By Sanjana Gajbhiye
Earth.com staff writer
Empathy is often seen as a defining human trait, woven into the fabric of our societies. It helps people cooperate, build friendships, and resolve conflicts. But empathy is not unique to humans. Across the animal kingdom, from elephants to the bonobos, behaviors hint at emotional connections that transcend species boundaries.

Senior author of the study, Professor Zanna Clay of Durham University’s Department of Psychology, added: “Although empathy is very important for our own species, our findings show that empathic behaviours, like consolation, appear to be a common trait we also share with our two closest ape relatives.  

“Finding these overlaps between our two close cousins suggests our last common ancestor likely showed these empathic capacities too. 

“A next step will be to see how much these patterns are also observed in other settings, particularly in the wild.” 

Ashoka is unleashing demand for empathy as a 21st century skill. Our Global Empathy Initiative has mobilized a powerful group of social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows), schools (Ashoka Changemaker Schools), media thought leaders, and other partners to drive a fundamental shift in children’s education and coming of age.

We are looking for an extraordinary entrepreneur to lead the Empathy initiative for Southeast Asia.

We have a powerful opportunity for an imaginative, collaborative entrepreneur. If you are an accomplished leader (from any field) who has built or grown an organization from early stages to large size, has built teams, believes in the power of networks, and are looking for the next big challenge, come join us. 

Known colloquially as the “prosocial hormone,” oxytocin’s role extends into human neuroscience literature, where it has been implicated in fostering empathy, facilitating cooperation, and reinforcing social trust. However, this study pioneers the demonstration of oxytocin’s capacity to simultaneously modulate both affective and motor components of prosocial behavior through distinct neuroanatomical pathways in a non-primate mammal, underscoring conserved biological principles across evolutionary scales.

Beyond its immediate scientific implications, this discovery holds profound relevance for understanding the neurobiology of empathy and social connectedness. Philosophers, behavioral scientists, and evolutionary theorists have long grappled with the origins and significance of altruism. These new insights place the roots of helping behavior squarely within genetically and neurochemically encoded frameworks, suggesting that complex social emotions need not rely solely on higher cognitive processes but can emerge from hardwired circuits facilitating mutualistic interactions.

According to Elon Musk, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”

When I read this in the Guardian, I almost fell out of my chair. Sadly, it gets worse! This heresy is not merely a hallucination emanating from Elon’s ketamine-fueled brain: It is gaining traction not only among evangelical Christians, “who have begun to recast the pangs of empathy that might complicate their support for Donald Trump” but also Catholics in the JD Vance mold.⁠

Reimagining Conflict Resolution Online
Empathy-driven design isn’t limited to warm and fuzzy user experiences. It also shows up in surprising places like conflict resolution and moderation. Traditional moderation often relies on punitive measures: content flagged, accounts suspended, arguments shut down. But what if the focus shifted toward restoration and understanding?

CivilServant, a nonprofit founded at MIT Media Lab – now a part of Cornell University’s Citizens and Technology Lab, ran experiments on Reddit showing that simply changing the tone of a moderator’s intervention – using polite language instead of neutral or stern warnings, reduced hostility in comment sections. When moderators explained why rules existed instead of just enforcing them, users were more likely to comply and less likely to lash out.

Nicholas Kristof:
I think that it’s that when people are put to the ultimate test, some people turn out to be cowards basically or to have really malevolent tendencies, and others just turn out to be extraordinary. I think it probably has something to do with brain chemistry and upbringing. I’m a believer that empathy is something that, like a muscle, can be nurtured. I look at history and I think there has been some real moral progress. I think that was partly a function of literature and literacy.

It appears that the first mass movement in the world on behalf of people, other than oneselves, was only in the 1780s, the British Abolitionist Movement, which is so recent. And the first international relief effort was only at the time of the Irish potato famine. Now you go onto any university campus and look at a bulletin board and there all these mass movements on behalf of other people and relief efforts. So I do think there is some progress and I think probably that has a lot to do with encouraging empathy.

Criticisms of empathy are coming fast and furious. Books like Paul Bloom’s Against Empathy presaged Elon Musk’s worry that modern countries are beset, as he says, with a “civilizational, suicidal empathy.” Standards corrode. Borders become meaningless. Emotional manipulation reigns. Leadership is compromised. No one resists the woke. 

Joe Rigney’s The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits (Canon Press, 2024) captures something deep and abiding in the church today. On a practical level, in identifying the “sin of empathy,” Rigney describes a relatively new phenomenon: the moral power of a particular female perspective in our lives. Rigney, like Allie Beth Stuckey, provides the name: the sin of empathy. 

Rigney starts with the common sense of the matter. The pity Christians naturally feel for the downtrodden can be manipulated to excuse the victim. 

In recent months there has been a lot of talk from some Christians about a sin that is plaguing our society. It’s taking over the minds of our kids and corrupting our loved ones. What is this dastardly new trick of the Devil? Empathy. That’s right, the Devil is luring us away from God by getting us to see the world from the perspective of our neighbor. Think this sounds a little strange? Well, the Beyond Sunday Team does too. So, this week the Team makes the case for Empathy!

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast and to share it with your friends, families, neighbors, and strangers!

Summary: Viewing stress as a potential motivator can improve productivity and wellbeing without reducing empathy or willingness to support others. Researchers developed a brief online intervention that teaches participants to reframe stress more positively using education and visualization techniques.

Despite concerns that this approach might lead to emotional detachment or less support for others, participants remained just as attuned to others’ distress and likely to help. These findings support the use of stress mindset interventions to enhance performance without compromising interpersonal relationships.

Key Facts:

Mindset Shift: Viewing stress as a challenge rather than a threat improves coping and motivation.

No Empathy Loss: Participants who reframed stress were equally likely to support others in distress.

Practical Tool: A 15-minute online intervention effectively shifted participants’ stress mindset.

Ben Shapiro

This week, Democrats decided to expend their quickly diminishing political capital in defence of deported Salvadoran illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

A hallmark symptom of frontotemporal dementia, which sets it apart from other forms of dementia (such as Alzheimer's disease), is early loss of empathy. This often manifests as diminished warmth and concern for loved ones. This symptom can be profoundly unsettling for family members and loved ones close with the patient. They may feel as though the patient's personality has transformed—and that their efforts to help and support are met with indifference.

While loss of empathy has been the focus of much research from the scientific community, the precise brain mechanisms underlying the loss of empathy in frontotemporal dementia remain unclear.

by @Anita Nowak
Elon Musk recently told podcaster Joe Rogan: “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”

Under normal circumstances, I would dismiss that as tech-bro hogwash. After all, anyone with a basic understanding of history, psychology or neuroscience knows why his position is absurd. But after studying the power of empathy for more than 15 years, I can’t ignore his words. And neither should you.

Empathy is the innate trait that unites us in our common humanity. When we step into someone else’s shoes or feel what someone else is feeling, we transcend otherness. Moreover, as Jeremy Rifkin wrote in The Empathic Civilization, “The ability to recognize oneself in the other and the other in oneself is a deeply democratizing experience.”

Daryl Cameron (Penn State), Martina Orlandi (Trent University), Patricia Lockwood (University of Birmingham), and Hannah Read (Duke University)

Full description available here: https://rockethics.psu.edu/events/expanding-empathy-2023-2/

New research finds that we can find AI responses more compassionate than expert human ones.

We are wired to seek connection—and we will seek empathy wherever we can find it, including with AI. 

While AI does not share our experience, this may not matter, especially when we want to feel understood.

An advocate for empathy-driven journalism that holds power accountable and communicates the stories of the most vulnerable, Kristof joins Mark Labberton in this episode to discuss his life’s work of reporting from the world’s most troubled regions—from Gaza to Congo, from rural Oregon to global centres of power. Known for his unsparing storytelling and deep empathy, Kristof shares the family roots and personal convictions that have shaped his lifelong pursuit of justice and hope.

They also explore how despair and progress coexist, the role of faith and empathy in healing, and how local acts of courage can ripple globally. Grounded in gritty realism, but inspired by everyday heroes, Kristof invites us to resist numbness and embrace a hope that fights to make a difference.

The researchers found that people with Alzheimer's disease scored slightly higher on a measure of empathy than peers of the same age with mild cognitive impairment, despite scoring worse on other measures of social cognition such as recognizing facial emotions and understanding the thoughts of others.

The authors of the study, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, say this may be the first time a cognitive domain has been found to improve in dementia.

Lead author, Dr. Andrew Sommerlad (UCL Psychiatry), said, "We found compelling evidence of preserved, or potentially even increased emotional empathy in people with Alzheimer's disease, compared to people in earlier stages of cognitive decline.

 Edwin Rutsch and Kevin Waldman discuss Kevin's article published in the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers entitled, "The dangerous consequences of radical empathy unchecked by reason." Kevin criticizes "radical empathy" on campuses as performative and harmful, emphasizing the need for genuine empathy that maintains critical assessment and reason. Edwin introduces his Wholistic Empathy definition model, which includes sensing into others' experiences, self-empathy, imaginative empathy and the level of overall empathy within a community. He advocates for making mutual empathy a primary social and political values.

"As a researcher, I am now compelled
to ask: Can a society have
too much empathy?"

 In the end, they agree on the importance of mutual empathy, listening and dialogue in fostering understanding and reducing extremism. Edwin proposes using empathy circles to facilitate empathic listening and dialogue, aiming to bridge political and social divides. Kevin plans to host Empathy Circles at his University to foster constructive dialogue.

For more than a decade, the literature has been dominated by the notion that medical students may paradoxically lose their empathy during medical school. However, medical curricula have significantly evolved, and the question is whether this is still the case. The present study aimed to describe the trajectories of different dimensions of empathy from the beginning to the end of a six-year medical curriculum and explore the influence of different psychosocial and health-related factors.

I wonder if as many Irish people wake up with a hangover on Good Friday as was once the case when the pubs were shuttered on this day sacred to Christians.