Empathy

Empathy is the capacity to understand and feel what another being experiences. This may be having a similar emotional reaction to other's emotional state; sharing emotion of another. It's the capacity to place oneself in another's position/take another's perspective. It requires cognitive insight, and theory of mind.

Sympathy is the feeling of concern for another's emotional state, and willingness to alleviate suffering.

Related constructs include pity, social intelligence, egocentrism, altruism, social curiosity, agreeableness, theory of mind, and emotional intelligence.

There are a wide range of measure available that "tap" empathy, under a variety of different labels.

Sally-Anne Task - also known as false belief or theory of mind task: test using dolls to assess theory of mind in children. Focuses on cognitive empathy, not emotional or affective empathy. Child must understand that Sally looks for her given item in the last place she thinks it is, rather than where they know it is.

Reading the mind in the eyes test: 36 photos from magazines, cropped and rescaled so that only the area around the eyes can be seen. 4 mental-state terms for each photo, one is deemed correct, based on a consensus from independent panel of judges.

Interpersonal reactivity index (IRI): empathy is defined as reactions of one individual to the ovserved experiences of another. 28 items, 5-point likert scale with 4 subscales including 7 items in each. 4 subscales - perspective taking, fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress

Self-reports: e.g empathy quotient - questionnaire mainly used in clinical settings to screen for ASD in adults. 60 items with 20 distractors measured with a 4-point likert scale.

Leadership: it's hypothesised that individuals with higher empathy will better understand followers' needs. and thus be better leaders. van Zeist (1952) found that in Union Leaders, empathy correlated at .64 with perceived ability to settle grievances, and .44 with enforcement of rules and regulations.

Relationships: if individuals with higher empathy get along better with others, does this mean they have more friends, longer relationship durations and greater relationship satisfaction? Morelli et al (2017) study on US freshers living in halls. People high in wellbeing were central to social networks characterised by fun, and people high in empathy were central to social networks characterised by trust. Conclusions: wellbeing is social attractive, whereas empathy facilitates close relationships. It highlights the role of personality and empathy in community membership/friendships

Fictional narrative experiences influence how people feel and behave in their daily lives.

Kidd & Castano (2013): participants had significantly higher affective empathy/theory of mind after reading fiction (which depicted at least 2 characters) compared to non-fiction (which primarily focused on a nonhuman subject). This was tested by a false belief task and reading the mind in the eyes test.

Panero et al (2016) attempted to replicate Kidd & Castano's findings, but found no effect of reading fiction on affective empathy or theory of mind compared to other. But, lifetime exposure to fiction consistently related to empathy across all conditions. Conclusions: reading fiction stregnthens empathic skills over time, and individuals with stronger empathic skills are more drawn to fiction