Humans and animals share a remarkable capacity to sense when others are in distress and respond with comforting behavior. But the motivation for doing so, and why it sometimes breaks down, has been poorly understood. UCLA Health researchers sought to better understand this in a study published in Nature that uncovers the brain circuitry in mice linking two seemingly distinct social behaviors: caring for vulnerable offspring and comforting distressed peers.

by @Chris Kaufman

Leading with empathy is often equated with being “soft” or sacrificing high standards. Some leaders fear that heart-first leadership will undermine their authority or that any sign of vulnerability will be seen as weakness. In fact, empathy can actually motivate teams and drive better performance. The idea of empathy-versus-excellence is a false dichotomy—the two can go hand in hand under the right conditions.

Empathy is a cornerstone of psychological safety, which is essential if employees are going to think outside the box, get creative, and take risks. The adage that “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” holds true here: To make a shot, you’ve got to take the shot, and taking the shot requires confidence. In this way, empathy enables experimentation.

Leading with empathy is often equated with being “soft” or sacrificing high standards. Some leaders fear that heart-first leadership will undermine their authority or that any sign of vulnerability will be seen as weakness. In fact, empathy can actually motivate teams and drive better performance. The idea of empathy-versus-excellence is a false dichotomy—the two can go hand in hand under the right conditions.

Empathy is a cornerstone of psychological safety, which is essential if employees are going to think outside the box, get creative, and take risks. The adage that “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” holds true here: To make a shot, you’ve got to take the shot, and taking the shot requires confidence. In this way, empathy enables experimentation.

Empathy also builds the trust needed for the kind of honest feedback that fosters continuous improvement.

Yet to some conservative Christians these days, Jesus is a double-fisted, muscle-bound tough guy ever-ready to vanquish foes, apparently including Christians of the Jesus-is-love persuasion.

They warn against “the sin of empathy,” which they say leads to a nation of wimpy and wussy menfolk. There’s even a book titled The Sin of Empathy.

Growing up Presbyterian, I learned that empathy was a big-time Christian virtue. It still is, according to the Rev. Dwain Lee, pastor at Louisville’s Springdale Presbyterian Church.

“From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, empathy is the absolute, essential cornerstone of everything in the Scriptures and everything in the faith,” he said. “It takes an awfully skewed distortion of that continuous story to get where these guys are going.”

I suspect many, if not most, Kentucky churchgoers don’t believe empathy is a sin. I hope they don’t.

Three GW students are expanding the reach of and pursuing nonprofit status for an organization they formed last year to foster students’ empathy by inviting women from conflict zones to campus to engage in dialogues on their experiences.

Trigger Empathy, a project started by three students in January 2025, has so far invited three women with personal experience in an international conflict for discussions on GW’s campus, creating intimate, safe spaces for students to learn from their stories with the hopes to influence the next generations’s leaders and changemakers to be more empathetic. The group’s leaders said they are in the process of applying for nonprofit status and aim to become a larger organization with chapters at universities nationwide in the future, expanding the network of events and fostering greater empathy at colleges throughout the United States.

The word empathy is frequently used when talking about improving legal workplace practices, environments, culture and leadership. However, what exactly does this mean? Why should lawyers be more empathetic? And how can we cultivate and develop empathy across the legal practice? This Practice Note introduces you to empathy in law and sets out concrete tips on how to develop empathy for yourself to become a more resilient and valuable legal professional.

Consider empathy. A recent Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey found that 8 in 10 Americans see empathy as essential to a healthy society. Only 16% called it a “dangerous emotion” that undermines “a society guided by God’s truth.”

In a nation that can barely agree on the weather, that’s striking. But just because we agree on a word doesn’t mean we agree on what it means.

Some conservative evangelical voices have declared a “war on empathy.” Allie Beth Stuckey, author of 2024’s “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion,” argues that empathy has become a tool of manipulation in the hands of progressives. Joe Rigney, in his 2025 book “The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits,” warns that caring too much about others’ feelings can cloud our grasp of truth.

Imagine a world where everyone's go-to way of relating is empathy. The Gift of Empathy takes a fresh look at this important skill, examining what empath is and isn't, offering practical guidance for empathizing well, and showing how to respond with empathy in all kinds of situations and settings. With ready-to-use principles, this class will empower you to better understand, connect with and empathize with family, friends, coworkers, and others you may relate to.

We will be using the book, The Gift of Empathy, which is available at stephenministries.org.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn the valuable skill of empathy towards others!

by John Fea
Without empathy, our political opponents become stereotypes. Complex motivations get reduced to malice. In a diverse democracy, tolerating each other isn’t enough; we must try — however imperfectly — to imagine how our neighbors see the world. This is what makes empathy difficult. Stanford education professor Sam Wineburg called this kind of thinking an “unnatural act.”

Convictions without empathy too often harden into dogmatism. Sympathy without discernment becomes sentimentality. Empathy — the discipline of trying to understand before judging — helps steady both.

The PRRI survey suggests that most Americans still believe empathy is foundational to a healthy society. That shared intuition may be one of the last pieces of common moral language we possess.

 for today lets talk about the Empathy Movement’s visit to the California Democratic Convention.

This weekend the Empathy Center brought our message of mutual listening for greater understanding to the Democratic State Convention in San Francisco. Edwin Rutsch and Bill Filler were interviewed by John Ramos from KPIX TV. Jump the fold for some pictures and  a link to a short video, and the text of the key section on with the interview with Bill and Edwin.

Empathy is not a soft skill –

The Business Case for Empathy in Corporate Learning
The data is unambiguous. A landmark study by Catalyst found that employees with highly empathetic managers report greater innovation, engagement, and retention — and are far less likely to experience burnout. A separate Deloitte report on human capital trends identified empathy as a foundational capability for the future of work, noting that organizations with high-empathy cultures significantly outperform their peers on multiple business metrics.

Despite this, a 2022 survey by Businessolver found that while 91% of CEOs believe empathy is directly linked to financial performance, only 48% of employees feel empathy is meaningfully demonstrated in their workplaces. That gap — between executive belief and daily employee experience — is a corporate learning failure.

Despite the emphasis on empathy as an important aspect of good leadership, managers may find a certain level of emotional detachment helpful, particularly in environments where difficult calls are routine, according to new research from resume template provider Zety and human resources service firm Sigma Assessment Systems.

The Empathy in Management Report analyzed almost 20 years of Sigma’s proprietary Jackson Personality Inventory-Revised, or JPI-R, personality tests and found that managers scored lower than the general population across what the study called “the Emotional cluster,” which measured emotional sensitivity through empathy, anxiety and cooperativeness categories.

Empathy is your new leadership edge. Grounded in neuroscience and real-world stories, Empathy Leadership teaches leaders how to navigate conflict, build trust, and lead with clarity and confidence.

In today’s workplace, empathy isn’t a soft skill—it’s the competitive edge that distinguishes great leaders and thriving organizations. Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, and real-world narratives, Douglas E. Noll reveals how calm authority, emotional intelligence, and compassionate communication are strategic advantages in effective leadership. Empathy Leadership is a revolutionary framework that prioritizes emotional connection as the foundation for success.

Through practices like reflective listening and affect labeling, leaders learn to recognize emotions in real time, diffuse tension, and strengthen trust and collaboration in the workplace. For leaders at every level, Empathy Leadership provides the actionable insights and tools to lead with both head and heart—demonstrating how empathy leverages emotional connection to build and maintain high-performing teams and authentic human connection.

Ed’s time in the classroom revealed a simple truth: empathy helps every student flourish. Since leaving teaching, he has built Empathy Week – a movement now reaching 2.5 million students worldwide. His story shows the power of a teacher’s vision to spark global change. Here, Ed tells his story in his own words.
I loved my time teaching in classrooms. It was those days, weeks and years that solidified in me that empathy was the underlying skill to master to create a learning environment that allowed students to flourish.

I left in 2017, and now I’m looking at a global movement that has reached over 2.5 million students in seven years and 700,000 students alone this year.

The journey from being a teacher to founding Empathy Week has been a whirlwind of storytelling, cinematic exploration, and a deep-seated belief that empathy is the most important skill we can teach the next generation.

Artificial intelligence tools that give the impression of understanding our emotions are proliferating. From Replika to Snapchat AI, millions of users converse daily with systems designed to listen and reassure. Replika has 25 million users, Snapchat AI gathers 150 million, and Xiaoice reaches 660 million users in China, according to a 2025 Amplyfi report. Available 24/7, without judgment or emotional fatigue, these systems simulate empathic listening. But does this artificial empathy genuinely help lonely people, or does it create new forms of dependency?

As millions turn to ChatGPT and other AI chatbots for therapy-style advice, new research from Brown University raises a serious red flag: even when instructed to act like trained therapists, these systems routinely break core ethical standards of mental health care.

In side-by-side evaluations with peer counselors and licensed psychologists, researchers uncovered 15 distinct ethical risks — from mishandling crisis situations and reinforcing harmful beliefs to showing biased responses and offering “deceptive empathy” that mimics care without real understanding.

by  Georgia Kreiger

I would send my students out into the world, let me say, strengthened by empathy, to offer human connection as an alternative to the current tide of self-interest and isolation.

If we can nourish empathy through conscious effort, if we can cultivate it through practice, shouldn’t we?

If empathy can be taught, it should be. The survival of civilization may depend on it.

Research demonstrates that even if empathy – the capacity to perceive or share emotions with other beings – is not part of a person’s communication skill set, it can be taught. Empathy can, therefore be viewed as an acquired communication skill. Cultivating and practicing the skill of empathy among health care providers enhances the quality of care experienced by their patients which, in turn, can even improve work satisfaction for health care providers.

Many communication textbooks or manuals for care giving professions primarily focus on specific communication skills and techniques. Cultivating Empathy takes a different approach; the book sets empathy as the foundation of all therapeutic interactions and teaches the reader to learn the art of empathy by using constructive approaches and research findings from social sciences and neuroscience.

The high cost of the empathy deficit
There is a lot of enthusiasm about implementing AI, but often when business leaders see the price tag, the first things cut are the ‘soft stuff,’ like experience design and change management. It’s an understandable impulse. But it’s a costly one. It doesn’t matter how technically sophisticated your AI product is, if the design isn’t grounded in how people actually behave, businesses are playing roulette with a significant investment.

And that gamble has real consequences. The Empathy Deficit doesn’t just produce clunky products — it destroys customer experience and, left unchecked, ignites the kind of brand crises that no amount of technical excellence can undo.

I interviewed Jake Via, organizing director of the American Humanist Association, and discussed the American Empathy Project, which aims to distribute $100,000 in grants for empathy-building projects. The initiative emphasizes empathy as a core American value. 
See the link for how to apply.

The Empathy Tent team attended the 2026 California Democratic Party Convention in San Francisco, February 20 & 21 to promote the Movement.  (We attended the California Republican State Convention in the past.)   See the Full Report

It's touted that women are naturally empathetic, but science begs to differ

We still typically describe traits like empathy as naturally feminine and traits like dominance and assertiveness as masculine. Even when displaying the same behaviour, men are seen as assertive and women as aggressive.

One particularly notable trait that is often gendered in this way is empathy. Women supposedly are natural empaths while men who show more empathy are typically seen as weak.

But why is that? Is it true that women are naturally more empathetic than men, or are we socialised to be?