by Linda Wang
But can a machine provide empathy?

While AI can generate words that make people feel understood, comforted, and less alone, it cannot sit beside them, offer a comforting hug, or share the burden of what they are feeling.

That tension sits at the center of a growing scientific and policy debate. Recent research suggests that AI can produce responses people often rate as highly empathic, though they discount those same responses when they learn they came from a machine. In fact, legislation was introduced earlier this year to put parents in charge of how children and teens interact with AI chatbots. Other research suggests that AI’s apparent empathy may not be machine empathy at all, but a statistical synthesis of human empathy drawn from vast amounts of human language.

By Jill Suttie
Why discussion may decrease polarization
To get at why conversations across difference can be depolarizing, the researchers did several sub-experiments and analyses. One thing they discovered is that having these cross-group conversations widens your perspective, because you better understand what information someone draws upon to form their opinion.

Design thinking as a mindset – not just a process
I also use design thinking to help students move from problem talk to problem work. For me, a design thinking mindset  shapes how learners frame problems and pursue solutions perceptively, by building empathy and considering alternative perspectives. In my courses, students learn to practise empathy, holistic thinking, critical questioning, experimentation and creative thinking and focus on impact – skills that support human-centred problem solving. This maps neatly on to self-determination theory. 

How GenAI can amplify co-creation in higher education
Spotlight guide: the practicalities of co-creation with students
Questions to ask when designing collaborative online learning experiences

Empathy and holistic thinking support students’ relationship skills by practising seeing the world from the perspectives of different others; creative thinking and critical questioning support autonomy by encouraging students to understand the world in their own preferred way, and experimentation strengthens competence by creating mastery experiences through trial, feedback and refinement.

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental condition that affects how people communicate, learn, and interact with others. One common characteristic involves differences in social communication, such as knowing how to respond when someone shares an emotional experience. This specific conversational skill is often referred to as verbal empathy.

Empathy is generally understood to have two distinct parts. The cognitive component involves understanding the actual words and the intent behind what someone is saying. The affective component involves recognizing the underlying emotion, such as happiness, frustration, or sadness. Following the recognition of these two components, a person must formulate a verbal response that matches the situation to maintain a smooth conversation.

Here, we use the term “culture of philanthropy” not as it’s been used elsewhere to describe fundraising potential or the internal work environment of nonprofits. Instead, we mean something much wider: the ongoing set of behavioural norms within a society that encourages a personal and collective responsibility for empathy and action.

Here, “empathy” refers to our regard for those in need and those with whom we differ; and “action” refers to our learning about those needs and differences, together with our assisting or defending the people involved. Such a culture can be seen in a variety of ways, whether in our readiness to help, say by voluntarism or charitable donations, or in our readiness to understand and respect the outlooks and priorities of others despite our not sharing them.

Following reports that children allegedly beat a rooster to death at Lake Texoma over the Fourth of July weekend, TeachKind—PETA’s humane education division—is rushing emergency resources to local summer camps and other youth programs. The package will include empathy-building curricula with an urgent letter stressing the need for lessons that condemn violence and foster empathy for all living beings. PETA also plans to erect a sky-high message in the area asking residents who suspect any young person of abusing animals to contact TeachKind for free resources that help parents and educators cultivate compassion. 

According to news reports, the rooster—identified as “Rusty the Rooster”—had become a familiar sight to visitors at Lake Texoma. The Marshall County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.

What is the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire?
The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) is a validated, self-report measure of emotional empathy developed by Spreng et al. (2009). It consists of 16 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale, with total scores ranging from 0 to 64.

Unlike broader empathy measures that assess both cognitive (understanding others’ perspectives) and emotional (feeling what others feel) components, the TEQ focuses specifically on emotional empathy. It captures the ability to recognize and resonate with others’ feelings. This distinction makes it particularly useful in therapy and counseling, where practitioners need to evaluate a client’s emotional responsiveness and relational capacity.

The instrument was developed to meet a specific need in psychological assessment: a brief, psychometrically sound tool that could measure empathy without the length or cognitive-load demands of earlier instruments.

Edwin Rutsch and Dave Snyder (EmbracingRacialUnity.org) discussed the role of empathy in bridging racial and political divides, especially within the church. Dave is equipping Christians to talk race, build church unity and put things right in our communities. Dave shared his journey in a historically white church that became more diverse, highlighting the challenges and the importance of
empathy in building unity. 

Some of Dave's Videos include
Christians Are Getting Empathy Wrong-
Here's What The Bible Actually Says

The Surprising Link Between Empathy And Faith

Free speech limits are shifting as younger people weigh the right to speak against the duty not to wound with words.

Can empathy and truth be reconciled?

Does this mean that “safe space” and free speech exclude one another? Not necessarily, but only if we understand safety as protection from real violence and threat, not from the discomfort of thought. The problem appears when “safe space” means a zone free from all ideas that someone may regard as harmful.

Empathy and truth can be reconciled, but not when empathy begins to define which truth may be spoken. Truth is often uncomfortable by nature. If it never wounded, we would not need courage to speak it.

Human–Machine Coexistence: Why We Need to Rethink Empathy

We are continuously monitoring our internal trend radar, where we define overarching developments and trends that directly impact and shape our organization. One of these trends is human–machine coexistence, which raises fundamental questions about empathy, responsibility, and collaboration in the age of AI:

• What if we need to rethink empathy?
• What if machines are better at simulating empathy?
• What if machines could help us understand both other humans and machines better?
• And: What if we outsource empathy to machines?
• Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving beyond pure automation. Its potential lies not only in performing tasks faster or more efficiently, but in enhancing activities once considered uniquely human, such as moral judgment, care, or empathic communication.

Books by conservative authors argue that excessive empathy threatens Western civilisation, while others contend that cognitive empathy is essential for human survival. 

Of the qualities the American right has come to despise in the left, empathy is the most puzzling. Boy, do they hate it. A stream of books in recent years has supplemented constant podcast and social-media chatter about what is seen as nothing less than, well, a sin. In 2025 “Leadership and the Sin of Empathy”, by Joe Rigney, came hot on the heels of the previous year’s bestselling “Toxic Empathy”, by Allie Beth Stuckey.

This May brought “Suicidal Empathy”, an instant and persistent bestseller by Gad Saad, a professor of marketing and a podcaster. Mr Saad’s sales have no doubt been boosted by the plug on his cover from Elon Musk, who warns that “Western civilisation is doomed” unless Mr Saad’s message is heeded and “actions are taken that are hard but necessary for survival”.

Despite these advances, they have not eliminated the human suffering that often accompanies chronic immune-mediated disease, including fibromyalgia, fatigue, central sensitization and the polysymptomatic distress many patients experience. At the same time, there has been renewed interest in patient empowerment and the therapeutic value of empathic communication, driven by growing evidence that empathy can improve health-related quality-of-life measures and potentially influence biologic pathways linked to immune function and well-being.

“Empathy is more important now than ever because of how healthcare has evolved,” says Cleveland Clinic immunologist Leonard Calabrese, DO, Director of the R.J. Fasenmyer Center for Clinical Immunology. Dr. Calabrese has maintained a longstanding educational and research interest in empathy since his early involvement in medical humanities at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.

On July 25, 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.

Free Empathy Circle Facilitator Training course on Zoom. Classes start July 25, 2026. Enroll in our training course to learn mutualism, reflective listening, and empathy circle facilitation. 

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.

Burnout among oncology professionals continues to be a significant challenge, driven by compassion fatigue, increasing patient acuity, staffing shortages, and the emotional demands of caring for patients with cancer. Solutions often focus on utilizing Employee Assistance Program services, promoting self-care, and improving work-life balance. Kidron et al. introduce another perspective by examining empathy as a moderator of burnout among oncology clinical research coordinators (CRCs).

CRCs are an often-overlooked but an essential part of oncology care, responsible for screening patients for clinical trials, coordinating study visits, communicating with sponsors, and supporting patients throughout their research participation.

I will begin by looking at the progressive side of the coalition by looking to Gad Saad who offers an important insight into one dimension of this phenomenon through his concept of “suicidal empathy.” His theory helps explain why some progressives are reluctant to subject what are labeled marginalized groups or ideologies to the same level of moral scrutiny that they apply to others.

Groups viewed as historically marginalized therefore acquire a degree of moral immunity from criticism because disagreement itself is interpreted as hostility toward victims. According to this view, when an individual or a group is regarded as marginalized, they acquire a kind of moral immunity from criticism because disagreement is interpreted as hostility toward victims. In many Western institutions, identity and historical oppression go hand in hand.

In Steven Spielberg’s summer blockbuster Disclosure Day, the aliens’ message to humanity, on the brink of nuclear war, is that it must embrace empathy. Pretty uncontroversial, surely? 

Not for Gad Saad, the outspoken Canadian evolutionary psychologist and sociologist, whose latest book, Suicidal Empathy: Dying to be Kind, has topped the New York Times and Audible nonfiction bestseller lists.

by Lou Agosta
Find out what's going on with the anti-empathy movement and how to answer and debunk the dangerous half truths, lies, and total nonsense....

Listen to this episode from A Rumor of Empathy with Lou Agosta on Spotify. One can always make a splash by throwing a rotten tomato, and the would-be critique of empathy uncharitably takes the weakest version of empathy and refutes it. In contrast, a rigorous and critical empathy engages in a process of continuous improvement of empathy by “cleaning up” the empathic breakdowns of emotional contagion, projection, conformity, and communications lost in translation, resulting in the expansion of empathy in the individual and the community.