Empathic accuracy is a measure of how precisely one person can infer the thoughts and feelings of another. Psychologists William Ickes and William Tooke coined the term in 1988, but the study of empathic accuracy dates back to earlier works within psychology, where scholars aimed to understand how individuals could accurately perceive others’ internal states.…
Tag: empathy
Batson’s Empathy-altruism Hypothesis and Prosocial Behavior
The empathy-altruism hypothesis posits a direct relationship between empathy and altruistic behavior. Originating from the work of social psychologist C. Daniel Batson, this concept suggests that feeling empathy for others can lead to genuine selfless helping actions. Batson has published experimental research to support the empathy-altruism hypothesis ruling out various other egoistic explanations. The hypothesis…
What is a Dark Empath Personality Type?
The term dark empath refers to individuals who exhibit traits typically associated with empathy, such as the ability to resonate with others’ emotions, while simultaneously displaying characteristics linked to the Dark Triad of personality — narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. These individuals demonstrate what is known as cognitive empathy, the intellectual capacity to perceive what another…
Fear, Imitation, And Antisocial Behavior In Children: A New Link
New insight into a set of behaviours known as callous-unemotional (CU) traits is provided by two papers from psychologists Rebecca Waller of the University of Pennsylvania and Nicholas Wagner of Boston University. The researchers found that young children who exhibited less fear and desire for social connection and who engaged less frequently in a copycat…
Rats Are Using The Same Brain Area People Use To Empathize With Others
Rats are able to use other rats as danger antennas by attending to the emotions of the rats around them, researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience report[1]. With this finding, new targets for treatment of empathy disorders in humans, such as psychopathy and fronto-temporal dementia, could someday be possible. Rats are experts at avoiding…
Social Media Use Is Associated With Higher Levels Of Empathy
Empathy is the basis of our capacity for parent-child bonding as well as cooperation with group members in ways that move societies forward. For example, adolescents with higher empathy become adults with better social skills, higher civic engagement, and greater prosocial skills like helping. Additionally, countries with higher empathy have higher levels of collectivism, subjective…