A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting found robust evidence that implicates lower alertness, a key outcome of insufficient sleep, as a predictor of muted empathic responding, which suggests alertness may support both cognitive and affective empathy.

Results show that slower response times on objective alertness tests were significantly associated with lower levels of empathic concern, and that lapses and false starts on these tests were significantly associated with poorer empathic accuracy. Additionally, those who were more objectively alert reported significantly higher affective empathy than the control group.

This word has appeared in 155 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?

According to the report, some steps employers can take to do this include:

Practise empathetic leadership
Foster empathy through education
Build bridges across differences
Recognise progress not perfection
Create safe spaces for vulnerability
Lead by example

How do people successfully interact with those who are completely different from them? And can these differences create social barriers?

One recent concept that has become increasingly popular is the double-empathy problem. This draws on research looking at people who are known to experience social difficulties, such as autistic people.

The theory proposes that people who have very different identities and communication styles from each other which is often the case for autistic and non-autistic people can find it harder to empathise with one another. This two-way difficulty is what they mean by the double-empathy problem.

This idea is getting a lot of attention. Research on the double-empathy problem has rapidly grown over the past decade. This is because it has the potential to explain why different people in society might struggle to empathise with one another, potentially leading to personal and societal problems; from poor mental health to inter-group tensions and systemic racism.

by
Luca Hargitai - PhD Candidate, Psychology, University of Bath

Lucy Anne Livingston - Lecturer in Psychology, King's College London

Punit Shah - Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Bath

How do people successfully interact with those who are completely different from them? And can these differences create social barriers? Social scientists are struggling with these questions because the mental processes underlying social interactions are not well understood.

One recent concept that has become increasingly popular is the “double-empathy problem”. This draws on research looking at people who are known to experience social difficulties, such as autistic people.

by Guy Itzchakov
. Identifying the emotions behind repetitive content from the speaker is crucial for high-quality listening.

The solution lies within the speaker; the listener's role is to help draw it out of them.

Prompt speakers to explore deeper emotions and experiences that contribute to their repetitive disclosure.

Reflect on the speakers' concerns and help them articulate their underlying negative emotions.

Researching empathy across generations
Beginning in 1998, the teens, their mothers and their closest friend were all invited into the research lab at the University of Virginia to engage in problem-solving or advice-seeking first with their mom and then with their friend.

Empathy must be a choice. It is to imagine oneself in the position of another, suffering the same hurts and enjoying the same pleasures – without being that other person. That’s why empathy can work as a strategy.

A policeman shows great empathy when he is able to identify the criminal by the circumstances of the crime. He reads this “signature.”

Similarly, in war, the general must have enough empathy to understand his enemy’s capacities. By imagining himself in the same position, he can guess what his enemy will do, and intercept the attack, or close up his own exposed defenses. Wars have been won with ingenious empathy.

Empathy, powered by our brain's mirror neurons, is the unseen force that deeply connects us to others and makes our relationships more fulfilling, as discovered on my podcast episode ‘The bonds that bind’.

Imagine sitting in a movie theatre, completely absorbed in a gripping scene where the hero is dangling precariously from a cliff. Your heart races, palms sweat, and you find yourself leaning forward in your seat, as if you could somehow help pull them to safety. But why do you feel this intense connection to someone who doesn't even exist outside of the screen? The answer lies hidden within the intricate workings of our brains, specifically in something called mirror neurons. Discovered somewhat serendipitously by a team of Italian researchers in the 1990s, mirror neurons are a fascinating set of brain cells that react not only when we perform an action but also when we observe someone else performing the same action.

Setting flexible boundaries in an often rigid world
In this live 2-hour workshop with Karla McLaren, M.Ed., you’ll learn many ways to create and define boundaries that make plenty of room for the deep interactions that empathy requires.

Many highly empathic people have difficulty setting and maintaining boundaries, and this difficulty tends to come from a misunderstanding of what boundaries are and what they can do.

Many of us have been taught that boundaries should be rigid and wall-like, and this rigidity tends to reduce empathy (which is sometimes a good idea).

But healthy boundaries can also be living, flexible structures and agreements that shift and change with changing circumstances.

Rigid boundaries can be fine in some situations, but highly empathic people need boundaries that make room for the fluid and interactional ways they live in this often rigid and empathically challenging world.

Join Karla for an empathic exploration of boundaries that support empathy and deep interactions while protecting highly empathic people from overload.

Guy Itzchakov

Genuine listening often suffers in life's busyness, especially in romantic relationships.

Deep listening can be transformative and salvage struggling relationships.

A former student's experience demonstrates how practicing deep listening revived her marriage.

Deep listening fosters emotional connection, allowing couples to express vulnerabilities and strengthen bonds.

A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting, held in Houston, Texas, June 1–5, found robust evidence that implicates lower alertness, a key outcome of insufficient sleep, as a predictor of muted empathic responding, which suggests alertness may support both cognitive and affective empathy.

Results show that slower response times on objective alertness tests were significantly associated with lower levels of empathic concern, and that lapses and false starts on these tests were significantly associated with poorer empathic accuracy. Additionally, those who were more objectively alert reported significantly higher affective empathy than the control group.

We often sing the song Is Thy Heart Right with God? Have you ever questioned just what your heart could handle if we really called on it?

Keep that in mind as we study this lesson on empathy. Empathy is “knowing another person’s feelings; feeling what the other person feels; and responding compassionately to another’s hardship.” That makes empathy a verb, not a noun!

Empathy is not just agreement. Neither is it sympathy. Nor is it sharing a similar experience. No, it is not just being civil. By no means is it the taking of an intellectual stance.

And, it is in no way going beyond a simple understanding. Bottom line is: when we empathize, we are not obligated to take on someone else’s issue nor or we obligated to fix the problem. Each person is responsible and accountable for his or her life (Romans 14:12)!

Bridging the empathy gap
One of the fundamental challenges in healthcare has been bridging the empathy gap between doctors and patients. Despite their expertise, doctors can sometimes struggle to fully comprehend the physical and emotional experiences of their patients. According to Aurora Israel, this is where OtheReality steps in, offering immersive VR training that allows medical staff to gain a patient's perspective firsthand.

“The doctor needs to look at the patient as a person with a problem and not as a problem,” Yotvat Palter-Dycian, co-founder and chief operating officer of OtherReality told The Times of Israel. 

BY CHARLOTTE HU

Empathy can help people build strong friendships and close family ties. A new study reinforces the power of teaching and practicing empathy, especially during adolescence.

New results from a long-term study published in the journal Child Development found that teens who received “empathic care” from their mother (the only parent included in the study) were able to pay it forward and show empathy to their close friends. The research further suggests that parental empathy is passed down from generation to generation: teenagers who developed empathy skills were more likely to have healthy adult relationships and a supportive parenting style with their own children more than a decade later.

Aparna Rae
In the face of rapid socio-political changes, the need for empathy in professional settings has never been more pronounced. Empathy, often misunderstood and underutilized, is not just about understanding another's feelings but believing in the validity of their experiences as equally important as our own. This subtle yet profound distinction is crucial for fostering an inclusive, supportive, and effective workplace.

In this piece, we explore the importance of empathy as a key skill, the impact of investing in empathy at work and the barriers to building more resilient organizations.

Empathy is more than a soft skill—it's a critical, strategic asset in today’s complex, diverse, and rapidly changing work environment

Mental health problems, loneliness already among the youngest and polarization are rapidly increasing, especially after the Covid19 pandemic. A new large-scale research study, the CovSocial project, led by Tania Singer from the Max Planck Society, is helping people to reconnect with themselves, others and society at large.

Recent findings reveal that a ten-week partner-based mental online training program was able to boost resilience, empathy, compassion and deepen social connections. At the same time, these short daily, app-based practices done with another person, so-called Dyads, decreased loneliness, depression, anxiety and a negative outlook in life. Researchers hope that this training can be scaled worldwide to overcome loneliness and social divisions.

Study looks at when parental empathy emerges in their children
According to the data, 13 years old is something like the "magic number" age for when empathy starts to take root in children's personalities.

The longitudinal study traced how empathy develops across three generations. Morsa Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images

by Jessica A. Stern, University of Virginia and Joseph P. Allen, University of Virginia

Our new research shows that parents who express empathy toward their teenagers may give teens a head start in developing the skill themselves. In addition, adolescents who show empathy and support toward their friends are more likely to become supportive parents, which may foster empathy in their own offspring.

How we did our work
The KLIFF/VIDA study at the University of Virginia has tracked 184 adolescents for more than 25 years: from age 13 well into their 30s.

Starting in 1998, teens came to the university every year with their parents and closest friend, and a team of researchers recorded videos of their conversations. Researchers observed how much empathy the mother showed to her 13-year-old when her teen needed help with a problem. We measured empathy by rating how present and engaged mothers were in the conversation, whether they had an accurate understanding of their teen’s problem, and how much help and emotional support they offered.

by Gomathy Periathiruvadi 

Leading With Empathy Drives Results
A 2021 PwC survey of 3200 company leaders and employees found, “69% of organizations who adapted their culture mid-pandemic say culture offers a competitive advantage.” By investing in a culture of empathy, our employees show up not only committed to our company, but connected to their work. This sense of belonging and motivation has brought high productivity to our business. Treating employees with dignity leads to less burnout in the workplace. Employees that are valued, supported by and aligned with the culture, are much happier and productive people overall. I want to impart this to all company leaders.

Rakhi Ratanjee discusses the psychological benefits that engaging in reading fantasy has developing empathy. Rakhi Ratanje is a first year medical student at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.

Rakhi was born in South Africa and grew up in Southern California. Prior to starting medical school at GCSOM, she attended UCLA, where she majored in Psychobiology with a Minor in Global Health.

During her spare time, Rakhi enjoys reading, hiking, trying new food with friends, and yoga. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community

 The Effects of Listening on Speakers’ Attitude Structure
We build on Carl Rogers’ theory to test how participation in the Listening Circle workshop can influence the attitudes of speakers who interact with the workshop attendees. Rogers, in his work on Client-Centered Therapy argued that good listening is about trying to understand the other person’s point of view and achieving the other person’s reference point. Good listening, according to Rogers, means not only paying attention, and comprehension to the speaker’s message, but also a certain type

Description of the Study
We conducted a study in an organization to test our predictions using participants from a public organization which employs over 4000 people. The management in the organization sends its employees, as a matter of routine, to take part in various workshops designed to improve soft-skill, one of which is the Listening Circle. We were able to measure employees in these workshops as well as in control workshops that were highly similar in scope, but did not train its atendees in listening.
 

Leonard H. Calabrese, 
For readers of my column over the past decade, many will recognize that on numerous occasions I have chosen to discuss empathy.

I became interested in this topic nearly 20 years ago when I was charged to develop a course on medical humanism in our new medical school. Until then, although the notion of empathy was of interest to me, I had not yet given the science of empathy any formal thought. To learn more, I reached out to Mohammadreza Hojat, PhD, the prime architect of the Jefferson Empathy Scale, the most widely used metric to measure empathy in health care, and began a journey of inquiry and research. This journey into empathy in medicine has influenced my own personal reflective and clinical practice in so many positive ways.