The issue comes in when we focus on our empathy only with people who are just like us or believe in the same things that we do. That can prevent us from seeing the points of view of people who aren’t like us and not taking into account their feelings. Volpe tells us when you stay one sided you can over-empathize with one person over another. “Ultimately to have empathy is about seeing the points of view of other people,” Volpe says.

Over empathizing can also get in the way of rational decision making Volpe says. For example, you see someone that needs financial support. That’s when empathy turns into compassion and that fuels a desire for action. “But consider empathy just as a data point for what you are doing.” Be careful giving of yourself more than you can logically spend or afford. Too little empathy is definitely not good and too much empathy can also lead to challenges.

In a surprising interview statement, Elon Musk claimed that “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy” (Wolf, 2025).

Most people reading this will recoil. Empathy is supposed to be the cure for polarization and dehumanization. If we could just understand one another better, surely we would fight less. And in many cases, that intuition is right.

But in other cases, empathy does not ease our divisions. It intensifies them. It fuels moral outrage, locks us into sides, and makes constructive disagreement feel impossible.

This asymmetry is not a flaw in empathy. It’s actually its defining feature. The word empathy comes from the German Einfühlung, which roughly means “feeling into.” Empathy was never meant to be a rational spreadsheet or a cost benefit analysis. It was meant to function as an emotional bridge, a way of entering into another person’s experience by feeling with them.

On January 17, 2026 the Empathy Center will be conducting a Facilitator training course on Zoom. The intent of this training is to teach the participant how to organize and conduct Empathy Circles.

The course is experiential and consists of 4 classes taught over 4 consecutive Saturdays. Each class lasts about two and half hours. In addition to attending 4 sessions of 2.5 hours each, there are weekly assignments to complete that may take 1-2 hours.  We will also pair you weekly with an empathy buddy to practice empathy.

The only prerequisite is to attend at least two Empathy Circles prior to attending a training. We have recently started a drop-in Empathy Cafe on Thursdays at 6 PM, Pacific Time at https://zoom.us/j/3521266686. By attending this Empathy Cafe one can fulfill the two circle prerequisite.

 

This training equips you with the essential skills to create safe, structured environments where every participant feels truly heard and understood. By mastering these facilitation techniques, you will be empowered to bridge divides, resolve conflicts, and foster deep connection in any community or professional setting.  

 

This is why empathy has become central to how AI is viewed in customer experience. Scale still matters. Efficiency still matters. But neither of those creates trust on its own. Empathy does. The challenge is that empathy has traditionally been personal and situational, while scale is anything but.

Empathy at scale is not about making machines emotional. It is about building systems that can recognise when emotion is present and respond appropriately. Sometimes that response is to assist. Sometimes it is time to step aside.

" by Takuya Yoshiike

If empathy is considered a trait, highly empathic individuals may be more likely to act to relieve another’s distress than those who are less empathic. In line with these observations in real-life situations, experimental evidence has accumulated that an individual expresses more empathy to another with a similar social background than to one with a different background, indicating the importance of social relatedness in the expression of empathy.

For instance, how and which empathy networks are recruited when observing pain in another may vary depending on whether the pain receiver is a close friend of the observer. In addition, animal studies have shown that the strength of pain or fear that a mouse exhibits when observing another experiencing pain or fear was increased when these two mice were socially related, such as cage mates, but not when they were strangers to one another. These findings both provide an opportunity to reconsider empathy as a state and emphasize the importance of interpersonal factors in the regulation of empathy."

Training Objectives
Empathy has become a slightly awkward word in some business circles.

For some, it feels politically loaded. For others, it sounds soft, indulgent, or vaguely off-trend. There’s a concern that focusing on feelings somehow dilutes logic, weakens authority, or distracts from “what really matters”.

And yet, quietly and consistently, the people who communicate best, lead most effectively, resolve conflict fastest, and get the best results are usually the ones who understand people.

Not agree with them.
Not indulge them.
Understand them.
This training course is a defence of empathy — not as a moral stance or cultural fashion, but as a practical business skill. A tool for getting things done, reducing conflict, winning cooperation, and increasing influence at work..

A recent study highlights the significance of active-empathic listening as a critical skill for nursing students, who play a pivotal role in patient care. Researchers Özçılnak Ünver and Yüksel conducted an investigation into this communication approach, emphasizing its potential to enhance interactions between nurses and patients. The findings underscore the importance of fostering these skills during nursing education to improve overall healthcare delivery.

The research focuses on active-empathic listening, which involves attentively hearing, understanding, and responding to patients in a way that conveys empathy and support. This method is particularly relevant in the healthcare field, where effective communication can directly impact patient outcomes. The study suggests that incorporating training in active-empathic listening into nursing curricula could better prepare future nurses for their roles on the frontlines of patient interaction.

 by Muskan Gupta 

For decades, the business world has celebrated decisiveness, speed, and toughness - traits traditionally associated with male leadership. However, as workplaces evolve and expectations from leaders shift, a different quality is emerging as a quiet yet distinct differentiator: empathy. Empathy is no longer a soft attribute reserved for people management conversations. It is fast becoming one of the most powerful leadership advantages in business today, especially for men.

Why Empathy Is Especially Important for Men?

While empathy is essential for all leaders, Sen believes it carries particular significance for men, who often face social conditioning that equates strength with emotional distance.

"All of us need empathy, but among men, the need often becomes more critical because of the social pressure that pushes us to isolation," he explains. "Isolation weakens us, but empathy makes any two of us walk in as two 'me's' but leave as a one strong 'we'."

Session Description: Embark on a transformative journey with Project Empathy, a workshop designed to dismantle the stigmatization surrounding substance use disorders. Rooted in evidence-based practices, this innovative session provides a profound exploration of the neuroscience of addiction. By seamlessly integrating the latest research, we unveil barriers, shedding light on why current treatment models often fall short and leave a significant population unsupported.

Introducing solution-focused therapy, strength-based approaches, positive psychology, and empathy as potent tools, this workshop offers practical insights for incorporating these principles into a range of substance use disorder-related interactions. Whether in casual engagements or professional treatment methodologies, discover how to infuse empathy and positive intervention into every facet of your approach.

“The Rob Reiner thing is not funny, right? And that’s like the same thing. It’s the same kind of thinking. And when you see it with no empathy, that’s when it’s hard to like [him],” Rogan said of Trump during Thursday’s episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

Note: This is an in-person event in Mountain View, CA.

Politics is about persuasion—reaching out, person to person, and bringing others along. But persuasion doesn’t mean you’re rattling off statistics, arguing about policy, or convincing someone to do a 180º on the spot. In fact, persuasion starts with listening.

In a fractured political environment, it is both more challenging and more important to engage with those who might not vote like us (or not vote at all!). We know talking with voters works, but more often than not, Democratic campaigns start too late and target too narrowly. They underinvest in persuasion conversations, and ignore 1 in 4 potential voters because they’re unlisted or mislisted in the data Democrats rely on. Swing Left's new Ground Truth canvassing program will change that. By starting early and having empathetic listening conversations with every voter, we’re uncovering concerns that campaigns need to address, earning trust in communities that might feel overlooked, and making sure Democrats are speaking to what people actually want. That’s how we help Democrats flip the House in the 2026 midterm elections.

EAP Ask the Expert – Helen Riess, MD, Director of the Empathy and Relational Science Program, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital; Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Empathetics, Inc.

We all notice it – there is disconnection in the World. Authentic engagement, kindness, patience and empathy have all taken a hit. According to the Stress in America Report,

- More than 60% of adults report that societal division is a significant source of stress
- Fifty-four percent feel left out or lack companionship
- Sixty-nine percent said they needed more emotional support in the past year than they received

The term empathy is thrown around a lot but what does it actually mean? Dr. Riess describes it not as one thing but rather, as a capacity – an ability to perceive the emotions, and in particular, the suffering of others, and to act on this. Contrary to what is commonly assumed about empathy, it’s not just a feeling, but includes thinking, reasoning and acting. Research shows that empathy is tied to brain mechanisms and activation of neurons.

Empathy is an important skill to teach young children about. In our classroom it looks like two partners using their active-listen skills and taking turns to share their ideas. Empathy in our classroom also looks like one friend showing support to another when they are feeling sad. The supportive friend stops and takes the time to listen and offer ideas for how to work through the big emotions.

1. The 1% Shift in Empathy
This shift moves you from assumption to perspective-taking. Remember, empathy isn’t, and can never be, a grand emotional performance. In practice, it’s more like a humble willingness to consider what someone else might be feeling before you react.

Empathy flourishes in relationships that feel safe and nonjudgmental, and it grows in tiny increments with repeated practice. A large meta-analysis of more than 24,000 participants’ data found that people with more secure attachment consistently show higher empathy, while avoidant attachment predicts lower empathy.

Despite the necessary focus on clinical skills and knowledge during the tertiary education of healthcare professionals, the literature highlights the importance of developing psycho-social competencies. Empathy, a cognitive-behavioral attribute linked to various benefits for patients and healthcare professionals, is one such competency.

Pedagogical approaches to successfully develop empathy in tertiary healthcare students are available. However, these approaches are often integrated piecemeal throughout the tertiary education journey. Research on a more empathy-focused curriculum is scarce. This manuscript describes the design of a study that aims to examine the effects of a more empathy-focused curriculum on empathy in tertiary healthcare profession students in Singapore. 

Active empathic listening (AEL) is a multi-dimensional, nonjudgmental type of listening that extends beyond the verbal message conveyed and includes understanding the inner world of the individual and consciously reflecting this understanding [1,2,3]. Thus, AEL establishes the basis of a relationship of trust and deepens interactions [4]. Within this context, AEL is not only a communication skill but also a multi-dimensional skill that encompasses interpersonal communication competence, emotional awareness, and professionalism [1, 5].

AEL was developed by Rogers and Farson in 1957 based on the person-centered approach and essentially goes beyond the words communicated, focusing on the emotions, experience, and self-understanding behind the words from the individual’s perspective. This type of interaction not only helps individuals move beyond defense mechanisms but also makes them feel safe and reveals their capacity for change and development in a meaningful relationship. Because this relationship is mutual, it initiates a process of mutual transformation through developing self-awareness in both the speaker and listener [1]. Within this context, the value of AEL becomes even more apparent when considering nursing students preparing for their profession, which focuses on each person’s uniqueness and involves constant interaction. From this, the communication process reaches into the speaker’s inner world to ensure mutual interaction [1].

In the ever-evolving world of healthcare, effective communication has become a cornerstone of effective patient care. Recent research emphasizes the importance of a skill set known as active-empathic listening, particularly among nursing students, who are on the frontlines of patient interaction. A new study led by Özçılnak Ünver and Yüksel has scrutinized the active-empathic listening scale, shedding light on its reliability and validity in nursing education. This study, soon to be published in the BMC Nursing journal, aims to fortify the essential role that listening plays in fostering patient-provider relationships.

Active-empathic listening goes beyond merely hearing what is said; it is an intricate engagement involving understanding, interpreting, and responding to patient emotions and needs. The foundations of this listening style rest on the principle that empathetic understanding can lead not only to greater patient satisfaction but also to improved health outcomes. By developing this skill, nursing students can enhance their ability to support patients during their most vulnerable moments.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl leads the largest synagogue in New York City. But she says she’s never been so afraid to talk about Israel. That’s because she thinks that compassion for people suffering on either side of the war in Gaza has come to be seen as disloyal and even threatening – a zero sum empathy calculus that also applies to ideological battles fought in our country every day.

Buchdahl is the first Asian American to be ordained a rabbi, a journey she describes in her new memoir “Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging.” We listen back to our conversation with her about why knowing what it feels like to be an outsider has helped her enable connection among people with disparate views and what happens when we become incapable of empathy.

By @Faddi Shaikh

Empathy in Technology Leadership
Empathy in leadership is about recognizing and responding to the needs, challenges, and perspectives of others. In technology companies, where work is often high-pressure and fast-moving, leaders who understand their teams’ experiences create environments where employees feel safe to share ideas, admit mistakes, and take initiative.

At Cortavo, this principle is woven into daily practices. Leaders listen actively during meetings, check in regularly with employees, and consider personal and professional contexts when making decisions. By prioritizing these human factors alongside technical and operational objectives, the company reduces stress, builds trust, and strengthens engagement.

Empathetic leaders are more aware of the impacts of their decisions on various stakeholder groups as they have invested the time to better understand them, sometimes on numerous occasions or for significant amounts of time.

They become more skilled at understanding others and more attuned to different stakeholder perspectives.

Empathy allows us to build relationships beyond rapport. It allows us to build deep, trusting relationships that can be the catalysts for transformational change.