how|date=July 2023}}<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Howick J, Dudko M, Feng SN, Ahmed A, Alluri N, Nockels K, Winter R, Holland R | title = Why might medical student empathy change throughout medical school? a systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies | journal = BMC Medical Education | volume = 23 | issue = 270 | date = April 2023 | article-number = 270 | pmid = 37088814 | doi = 10.1186/s12909-023-04165-9| pmc = 10124056 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

== In intercultural contexts ==
{{Main|Ethnocultural empathy}}

According to one theory, empathy is one of seven components involved in the effectiveness of intercultural communication. This theory also states that empathy is learnable. However, research also shows that people experience more difficulty empathizing with others who are different from them in characteristics such as status, culture, religion, language, skin colour, gender, and age.<ref name="Tettegah, S. 2007" />

To build intercultural empathy in others, psychologists employ empathy training. Researchers William Weeks, Paul Pedersen, ''et al.'' state that people who develop intercultural empathy can interpret experiences or perspectives from more than one worldview.<ref>{{cite book|first1=William|last1=Weeks|first2=Paul|last2=Pedersen|first3=Richard|last3=Brislin|year=1979|title=A Manual of Structured Experiences for Cultural Learning|location=La Grange Park, Ill.|publisher=Intercultural Network}}</ref> Intercultural empathy can also improve self-awareness and critical awareness of one's own interaction style as conditioned by one's cultural views and promote a view of self-as-process.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Sue|last1=Brown|first2=Joyce|last2=Osland|year=2016|title=Developing Cultural Diversity Competency|publisher=University of Portland}}</ref>

==In fiction==
{{blockquote|"The greatest benefits we owe to the artist, whether painter, poet, or novelist, is the extension of our sympathies. Appeals founded on generalizations and statistics require a sympathy ready-made, a moral sentiment already in activity; but a picture of human life such as a great artist can give, surprises even the trivial and the selfish into that attention to what is apart from themselves, which may be called the raw material of moral sentiment.… Art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow-men beyond the bounds of our personal lot."|George Eliot<ref>{{cite journal|first=George|last=Eliot|title=The Natural History of German Life|journal=Westminster Review|volume=LXVI|date=July 1856|pages=28–44}}</ref>}}

Lynn Hunt argued in ''Inventing Human Rights: A History'' that the concept of [[human rights]] developed how it did and when it did in part as a result of the influence of mid-eighteenth-century European novelists, particularly those whose use of the [[epistolatory novel]] form gave readers a more vivid sense that they were gaining access to the candid details of a real life. "The epistolatory novel did not just reflect important cultural and social changes of the time. Novel reading actually helped create new kinds of feelings including a recognition of shared psychological experiences, and these feelings then translated into new cultural and social movements including human rights."<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book|first=Lynn|last= Hunt|title= Inventing Human Rights: A History |year=2007}}
|2=See also: {{cite video|first=Lynn|last= Hunt|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZVD1G4q0bA|title="Inventing Human Rights" (lecture, March 2008)|website=YouTube}}
}}</ref>

The power of empathy has become a frequent ability in [[fiction]], specifically in that of [[Superhero fiction|superhero media]]. "Empaths" have the ability to sense/feel the emotions and bodily sensations of others and, in some cases, influence or control them. Although sometimes a specific power held by specific characters such as the [[Marvel Comics]] character [[Empath (character)|Empath]], the power has also been frequently linked to that of [[telepathy]] such as in the case of [[Jean Grey]].

The rebooted television series ''[[Charmed (2018 TV series)|Charmed]]'' portrays the character Maggie Vera as a witch with the power of empathy. Her powers later expand to allow her to control the emotions of others as well as occasionally concentrate emotion into pure energy. In season four she learns to replicate people's powers by empathically understanding them.

In the 2013 NBC television show reinterpretation  of ''[[Hannibal (TV series)|Hannibal]]'' we are introduced in the first episode to [[Will Graham (character)|Will Graham]]. Graham is unique in that he seems to have exceptionally high levels of both cognitive and [[emotional empathy]], combined with an eidetic memory and imagination. These abilities help him understand the motives of some of the most depraved killers. [[Hannibal Lecter]] calls his ability "pure empathy". Graham can assume the viewpoint of virtually anyone he meets, even viewpoints that sicken him. When evaluating a crime scene, he uses his imagination and empathy to almost become the killer, feeling what they were feeling during a murder.

Empathy is a Skill in the 2019 game [[Disco Elysium]]. It passively reveals what other characters are feeling.

== See also ==
{{columns-list|colwidth=25em|
* ''[[Against Empathy|Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion]]'' (book by Paul Bloom)
* [[Artificial empathy]]
* [[Attribution (psychology)]]
* [[Digital empathy]]
* [[Philip K. Dick]]'s ''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]''
* [[Ecological empathy]]
* [[Emotional intelligence]]
* [[Emotional literacy]]
* [[Empathic concern]]
* [[Empathizing–systemizing theory]]
* [[Empathy in chickens]]
* [[Empathy in literature]]
* [[Empathy in online communities]]
* [[Ethnocultural empathy]]
* [[Grounding in communication]]
* [[Highly sensitive person]]
* [[Humanistic coefficient]]
* [[Hyper-empathy]]
* [[Identification (psychology)]]
* [[Life skills]]
* [[Mimpathy]]
* [[Mirror-touch synesthesia]] 
* [[Moral emotions]]
* [[Oxytocin]]
* [[People skills]]
* [[Rapport]]
* [[Schema (psychology)]]
* [[Self-conscious emotions]]
* [[Sensibility]]
* [[Simulation theory of empathy]]
* [[Social emotions]]
* [[Soft skills]]
* [[Theory of mind in animals]]
* [[Vicarious embarrassment]]
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book | last=Buber | first=Martin | title=I and thou |publisher=Clydesdale | publication-place=New York | year=2020 | isbn=978-1-945186-88-2 | oclc=1129703024}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Stueber |first1=Karsten |title=Empathy |encyclopedia=International Encyclopedia of Ethics |date=2020 |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee736.pub2 |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4443-6707-2}}

== External links ==
* {{Wiktionary-inline}}
* {{wikiquote-inline}}
* {{commons category-inline}}
* {{cite IEP |url-id=emp-symp |title=Empathy and Sympathy in Ethics|last=Agosta |first=L}}
* {{cite journal|title=Toward a consensus on the nature of empathy: A review of reviews|journal=Patient Education and Counseling|volume=104|number=2|date=February 2021|pages=300–7|vauthors=Eklund JH, Meranius MS|doi=10.1016/j.pec.2020.08.022|pmid=32888755 |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite journal|title=Notes on Empathy|vauthors=Gross D|url=https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SMziBSCT9fiz5yG3L/notes-on-empathy|website=LessWrong|date=May 3, 2022}}
* {{cite SEP |url-id=empathy |title=Empathy}}

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[[Category:Empathy| ]]
[[Category:Cognitive neuroscience]]
[[Category:Concepts in ethics]]
[[Category:Concepts in metaphysics]]
[[Category:Emotions]]
[[Category:Interpersonal relationships]]
[[Category:Life skills]]
[[Category:Moral psychology]]
[[Category:Social emotions]]