Content
What is empathy
Can Empathy Be Learned
How to develop empathy

The “e” in the word FECK…can be empathy or Ebert,” she said, noting her late husband’s view of movies as being an “empathy machine” that allows spectators to walk in other people’s shoes. She even dedicated the book to him, “whose capacity for empathy knew no bounds.”

Where Roger Ebert championed empathy, in her talks, Ebert often spoke of compassion and kindness, two of the book’s other principles, which she said are the result of empathy.

She realized that once you empathized with someone, “it helped you to develop a compassion for that person,” she said. “And if they had a struggle or challenge, your compassion made you want to help do something about it to alleviate their suffering, and that’s where kindness came in.”

Such empathetic dialogue system can improve user's experience and establish long-term human-machine interaction. However, the existing empathetic dialogue generation models ignore the continuity of parties' emotional expression in adjacent dialogue turns, resulting in inadequate emotional perception. Besides, the emotions involved in empathetic response are flexible, it is difficult to set the specific empathetic policy.

By Thomas Fudge

“We use an arts and humanities based curriculum to teach listening and connection, team building. And through that comes empathy and wellness. That’s what we’re finding through our research,” said Evonne Kaplan-Liss, Director of Compassionate Communication at the Institute.

Neuroscientists said humans are hardwired to understand the feelings and needs of the other. Researchers at the Institute for Empathy and Compassion study those neural networks, and they teach medical professionals to make the most of them.

Narrative empathy is the phenomenon of experiencing empathy through the process of engaging with stories. It occurs when an audience emotionally connects with characters, experiences, and contexts within a narrative. This connection is in the first instance about feeling for the character but also involves understanding their emotions, challenges, and motivations on a deeper level too.

For example, in my practice as a psychologist, I often use therapeutic storytelling to help clients understand and articulate their experiences. I’ve observed that when clients relate to a character’s struggle in a story, they are more likely to open up about their own emotions, which is an important step in the healing process.

“Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.” Here David shares the idea that by using some simple tools and applying gratitude to your daily life, success is imminent. David is national best-selling author of Connected To Goodness and recently released a new best-selling book, Compassionate Capitalism, which he co-authored with Blaine Bartlett. Compassionate Capitalism offers new perspectives on how to improve the world’s current economic driver.

Edwin talks about his search for meaning in his life and how he found it in his commitment to empathy. He is committed to building an empathy movement and talks about the empathy center in Santa Barbara, where the process of the empathy circle is taught and lived. He also talks about their use of empathy tents to connect people, for example at demonstrations. For him, true empathy is mutual empathy.

You can find out more about Edwin, the Empathy Center and Circle here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinrutsch/

https://www.theempathycenter.org/
https://www.empathycircle.com/

Dialogue is critical to defusing the crisis at Columbia University and improving relations between Jews and Palestinians. Absent dialogue that engages students in a process that works towards common ground, the conversation will be dominated by extremists with little interest or empathy towards “the other”. A historical dialogue focuses on the past to promote mutual understanding about what happened and thereby mollify passions in the present. It is a tested technique in conflict resolution relevant to today’s stand-off on campus.

by Bonnie McClure and Chalaire Miller
What if artificial intelligence (AI) could augment our ability to really listen and truly relate to others? What if technology could draw upon our collective lived experiences and help us be more human to each other? These are the questions Dr. Grin Lord, clinical psychologist and founder of conversation analytics company mpathic, has spent the last 15 years chasing.

Active listening is a learned behavior and not easy to master. But what if artificial intelligence (AI) could augment our ability to really listen and truly relate to others? What if technology could draw upon our collective lived experiences and help us be more human to each other?

Empathy is defined as understanding, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of others, without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated. Sympathy is sharing a feeling with someone else, while empathy is truly appreciating what the feeling must be like. In other words, empathy is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and taking action from that place.

Putting empathy at the forefront of your company’s values will help open the door to honest conversations, and research has shown that building a culture of empathy creates more confidence among employees, boosts productivity and employee retention, and most importantly, improves mental and emotional well-being all around.

At Cosgn, empathy isn't just a buzzword—it's a guiding principle that informs everything we do. We're committed to walking alongside startups on their journey, offering support, guidance, and solutions that are rooted in a deep understanding of their needs and aspirations. Together, let's step into each other's shoes and create a world where empathy is not just a concept, but a cornerstone of success.
 

How To Increase Your Empathy
Becoming a more empathetic leader requires intention and practice. Here are some strategies to help you enhance your capacity for empathy:

1. Become Emotionally Self-Aware
Develop a keen awareness of your strengths, challenges, biases, and emotions and learn how they influence your behavior. Self-awareness is the foundation of emotional intelligence and is crucial for developing empathy. It’s also the first step in the personal branding process. By understanding your emotional responses, you can better manage your interactions with others and enhance your presence

by Shahram Heshmat  

Empathy allows for the perception of another’s thoughts and feelings.

Music can increase our ability to be more empathetic individuals.

Music is thought to be the social glue that strengthens feelings of unity.

Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand other people's feelings and, specifically, how our actions affect them. There are 400 people who will no longer have a job, and McCarthy is accountable for that decision. 

Previous research has demonstrated a link between the administration of analgesic drugs and the reduction of empathy levels in humans. This apparent blunting effect of pain medication has been explained through shared neural mechanisms for the first-hand and the empathic experience of pain (simulation theory).

Considering that analgesics are among the most consumed drugs in the world and the ability to empathize with others is fundamental to human social interactions, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether the typical day-to-day analgesic consumption rate in Austria and Germany is associated with a reduction in empathy and prosocial behavior.

We therefore collected self-reports of analgesic consumption behavior as well as empathy for pain and prosocial behavior measures in an online survey (n = 940). Analyses revealed no significant association between the analgesic intake frequency and measures of empathy or prosocial behavior. 

Discover the power of global collaboration and networking at the Virtual School Australia Global Empathy Conferences. Connect with peers & gain new insights.

The 6th Global Empathy Conference commenced with a "Welcome to the Country" address delivered by student ambassador Ruby Hand. This was followed by a welcome message from Taryn Hand, Ruby's mother, who is both a parent and an educator from Queensland, Australia, often referred to as the Sunshine State.

Background
Empathy is essential for effective doctor-patient communication. It enables doctors to understand patients' emotions and concerns, facilitating personalized care and support. Empathy can be cultivated through various methods and training programs.

by Jamil Zaki 

Quiet, attentive listening doesn’t always come naturally to professionals, which can make it harder to do their job. Doctors who talk over their patients might miss out on information they need to diagnose them.

Financial advisors, tutors, or managers who don’t take a few minutes to listen might waste a few hours — or months — guiding their clients, students, and teams astray. Why, then, is it so natural for professionals to dominate conversation? One reason is that many of us have the wrong idea about what it means to be socially skilled.

The letters point the districts’ leaders to TeachKind’s kindness-to-animals educational materials, including “Empathy Now,” a guide to preventing violence by young people, and “Challenging Assumptions,” which helps students examine discrimination and other social justice issues.

TeachKind is also offering the districts’ high schools copies of Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries About Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassionby PETA President Ingrid Newkirk.

A recent study found that regular cannabis users “have a greater understanding of the emotions of others”.  These findings “highlight positive effects of cannabis on interpersonal relationships and potential therapeutic applications.”  The study compared measurements of empathy between a group of 85 regular cannabis users and 51 nonconsumers. 

The study found that “cannabis users showed higher scores in the Emotional Comprehension scales” of the test. Those focused on the ability to recognize and understand others’ emotions. Researchers said the results suggest a potential association between marijuana use and empathy. The team of neuroscientists attempted to explain the findings. 

They noted that a part of the brain, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), is prone to the effects of cannabis consumption and is greatly involved in empathy.

Empathy is beneficial for nurses and patients alike, but nurses who experience repeated, prolonged exposure to patients' trauma and suffering can develop empathy exhaustion (also known as empathy fatigue or compassion fatigue), which can have serious effects on the nurses' mental, emotional, and physical health.

Empathy is a core component of nursing practice.  In nursing, empathy is commonly defined as recognizing, understanding, and feeling from the patient’s perspective, and experiencing emotions such as care, concern, or distress as a result of being exposed to a patient’s situation.