Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and share another's experience.
Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
Empathy is the capacity to grasp another person’s viewpoint, to comprehend and feel what they are going through, and sometimes to share in or react to that experience. The term covers a wide range of social, cognitive, and emotional processes that focus on understanding others, and it can be broken down into more specific types, including cognitive empathy, emotional (or affective) empathy, somatic empathy, and spiritual empathy. Key areas of study involve how empathy develops, its genetic and neurological underpinnings, empathy across different species, and what happens when empathy is impaired. Researchers have tried to measure empathy using tools like questionnaires, where participants answer questions and receive a score.
The word “empathy” comes from the Ancient Greek *ἐμπάθεια* (*empatheia*), meaning “physical affection or passion,” which itself is built from *ἐν* (*en*, “in, at”) and *πάθος* (*pathos*, “passion” or “suffering”). The German philosopher Theodor Lipps brought the aesthetic term *Einfühlung* (“feeling into”) into psychology in 1903, and the English psychologist Edward B. Titchener translated it into “empathy” in 1909.
Since entering English, empathy has been defined in many, sometimes conflicting, ways by both researchers and the general public. These definitions cover a broad range of phenomena: caring for others and wanting to help them, feeling emotions that match another person’s, figuring out what someone else is thinking or feeling, and blurring the line between self and other. Because empathy involves understanding others’ emotional states, its definition depends on how emotions themselves are defined. If emotions are seen as bodily feelings, then understanding another’s bodily feelings is central to empathy. If emotions are seen as a mix of beliefs and desires, then grasping those beliefs and desires becomes more important. Ideally, a person shows empathy when they communicate an accurate recognition of the meaning behind another’s ongoing actions, emotional states, and personal traits in a way that feels accurate and tolerable to that person. This nuanced view helps in understanding complex human emotions and interactions, highlighting the need for balance. The ability to recognize another’s bodily feelings or emotions is linked to one’s own capacity for imitation and seems to rely on an inborn ability to connect the movements
- field
- Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy
- known_for
- Broad concept encompassing cognitive and affective empathy; distinction from sympathy, compassion, and emotional contagion
- etymology
- Derived from Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empatheia, meaning 'physical affection or passion')
- key_contributors
- Theodor Lipps (adapted Einfühlung to psychology, 1903); Edward B. Titchener (translated Einfühlung as 'empathy', 1909)
Lore & Background
The English word empathy derives from the Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empatheia, meaning 'physical affection or passion'), itself from ἐν ('in, at') and πάθος ('passion' or 'suffering'). The German philosopher Theodor Lipps adapted the German aesthetic term Einfühlung ('feeling into') to psychology in 1903, and the English psychologist Edward B. Titchener subsequently translated Einfühlung into English as 'empathy' in 1909. Since its introduction, empathy has had a wide range of sometimes conflicting definitions among researchers and laypeople, encompassing caring for others, experiencing matching emotions, discerning others' thoughts, and blurring self-other distinctions.
Reader's Guide
Empathy is a foundational concept in psychology and neuroscience, studied for its development, genetics, neural basis, and impairment. It is typically divided into two major components: affective empathy (the ability to respond with an appropriate emotion to another's mental states) and cognitive empathy (the ability to understand another's perspective or mental state). These components are independent; someone who strongly empathizes emotionally is not necessarily good at understanding another's perspective. Empathy exists on a spectrum, and empirical research supports interventions that can improve it. The concept is distinguished from related terms such as compassion, sympathy, pity, emotional contagion, and alexithymia. Measurement efforts date to at least the mid-twentieth century, using self-report questionnaires and behavioral measures, though a 2019 meta-analysis found only a negligible association between self-report and behavioral measures of cognitive empathy.
Did You Know?
- The English word 'empathy' was coined by Edward B. Titchener in 1909 as a translation of the German term Einfühlung.
- Empathy can be divided into cognitive, emotional (affective), somatic, and spiritual categories.
- Affective empathy includes empathic concern, personal distress, and affective mentalizing.
- A 2019 meta-analysis found that people are generally not able to accurately assess their own cognitive empathy abilities.
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