The key to making this happen for those around us is EMPATHETIC RESPONDING! The traditional definition of empathy is the ability to understand and share feelings. When we utilize empathetic responding, we are acknowledging what's being told to us and also by a certain means we're recognizing the core of the other person's humanity.
"When people feel heard it not only builds trust but it also increases problem solving!"
Rachel L Rosenthal, PhD
Access, Quality & Usability UX Researcher I Data Scientist I Human Factors i
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The Kabiller Science of Empathy Prize is awarded biennially to a Kellogg faculty member and an alum, whose work advances our understanding of empathy and its impact in business and society. In November 2025, Professor William Brady was awarded the prize for his research on how emerging technologies —like artificial intelligence and algorithms — shape human psychology, particularly in digital environments.
Hosted by Professor Brady as part of the prize award, this conference brings together researchers across psychology, computer science, human-computer interaction, and the behavioral sciences to examine a central question: Can empathy be embedded into AI systems, and what happens to humans when it is? We’ll share emerging research on the psychology of empathic interaction with AI and machines and build cross-disciplinary bridges to push research forward.
’Been wondering what to read next? That’s an easy one. Buy, borrow, or download Professor Gad Saad’s newest book, Suicidal Empathy: Dying to be Kind. It will jar your mindset and leave you with a degree of shock — but you’ll want to tell others about it. It’s going to be a bestseller. In fact, it already is.
In one of the book cover’s endorsements, Bruce Bawer — author of While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within — says Suicidal Empathy “…is easily more important than any book in recent memory.” He’s right. For, as Elon Musk adds: “Western civilization is doomed unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy is recognized and actions are taken…”
Our culture, along with the Christian beliefs that undergird it, is under attack. Not from armies, but from ideologies. The liberty we enjoy allows for different ideas about right and wrong, and many Christians aren’t sure what side to always take – or worse, we decide for ourselves.
Many issues of our time that are seen as political are in fact moral issues, and that means that the Bible has something to say that Christians need to understand. We don’t need to memorize talking points though, we need to be convinced by scripture.
To be ready to defend our faith against progressive ideology that uses Christian compassion against us, we need to make sure our compass is pointing north. Join us as we prepare our hearts to deal with the main subject of our short series – Toxic Empathy.
SuccessBooks® proudly celebrates the outstanding achievement of "Lead with Empathy" co-authored by Sue Tomat, alongside Chris Voss and distinguished professionals worldwide. Launched on June 4th, 2026, the book has achieved Amazon Best-Seller status, marking a significant milestone in its journey.
Central to the success of "Lead with Empathy" is Sue Tomat’s chapter, "The Backing Vocalist’s Revolution.” Sue shares stories about how empathetic leadership in the workplace demands shifts in perspective and courage. It is wise self-interest, the clear-eyed view that our long-term success is inseparable from the success of the people around us. And it is good judgement, a quality that will only grow more valuable as AI takes over more of what we once considered thinking.
“Lead with Empathy” has achieved outstanding success on Amazon, earning Best Seller status across multiple business and leadership categories, including Communication & Skills, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Sales, and Direct Marketing.
Do empathetic healthcare organisations deliver better care? Howick has spent more than a decade researching what empathy does inside healthcare systems and, critically, what destroys it. His most recent study, the first of its kind, built a system empathy index across NHS trusts in England and tested whether more empathic organisations actually deliver better care.
The results are stark. A healthcare trust scoring just 2.5% higher on the empathy index had 76% higher odds of being rated good or outstanding for patient safety, and 46% greater odds of being rated good or outstanding for effectiveness. Higher empathy scores were also associated with lower staff burnout, lower sickness absence, and lower spending on agency and temporary staff – the very pressures that Nottingham’s maternity unit was drowning in.
Empathy has become one of the most appreciated and universal ingredients of work-related potential. Leadership books praise it. CEOs display it on LinkedIn. HR departments measure it, train it, benchmark it, and occasionally weaponize it. In the modern organization, empathy is no longer a “nice to have,” but widely treated as the hallmark of modern leadership.
To be fair, there are actually good reasons for this.
Empathy, broadly defined, is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Psychologists usually distinguish between cognitive empathy, understanding what someone else feels, and affective empathy, actually feeling some version of it yourself.
Our summits are comprised of a number of 15 minute presentations on the chosen theme for the quarterly summits. After the presentations the attendees are invited to participate in an Empathy Circle. Past summits have been on conflict resolution, training programs from around the world, and empathy book authors.
In addition the summit is reunion and re-connection of circle trainers, trainees, facilitators, practitioners and supporters.
Our theme is on The Foundational Practice of the Empathy Movement.
Join this Summit if you are ready to roll up your sleeves and help build the Movement. The Empathy Movement is a transformative force in addressing the growing fragmentation and polarization in modern societies. At its core, the movement seeks to reorient how individuals and groups relate to one another, shifting from transactional, adversarial and authoritarian interactions to ones rooted in mutual listening, deep dialogue, understanding, constructive collaboration and seeing our shared humanity.
The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.” — Hannah Arendt
I’d come across the line years ago, but its true implications were lost on that younger version of myself. But the words popped up in my Facebook feed recently and I couldn’t help thinking this is us right now. You need only read or watch the news on a typical day and — if you’re paying attention — you’ll understand we’re on the precipice of becoming exactly that sort of cultural catastrophe.
If you don’t look like me, I hate you.
If you don’t act like me, I hate you.
If you don’t vote like me, I hate you.
If you don’t share my beliefs on this, that or the other — you guessed it. I hate you.
Gad Saad, in his book "Suicidal Empathy: Dying To Be Kind," warns that excessive empathy and unbounded tolerance is leading the West toward its own destruction. With examples in New York, California and transgender activism, the professor explains how prioritizing foreigners, criminals and activists over one's own citizens can be suicidal for a society. The theory is supported by Elon Musk.
For more than two decades, empathy has occupied a near-sacred place in leadership thinking. It has been framed not as a soft skill but as a strategic capability essential for influence, collaboration, and effective decision-making. The World Economic Forum Future Job Report 2025 reinforces this trajectory: “empathy and active listening” rank in the top 10 core skills, with employers expecting them to remain just as significant, if not more so, over the next five years.
Yet, this consensus sits uneasily alongside another reality. As global workplace research from Gallup shows, leaders are operating under sustained pressure and emotional strain. Time horizons are shrinking. Stakes are rising. In precisely the conditions where empathy is most needed, it is becoming harder to practice.
In this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, we are joined by Julia Carrie Wong to discuss Elon Musk’s recent opposition to empathy, how it comes out of the Christian right, and the relationship it has to previous discussions of longtermism.
In recent years, empathy has gotten a bad rap. Paul Bloom's famous work Against Empathy argued empathy was necessarily biased and should be thrown out. Figures like Elon Musk argue our instinct for compassion is leading to bad outcomes. Here, philosopher Gigla Gonashvili argues we must reclaim our empathy from those who seek to temper it. We must embrace our will to care.
As we watch the world aflame today, we naturally wonder with whom we should empathize the most, or whether our empathy is of any use at all. Recently, there has been a growing discontent with empathy, primarily due to its partial and biased nature. And yet, empathy cannot be so easily discarded or downgraded. It is inextricably tied to the concept of the will—a fundamental concept in both philosophy and religion.
The growing literature on empathic leadership Research on empathic leadership is thriving. Forbes1 and the Harvard Business Review2 have extensively explored the concept, and there are a growing number of books on the topic.3 4 Yet, despite the increased recognition of empathic leadership, two significant gaps remain in current research.
First, research on empathy’s benefits in healthcare (for both patients5 and healthcare practitioners)6 suggests potential applications in leadership, but this potential has not been applied to empathic leadership. Second, no model of empathic leadership has been developed, whereas such a model would be useful for explanatory and pedagogical purposes.
Drawing on the proven benefits of empathy in healthcare, we propose a novel model to address these gaps. The model offers a potential solution to current leadership challenges while providing a foundation for future research and understanding. Although our primary emphasis is on leadership within healthcare, we believe the model could potentially offer insights applicable to other professional contexts
We present our empathic leadership model by examining limitations in current and traditional leadership approaches, defining empathic leadership and demonstrating its potential benefits for leaders, healthcare systems and patient outcomes. We propose that future research explore the effects of this new model in real-world settings.
I believe empathy isn’t something you do, but what happens when you stop doing. Or trying to do.
When a German philosopher coined the word that became ‘empathy’ (Einfühlung) in 1873, it’s unlikely he saw it as a leadership style.
Vischer described the capacity to ‘feel into’ a piece of art and experience what it evokes. In 1909, the word Einfühlung was translated into ‘empathy’ and only in the 1950s migrated into psychology, communication, and eventually leadership, describing our ability to resonate with or infer the experience of another.
Today, empathy is, at best, equated with active listening and understanding and, at worst, with enmeshed emotions with no boundaries. There’s hot and cold empathy, wet and dry empathy, cognitive and affective empathy. But the principle of being able to infer someone else’s experience, whether at the emotional or perspectival level, is the same.
Why empathy needs to be built Empathy is often considered an inherent quality, but it can be developed through deliberate training and organisational focus.
The Zurich study highlights that consumers expect companies to equip employees with the skills needed to engage empathetically. However, many organisations continue to focus heavily on systems and processes while providing limited guidance on managing the human side of interactions.
Empathy programmes can help employees understand communication styles, recognise customer emotions, and apply practical techniques in everyday conversations. Building these capabilities transforms customer service from a transactional function into a relationship-building capability.
What if listening may be the key to helping solve our biodiversity crisis? Not just hearing — really listening. To the roar of a lion. The haunting song of a humpback whale. To the layered chorus of a forest at dawn, or the unsettling quiet of an ecosystem in collapse. The sounds of our living world are everywhere, and science is revealing what many of us have always sensed: that truly listening to nature changes us. It deepens our connection to the animals we share this planet with. It builds our empathy. And empathy, it turns out, may be one of the most powerful conservation tools we have.
Empathy and compassion in One Health: Perspectives across disciplines, species and ecosystems Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh
Please join us at this inaugural event of the Edinburgh Empathy Place, an initiative of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh. The conference will host international leaders and experts from the Global Empathy in Healthcare Network and is being held in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh’s Global Compassion and Empathy Initiative. We are delighted this conference is part of the Edinburgh Medical School’s 300th year anniversary celebrations.
Why Empathy Cannot Be Left To Chance Child development researchers are clear on one point: empathy is not a trait children simply arrive with fully formed. According to a Psychology Today contributor whose work was reviewed by Gary Drevitch, empathy develops through experience and practice, not automatically.
As the piece explains, empathy is not something a child simply "has" or "doesn't have" by a certain age, and there is no definitive checklist parents can use to confirm their child is on track.
That same research makes clear that empathy is not a developmental checkbox parents can tick off at a certain age. It is shaped by genetics, temperament, environment, and the quality of relationships a child experiences, and it continues evolving well into adolescence.
A new faith in empathy is spreading through academia, technology and politics. The promise sounds humane, but the politics beneath it may be far less innocent than its advocates imagine.
Suddenly, a lot of people, not least in academia, are talking of “empathy”. There are even AI tools and games to help you develop empathy. A highly learned academic told me that she is using some sort of AI interlocutor developed to help you exercise your empathy, because she finds it so difficult to understand Zionists after Gaza. I wanted to ask her why one would want to “empathise” with genocidal Zionists. I, for one, have no desire to empathise with Nazis, or racists, or Al Qaeda terrorists. I might wish to want to understand them, in order to counter them, but understanding does not require empathy.
Don’t misunderstand me. I think empathy is a core and necessary human attribute.
What if one of the most powerful ways to strengthen human connection is the simple act of feeling deeply heard and understood? Join Michelle Villegas for a rich and inspiring conversation with Edwin Rutsch, founder of the Empathy Center, as they explore the transformative role empathy can play in our relationships, communities, and society as a whole.
Drawing from years of research and practice, Edwin shares his vision for building a global culture of empathy and introduces concepts including self-empathy, mutual empathy, imaginative empathy, and the practice of empathy circles—structured spaces where people experience the power of deep listening and authentic understanding. Michelle, bringing her perspective as a therapist, educator, singer, songwriter, and host, helps bridge these ideas with psychology, human development, and creative expression.
Together they explore barriers that often block empathy—including rushing to solutions, judgment, analysis, and disconnection—and discuss how learning to truly listen can open pathways to deeper connection. The conversation also reaches into larger social issues, including , education, and the importance of nurturing empathy in children and future generations.
by @Elizabeth Grace Matthew These are some of the questions animating (and sometimes paralyzing) conversations among thought leaders on today’s political right.
There is Allie Beth Stuckey’s 2024 book Toxic Empathy, which asks readers not to wallow in selective empathy for the pregnant woman or the illegal immigrant unto forgetting that unborn babies and American citizens also deserve due regard. Then there is Stuckey’s conversation with the conservative New York Times columnist David French, in which the two argued about proper Christian attitudes toward transgender issues, abortion, decency, empathy itself, and more.
Most recently, there is Canadian academic Gad Saad’s May 12 book Suicidal Empathy, which remakes many of Stuckey’s arguments in a more visceral and discursive way—and which, truth be told, adds little if any substance to the conversation.
1. The Health Communications Gap: You’ve worked across pharma, biotech, non-profits, and academia. Where do most health communications strategies fail—lack of scientific rigor, lack of human empathy, or lack of boldness?
Probably all three but if I had to name the one that holds everything else back, it’s the failure of empathy. You can have the most rigorous science and the most daring creative strategy in the world, but if the work doesn’t connect with how a real person actually feels about their health, their body, their fears, it doesn’t move anyone.
Most of us have not literally experienced such an Exodus, but we must imagine ourselves in that scenario, empathize with those who have lived through it, and act on our empathy.
In mandating that we place ourselves in the shoes of a stranger, the Torah demands that we exercise what modern-day psychologists call our Theory of Mind, our ability to understand that other people have different perspectives and emotions from our own. The Theory of Mind develops early on, when children realize that other people are distinct from themselves. This understanding is key to the development of empathy, and it allows us to anticipate the needs of others. In mandating generosity and empathy, the Torah lays out what human behavior looks like when we act on our Theory of Mind.
"We are living through a period of extreme narcissism. Our current leadership in Washington believes that empathy is a weakness and that our nation stands supreme and alone."
Conan O'Brien delivers a hilarious and surprisingly heartfelt commencement address at Harvard University, joking about AI, Ivy League culture, foreign students, humility, success, ego, and the future facing graduates.
From roasting Princeton and Harvard traditions to sharing emotional lessons about luck, community, failure, and reinvention, Conan mixes comedy with genuine advice for the Class of 2026.
Even when we try to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, we’re often missing the deeper frameworks that shape how they think and act.
In this lecture, Konner Brewer, Stanford Lecturer and Product Manager for Applied AI at Google, explores why understanding others is more complex than it seems. Through case studies and classic experiments, she reveals a key insight: people can’t always explain why they do what they do.
Instead, we rely on stories - our own and others’ - to make sense of behavior. This talk challenges conventional ideas of empathy, because in a globalized world, if we want to truly connect with others, it’s not enough to feel what we would feel in their position, we have to learn how to see the world as they do.
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