• Examining the empathy levels of medical students using CHAID analysis
• The role of maternal sensitivity, infant temperament, and emotional context in the development of emotion regulation
• The implications of COVID-19 for employee health: the moderating roles of perceived government benevolence, leader empathy, and family centrality
• Mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between dual work stress and reflective ability among junior nurses
• The Experiences, Enablers and Barriers of Compassion According To Residential Youth Care Workers in the Netherlands
• State Self-Compassion and Response to Failure: The Mediating Role of Causal Attributions
  
  
  

When adults pretended to be in pain, children as young as 9 months old comforted them, pushing back the earliest age when humans are known to display empathy

Commencement speaker Emily Deschanel (CFA’98) urged BU graduates Sunday to be empathetic. “Empathy,” she told the approximately 25,000 gathered on Nickerson Field, “makes people feel seen, heard, and known. It creates an environment of respect and care.”

“Empathy isn’t weakness,” she told the 4,000 graduates and more than 20,000 guests gathered on Nickerson Field, as well as an overflow crowd at nearby Agganis Arena, on a cloudy and windy afternoon that sprinkled light rain briefly during her remarks. (The full Class of 2025, including those who did not attend Sunday’s ceremony, totals almost 8,000.) 

by Kieran Donaghy,
This paper aims to show that empathy is central to successful language learning and to making language teaching a more compassionate and fairer profession. I begin by exploring what empathy is, its three main components: cognitive empathy; affective empathy and empathetic concern, and its neurological foundations.

I draw on general education literature to present what research findings suggest about the role of empathy in education and the characteristics of empathic teachers. I then draw on language education literature and research to support my argument that empathy is particularly important in language education. I examine whether there is an empathy deficit in language teaching and look at hindering factors that may make it challenging to embed a culture of empathy in the profession.

Finally, moving from theory to practice, I explore how we could explicitly develop empathy as a skill among teacher trainers, teachers and learners.

When
Day 1: Monday, May 19, 2025, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Day 2: Wednesday, May 21, 2025, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

When you think of workplace wellness, you may picture gym memberships and yoga mats. But joy, empathy, and inclusion also create a healthy and high-performing workplace culture! We need to reimagine what wellness means!

Today, Misha Safran, shares how empathy intersects with inclusion to foster innovation and equity. We also discuss how to reframe the misconceptions about empathy that exist in high-pressure workplaces. With brilliant mindset shifts and practical tips, she shares how leaders can model empathy without feeling performative, and how to navigate conflict using empathy and emotional intelligence. Misha shares the four elements of joy and why you can be more successful when you embrace them so your team can break free from chaos and transform that energy into creativity, problem-solving, and success.

To access the episode transcript, please scroll down below.

Key Takeaways:

Empathy is love, care, and concern – not agreement. It’s having conversations, it’s listening to know what’s going on, and it’s having healthy boundaries.
Empathy before accusation.
Empathy might look different depending on personality – it doesn’t have to mean being touchy-feely or crying on the floor with your employees.
Especially in conflict, urgency causes chaos – slow down, take a pause, take a breath, and respond, don’t react. Slow down to build up.

“For a long time, bonobos have been thought of as the more empathic ape, whilst chimpanzees are typically spoken about as the violent, despotic ape.

“However, we found that chimpanzees are just as likely to console one another as bonobos,” explained Dr Jake Brooker, who led the study. Age plays a crucial role in the empathy of these great apes. In both bonobos and chimpanzees, the youngest are the first to offer comfort to their peers.

Young bonobos are both more likely to comfort and to be comforted, whereas in chimpanzees, this role is mainly taken on by young males and close social partners.

These empathic behaviours are expressed through simple but evocative gestures, such as embracing, hand grasping and touching… behaviours reminiscent of humankind’s own.

John Nosta

Empathy might be shifting under AI’s influence. In Artificial Empathy, I explored how AI mimics human emotions. Then the Empathy Algorithm asked whether it could surpass us. In AI and the Empathy Economy, I examined how AI is reshaping industries, and the Empathy Apocalypse questioned whether AI’s emotional power would stabilize society—or break it. The key question is whether AI helps maintain a stabilizing balance of human empathy or disrupts it, pushing the system toward instability.

This volume is concerned with theories of emotions that can be described as empathetic ones, either because they presuppose the human capacity for empathy or because they are essential to how empathy operates.

By looking at how philosophers in the history of Western philosophy from Ancient Greece up to the twentieth century have understood these emotions, it becomes possible not only to gain a deeper understanding of certain empathetic emotions and their relation to the concept of empathy, but also to see how these emotions are placed within a broader moral, social, or religious context.

Taking into account this context is essential when it comes to engaging with such issues as whether sympathy provides an adequate basis for a theory of human sociability and fellowship, how compassion and pity play key roles in moral life and in the formation of the practical identities of human beings, roles that have been both positively and negatively evaluated, and whether the altruistic character and concern for others that have traditionally been ascribed to certain emotions can be reconciled with competing values such as self-love and the self-directedness of its concerns.

When I started the rigorous work of personal development in 2018, I stumbled upon the idea that empathy was the secret sauce.

The antidote to insecurity-driven compensations of personality, demeanor, and actions.During this period, a coach helped develop the “Empathy Spectrum.”

At one end was where I had lived and survived, the A-hole. At the other extreme, I saw people who excessively poured empathy on others, being overly compassionate, forgiving, sympathetic, etc., the Doormat.

Each acts with empathy. The A-hole has little empathy and fears that vulnerability and authenticity will be their demise. The doormat is fearful that if they don't let others walk all over them, use them, be enabled by them, or show them praise, the offender will dispense with them.

The United States is plagued with serious and deep-seated societal issues, and ranks behind over 20 other nations in happiness and quality of life. In The Empathy Evolution, Dr. Ronald Goldman delivers a profound and timely exploration of our ongoing struggles with violence, racism, political corruption, and mental illness. Filled with insightful analysis, practical solutions, and a call for societal transformation, the book has recently become a #1 Amazon Bestseller.

Based on compelling evidence from the human development sciences, The Empathy Evolution delves into the actual origins of these problems. Their roots lie with commonly repeated, yet overlooked, early life experiences. Improving these early childhood experiences is the key to improving both personal and societal welfare and quality of life.

Dr. Goldman’s book challenges readers to rethink cultural assumptions and take action to create a more compassionate and unified nation. By embracing the concepts of empathy, readers are empowered to improve the quality of their own lives while contributing to a larger societal transformation.

“To seek solutions to global problems is not a zero sum game where your nation loses, that upholding a rules based order is not nostalgic or of another era, and crucially, that in this time of crisis and chaos, leading with empathy is a strength.

“There are some who say that empathy is some kind of threat to Western civilisation. There is much I could say to that claim.

“Instead, I will just say this: empathy has never started a war, never sought to take the dignity of others, and empathy teaches you that power is interchangeable with another word: responsibility.”

Have you ever sensed someone’s emotions before they’ve said a word? As spring blossoms around us this May, it’s the perfect time for self-discovery and personal growth. Recent research in psychology reveals that empathic personalities often go unrecognized—even by themselves. While some people openly identify as empaths, many others possess these qualities without realizing how unique their emotional sensitivity truly is. As a clinical psychologist, I’ve observed that these individuals often feel different without understanding why.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND EMPATHIC PERSONALITIES
Empaths experience emotions differently than others. As psychiatrist Dr. Judith Orloff explains, “Empaths are naturally giving, spiritually open, and good listeners.” The neurological basis involves heightened mirror neuron activity, allowing empaths to essentially “feel” others’ emotions as their own. This emotional absorption can be both a gift and a challenge, especially during socially demanding spring activities that follow winter’s isolation.

A colleague shared with me a photo of a Post-it note with the words “Become Empathy Machines!” scrawled on it, taken at the Third Coast International Audio Festival in Chicago on Nov. 4, 2016.[1] It was two days after the stunning election of Donald Trump, and one of the podcasters or producers or radio journalists had written this message in response and pasted it to a wall as part of a makeshift Post-it note mural that sprang up to collect reactions and to identify ways forward in a country that suddenly seemed strange.

Shermin Kruse is here to talk to us about her latest book, Stoic Empathy. She shares what stoic empathy means and how the fusion of these seemingly opposing forces is particularly relevant today. She shares her personal story and how her immigrant journey shaped her understanding of empathy and stoicism. Sher also talks about how she leveraged stoic empathy as a lawyer to great success. We discuss practical tools for building influence and emotional regulation that you can start using today with your employees – or your partner or kids!

Whether you’re a corporate leader, educator, parent, or simply seeking tools to navigate personal and professional challenges with integrity, you will love this conversation!

The world would be a better place if we had more empathy for one another. The more you learn about another’s history and burdens, the better you can understand why they act the way they do. Perhaps the adage is true that to know all is to forgive all. Compassion springs from understanding, and understanding from identifying with the other, and somehow finding yourself in the other and the other in yourself.

Empathy and its subcomponents are well documented throughout the animal kingdom, indicating the deep evolutionary origins of this socioemotional capacity. A key behavioural marker of empathy is consolation, or unsolicited bystander affiliation directed towards distressed others. Consolation has been observed in our closest living relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (P. troglodytes). However, systematic comparisons are absent, despite potential for interspecific differences. Bonobos are often considered less aggressive, more emotionally sensitive, and more socially tolerant than chimpanzees—key characteristics purported to drive consolation

 Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. In these past few years, it seems as if empathy is being demonstrated much less in children. They’ve been growing up with a lack of it compared to other generations. Every child is known to be taught many values at home, empathy being a major one. But how effective is empathy truly on younger generations?

Many argue that with the rise of technology, many children have started to isolate themselves from the world. As humans, we rely on social interactions to go on with our lives. Many have begun to stray away from verbal interactions for conversations through a screen. This has made many lose communication with kids and interactions decrease.

by Thom Hartmann

Empathy is the ability to experience what another person is going through as a real sensation, a genuine emotion or even physical reaction, in body and mind. It’s what causes us to flinch or look away when we see a dog getting hit by a car or a fellow human experiencing real trauma.

Early on in my years rostered as a psychotherapist in the 1980s, I learned that there’s a subset of the human race — maybe we should call them “Lizard People” because they’re so cold-blooded — who literally lack the ability to experience what others are going through. Instead of being empathic, their processing of other people’s pain (or joy or elation or any sensation or emotion) is entirely intellectual.

Paris Marx is joined by Julia Carrie Wong to discuss Elon Musk’s recent opposition to empathy, how it comes out of the Christian right