For Erika Sinner, empathy is more than understanding another person’s perspective—it’s about creating environments where people feel seen and valued. Growing up in a household marked by instability, she also learned how important it is to create spaces where people feel safe.

Today, as the founder of Directorie®, an Inc5000 pharmaceutical marketing agency, and the CEO of TinySuperheroes®, a mission-driven organization empowering children facing critical illness by activating their superpowers through courage, strength, and hope, she is committed to building workplaces centered on empathy, fueling a sense of meaning and purpose in the workplace. 

Laying the Foundation for Her Empathy-First Culture 

The Beckley Police Department is hosting an empathy training program in an effort to provide better service to the community.

This training is designed to foster a deeper understanding of the diverse experiences and challenges faced by community members, through numerous workshops, role-playing, discussions and exercises.
 Officers are learning skills that emphasize active listening, emotional intelligence, and cultural awareness.

By Ramesh Srinivasan

Empathy and insight
CEOs who lead from the inside out, on the other hand, and who systematically cultivate personal growth, are equipped to lead with empathy and insight.

The result is a better, more responsive company, characterized by decentralized decision-making and innovation at all levels. And this has a direct relationship to performance: companies with excellent organizational health deliver three times the total shareholder returns of those in poor health.

In this context, knowing one’s own strengths (and weaknesses) is not an indulgence; it’s a strategic necessity. Only through such introspection can leaders bring out the best in others.
 .

Empathy is a Muscle Alison Jane Martingano Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB). Her research on empathy has been published in various academic journals, and she also regularly shares psychological insights with the general public via her Psychology Today blog and Psychology & Stuff podcast

. As head of the Social Research Lab at UWGB, she mentors students to conduct cutting-edge empathy research, often using virtual reality. Alison Jane's research challenges the misconception that empathy is a fixed trait and offers hope and practical strategies for individuals seeking to broaden their empathic capacity.  

Empathy can be transferred. This means that people can acquire or lose empathy by observing their environment. This is shown by a new study by Würzburg neuroscientist Grit Hein

By Pressestelle UKW

Prof. Dr. Grit Hein's latest assessments of empathic abilities once again challenge the old adage "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." It seems that not only children but also adults can adopt empathic responses from close caregivers, in addition to their genetic predispositions. Adults, too, are malleable and can learn to be more or less compassionate through observing others.

The professor of Translational Social Neuroscience at the Center of Mental Health of the University Hospital Würzburg (UKW) has managed to capture this complex social phenomenon through mathematical models, a procedure known as Computational Modeling, and has plastically mapped it in the adult brain using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Her findings, published in the scientific journal PNAS, provide a computational and neuronal mechanism for the social transmission of empathy, explaining changes in individual empathic responses within both empathic and non-empathic social environments. Grit Hein has, in a sense, formalized the process by which empathy is transmitted.

By Elizabeth Svoboda
This event, led by empathy educator Edwin Rutsch, offers a chance for minds to meet across the kind of yawning divide that’s grown commonplace in the U.S. Such forums have popped up in part because trying to understand someone else’s perspective doesn’t always seem like a social bet that pays off.

Empathy is often defined as the capacity to understand what someone else is thinking and feeling. It is distinct from sympathy, which may imply pity (you might feel sympathy for someone in pain without grasping what they’re going through), and from compassion, which involves a desire to ease someone’s plight.

Because empathy can allow people to connect across political, racial and economic divides, it lays a foundation for acts of cooperation and caring that allow diverse societies to flourish. Higher levels of empathy are tied to both individual well-being and broader social cohesion.

by Cara Goodwin, 

Empathy, or the ability to understand and share in the experience of emotions with others, is an essential element of all human relationships. Research also supports the importance of empathy, finding that more empathetic individuals have better quality friendships, enhanced social skills, and are more satisfied with their lives — to name just a few of the benefits. 

In a world that seems increasingly divided and cold, many of us parents want to raise more empathetic children but how exactly do parents foster empathy? If we are empathetic with our children, will they show the same to others? And will the empathy that we show to them ultimately help them to become empathetic adults?

The men expressing empathy, earnestness and support on stage this week — qualities that are rarely highlighted in the highest levels of U.S. politics — are also talking about issues such as abortion and caregiving that are traditionally seen as gendered. Taken together, the DNC’s programming has sent the message that when men stand with women, they can make history alongside them. If Harris is elected, Cole Emhoff noted that his father would “make history again as the first first gentleman;” there have only ever been first ladies. Emhoff is also the first second gentleman.

A study involving 900 students in 6 countries found that a short programme of empathy lessons led to measurable, positive changes in their conduct, emotional awareness and curiosity about different cultures.

An analysis of a short programme teaching empathy in schools has found it had a positive impact on students’ behaviour and increased their emotional literacy within 10 weeks.

The findings come from an evaluation of the 'Empathy Programme': a term-long course developed by the UK-based Empathy Studios. The research was conducted with support from academics at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.

One term of empathy lessons in schools could lead to positive changes in behaviour, a study supported by the University of Cambridge has suggested.

About 900 pupils aged between five and 18 in six countries completed a video course and engaged in discussions about it afterwards.

Empathy – the ability to understand and share the feelings of others – is largely considered to be something we develop through childhood and our life experiences.

Pupils were rated by teachers on empathy, behaviour and other characteristics on a scale of 1-10 before the programme began, and again five and 10 weeks later, with the average empathy score rising from 5.55 to 7 during that period.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of empathy training on bullying behavior in juvenile prisoners at the Bandung City Special Development Institute for Children.
Methods: This study used a quantitative method with a quasi-experimental design with pre and post-test with control group. The sampling technique used purposive sampling and obtained a sample of 100 respondents (50 intervention group and 50 control group). Empathy training was conducted for 3 months as many as 4 sessions consisting of education, role play, watching movies, and reflection. Data collection used the Indonesian version of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. Univariate analysis used mean, min-max, and standard deviation values. Bivariate analysis used Wilcoxon test and Mann–Whitney test.

Conclusion: Empathy training is a recommendation for community nurses in Bandung City Special Development Institute for Children to implement community-based nursing interventions in preventing bullying in children and adolescents, especially adolescents in prison.

Fellow officers that worked alongside Laufenberg said that he has exemplified humanity and care for his community in his work and made lasting impacts.

“People like Mike show the humanity of policing and the care and there is nobody better in our agency that showed empathy and care for the community as Mike,” Evansville Police Chief Patrick Reese said. “Mike has trained everyone who is currently employed including myself the lieutenant and everyone underneath us.”

By Patricia Martellotti
September 30, 2024 10:39 am
Published September 30, 2024 11:28 am

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The Empathy Center located high in the foothills on Las Canoas Road near Skofield ark overlooks Santa Barbara's scenic landscapes.

This venue was known as St. Mary's Catholic Seminary for decades. Now, it’s getting a major makeover.

“We’re turning it into an open retreat center that anyone can take part," said director Edwin Rutsch of The Empathy Center.
 

In this episode of The James Altucher Show, I discuss the profound impact of anger on our cognitive skills and energy levels, and delve into fascinating topics with a renowned negotiation expert. We explore the significance of tactical empathy, managing manipulative calls on suicide hotlines, volunteer burnout, and the intricate dynamics of hostage negotiations.

The expert shares captivating anecdotes from his FBI career, illuminating the psychological tactics behind thwarting terrorist activities and the essence of understanding human behavior in high-stakes scenarios. We wrap up with actionable advice on improving employee relations and effectively asking for raises, always mindful of anger's long-term repercussions on negotiations. Tune in for invaluable negotiation insights from one of the field's finest!
 

EMPATHY NOW
Empathetics helps healthcare organizations decrease employee turnover. By teaching empathetic connections that allow your workforce to feel seen and heard, we help you build an organization where people want to work.

Proven Methods, Significant Savings

Empathetics methods are proven to increase workforce retention rates by 1700%. This significant improvement resulted in millions of dollars saved.

Download the white paper here.

by Nick Morgan

Empathy is up to us. And it’s on the decline.  We have reason to be worried, certainly here in the United States, and I assume around the world as well, if the news is to be believed.  I was thinking about the endangered status of empathy on a long drive to visit family on the holiday weekend.  Traffic rudeness is on the upswing, as we’ve all noticed, post-pandemic, and some of the acts of road rage we saw on our (east coast) drive betrayed a complete lack of empathy – cutting someone off, failing to yield on entering the freeway, tailgating, and other such thoughtlessness.  Let’s call that petty rudeness. It shows that the driver, at least in that moment, is cut off from the milk of human kindness

The classic definition of empathy is to understand and share the feelings of someone else.  Someone who is capable of cutting off another drive shows a lack of empathy because they presumably can’t understand the terror, fear, or irritation that they themselves have called up in the hearts of the people in the other car.

At a deeper level we witness the lack of empathy in ourselves and our opposite numbers in the other party as we display the inability to understand and share the feelings of Democrats or Republicans – whichever side you favor.  That has clearly become worse as we have become more polarized – and it is more than just petty rudeness.  But why?  What are we doing wrong?  How did we become so convinced in the lack of humanity (and their emotions) in the other side?

How do you teach empathy? Richard Weissbourd, the co-faculty director of the Human Development Psychology Program at Harvard’s School of Education, studies that very question.

“When you look at the state of the country today, you can see the consequences of our having demoted kindness and concern for the common good,” says Weissbourd, who directs the university’s Making Caring Common Project, which centers on the moral and social development of children. So he and his team have set out to put kindness and concern for others “front and center in child raising.”

Weissbourd argues that kindness is a muscle like anything else, and parents need to lead by example. In his view, kids should be expected to do chores, contribute to their community and help out neighbors in need. “Kindness develops when we practice it all the time,” he explains.

A recent study finds that empathy is passed down from one generation to the next.

Cara Goodwin, Ph.D

New research found that teens who have more empathetic parents tend to be more empathetic themselves.

When parents respond to distress in a supportive, empathetic way, it gives children a model for empathy.

Parents can model empathy by recognizing distress, helping children name their feelings, and showing warmth.

Empathy, or the ability to understand and share in the experience of emotions with others, is an essential element of all human relationships. Research also supports the importance of empathy, finding that more empathetic individuals have better quality friendships, enhanced social skills, and are more satisfied with their lives — to name just a few of the benefits.

Dr. Sara Konrath, the director of the Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, joins Lisa Dent to discuss a recent study that revealed that empathy is on the rise with younger Americans.

Empathy with others is not only a natural ability, it can be taught in the classroom, an analysis has suggested.

Lessons in empathy improve kindness and boost positive behaviour in children, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Ed Kirwan is a former science teacher who founded Empathy Studios, a company that created a video-led course for schools. Analysis that the company conducted of its programme discovered that children became more emotionally literate within ten weeks. The children’s behaviour also improved over the same period.

Northwood University Visiting Professor and Global Ambassador Dr Gad Saad has joined Sky News host Rita Panahi to discuss the “suicidal empathy”.

“Empathy is a noble virtue, our emotional system has evolved to solve important evolutionary problems, the problem arises when it misfires,” Mr Saad told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“Within a certain functional zone, to be empathetic makes sense, when it misfires, when it becomes hyperactive, when it targets the wrong individuals … that’s what I call suicidal empathy.

“When you take parasitic thinking … and you couple it with suicidal empathy, you have the perfect cocktail for the end of the west.”

Ed Kirwan, a former science teacher and the founder of Empathy Studios, advocates that kindness should be added to the school curriculum. After promising results from his video-led course teaching empathy over ten weeks to pupils aged 5 to 18, he states that empathy can be taught — and that increasing the emotional literacy of children could decrease social unrest in the long term.

He follows the precedent of Denmark, which teaches empathy in schools to children from pre-school up to the age of 16. This is based on neurological research that says we thrive when we know how to co-operate and build relationships with others, for which empathy is a core skill.