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 talk to 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.
A new review released in Biological Psychiatry discusses how empathy, while normally viewed as a positive trait, can actually have negative impacts on mental health. The review integrates human and animal research, explaining how excessive empathy can result in overwhelming emotional states collectively referred to as “empathic distress.”
A generally higher degree of emotional resonance can elevate one’s susceptibility to distress and psychiatric illness like depression, anxiety, burnout, vicarious trauma, internalizing disorders and PTSD.
International collaborations sound impressive on paper – but most fail to move beyond initial enthusiasm and a signed memorandum of understanding. Jeremy Howick shares lessons from building a global network focused on empathy in healthcare.
As the founder of the UK’s first empathy centre, focused on improving healthcare outcomes through greater understanding of patient perspectives, I am keen to seek out international best practice in this area.
What started as a conversation with a colleague about working with the other empathy specialists around the world has transformed, two years later, into a global network of 13 centres across five continents.
For years, empathy has been the soft skill many leaders paid lip service to but struggled to operationalize. Customer experience executives put it in presentations. HR leaders championed it in onboarding. Marketers wrote about it in brand manifestos.
But Zurich’s new 2025 Addressing the Empathy Gap study reframes empathy as something much more tangible: a measurable lever with direct impact on customer behavior and company revenue. And this time, the evidence comes at scale.
1. Make Empathy A Core Value Empathy is at the core of leadership. This means it is not to be integrated, but innate. If you’re an effective leader, your team knows how much you lead in line with your values and how these have impacted every team member. When times get difficult, they trust you enough to make a decision that is for the good of everyone, even when it doesn’t favor everyone! Empathy is your strength, not a tool to be integrated! - Jennifer Orode, Ingenium Concepts Limited
We are trained in dignity and empathy. It’s where our politics come from. It’s why we care about gay people and trans people and immigrants and the working class. We believe empathy matters, and we act like it matters.
And it has gotten us nowhere, even when we ask for empathy around gun violence more objectively—at least quantitatively—horrific than what befell Charlie Kirk in Utah. The deaths of children in the most violent fashion imaginable have done nothing to turn the Republican Party away from their lurid embrace of killing machines.
Dark empaths tend to be more agreeable than dark triads. Dark empaths still often display higher levels of selfishness, distrust, and antagonism. When in doubt, notice how a person responds to limits, needs, and honest disagreement.
Is empathy on the chopping block? In a charged political climate in the United States, it certainly could be.
Are we experiencing an empathy drought? Not only do we appear to have less compassion for others, but we are being told, by many commentators, that we should not feel bad about not feeling bad.
Steps for Building an Empathetic Startup Culture The first 90 days of a startup are like wet cement: Whatever you imprint now will harden over time. To set the right tone, take these foundational steps:
Define your values early. Even if you’re a two-person team, document your beliefs and cultural principles. Clarity now avoids confusion later.
Hire for values alignment—not “fit.” Replace “culture fit” with “values fit.” Look for people who share your core beliefs but bring different life experiences and perspectives.
Model empathy as a leader. Empathy must be visible at the top. Practice active listening, admit your mistakes, and lead with humility.
Build in empathy rituals. Create space for authentic connection. One-on-ones, open feedback loops, and structured reflection moments show people their voices matter.
A new paper published Oct. 16 in Nature Human Behavior highlights findings from several studies of how perceptions of others’ empathy – defined as “the ability to share, understand, and care about others’ experiences” of others – influences feelings of social connectedness.
In a survey of more than 5,000 Stanford undergraduates, students who perceived their peers as more empathic reported better psychological well-being and more friends. But researchers uncovered an “empathy perception gap” in which students consistently viewed their peers as less empathic and caring than those other students saw themselves.
Some conservative Christian leaders and influencers are warning their audiences about what they call “toxic empathy,” while others argue that empathy is a Christian virtue—or at least not a harmful one. The debate centers on how empathy is being framed, who is driving the critique, and how other Christians are responding
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 talk to 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.
With the rise of AI across all facets of design, empathy remains the UX designer’s superpower. Designers have a unique capacity to represent the people that products are being built for, using a sharp eye and creative skepticism to craft interfaces. The process of questioning ideas with an open mind, and reflecting from diverse perspectives, is what helps us cut through complexity and develop a deeper understanding of what users truly need.
Join our three-day course at the University of Leicester to master empathy teaching in healthcare. Boost patient care, overcome barriers, and lead with compassion.
Who is the course for?
This course is for educators, trainers, clinicians, and others involved in healthcare teaching or supervision. It is particularly relevant for those designing or delivering curricula in medical, nursing, or allied health education.
By the end of this course, participants will:
Comprehend different approaches to teaching empathy
Deliver confident and effective instruction on elements of empathy teaching
Grasp the variety of methods and assessment approaches needed for empathy education
Provide instruction on empathy topics
Recognise the essential elements of a successful empathy teaching
Being nice comes at a price, and it can make you wonder: Can someone be too empathetic to lead?
Empathy—the ability to relate to the emotional experiences of others—is a workplace superpower. A survey of 900 US employees revealed that empathetic leadership results in more innovative and engaged teams, less turnover, higher productivity and more positive work experiences. With workplace burnout at an all-time high, empathy is an essential ingredient that organizations can’t afford to lose.
Understanding why empathy is important in leadership reveals its powerful role in driving success within organizations. Empathy fosters strong team relationships by enabling leaders to genuinely connect with employees, thus creating an environment where people feel valued and understood. This, in turn, increases employee engagement, which studies consistently link to higher productivity and lower turnover rates. Furthermore, empathy shapes a positive work environment by encouraging open communication and mutual respect among team members. According to The Center for Creative Leadership, empathetic leadership can transform workplace culture, making it more adaptive and resilient.
The writer says curiosity is 'the bedrock of what empathy is’
In a world bombarded by crises and shortages, empathy seems shorter in supply, but more necessary than ever.
But even if empathy is one of our highest moral callings, it’s as complex and contradictory as we humans ourselves.
Writer and journalist Leslie Jamison has thought a lot about the role of empathy in our lives. In a book of essays, The Empathy Exams, the writer pondered how we practice empathy and our basic understanding of others.
'Cognitive empathy may sound like a soft skill, but Christine Barton calls it one of the hardest to master. The Boston Consulting Group managing director and senior partner defines it not as feeling someone else’s emotions but as understanding their perspective: seeing the context, pressures, and biases that shape how others interpret the world. “It’s active curiosity,” she says. “You recognize their point of view without having to mirror their feelings.”
Leadership styles swing between command-and-control and more humanistic approaches, but Barton argues today’s volatility—geopolitical shocks, rapid technological change, and “wild-card uncertainties” like pandemics or climate crises—makes cognitive empathy essential. Once executives reach the top, she notes, they often operate in a bubble.
The evolving landscape of healthcare demands a workforce that is not only clinically proficient but also possesses high levels of cultural empathy. A recent qualitative exploration conducted by Almutairi, Alodhailah, and Alahmedi shines a light on the experiences of Saudi nursing students and academics in developing cultural empathy through simulation-based education. This innovative approach is essential for fostering an understanding of diverse patient backgrounds and improving the overall quality of care provided.
I don’t hate empathy. I actually feel sad for those who do.
It reminds me of the middle school bullies who mocked my Payless shoes in seventh grade. They weren’t really mad at me—or even at the shoes. They were wrestling with their own unresolved demons, dancing restlessly on their souls. I remember feeling bad for them as I buffed out the scuff marks they left on my white kicks.
People who hate empathy usually fall into a few groups: those who don’t understand it, those who are deeply enmeshed and hurting, those who lack healthy boundaries, or those who’ve weaponized empathy for their own gain and don’t want anyone to notice. Whatever the reason, it’s usually clear that when bullies hate something specific, it’s because that thing scares the hell out of them.
In Part Two of Clint’s conversation with Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX, they discuss how empathetic leadership can drive culture, performance, and the bottom line. Claude shares how to create trust in flat organizations, why feedback is about connection (not correction), and what it really means to lead with heart. Plus, the pair explore how to scale emotional intelligence in a rapidly changing world. This is the second part of a two-part conversation.
— Empathy is usually regarded as a virtue, a key to human decency and kindness. And yet, with increasing momentum, voices on the Christian right are preaching that it has become a vice.
For them, empathy is a cudgel for the left: It can manipulate caring people into accepting all manner of sins according to a conservative Christian perspective, including abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, illegal immigration and certain views on social and racial justice.
"Empathy becomes toxic when it encourages you to affirm sin, validate lies or support destructive policies," said Allie Beth Stuckey, author of "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion."
Chicago (October 15, 2025) – Chaz Ebert—CEO of RogerEbert.com, humanitarian, film producer, and wife of the late Pulitzer Prize-winner Roger Ebert—today announced that nominations are officially open for the inaugural FECK Awards, a groundbreaking new initiative celebrating individuals and organizations who elevate humanity through Forgiveness, Empathy, Compassion, and Kindness. Inspired by her 2024 book, It’s Time to Give a FECK: Elevating Humanity Through Forgiveness, Empathy, Compassion, and Kindness, the FECK Awards bring to life Ebert’s vision of spotlighting those who act with courage, compassion, and heart to mend divisions and spark ripples of kindness in their communities.
The Empathy Deficit Most AI today is built on a simple premise: that logic alone is enough. Models crunch vast amounts of historical data to predict what should happen next, but they do so without any awareness of how the person on the other side is actually feeling in the moment.
This works fine in transactional contexts, such as asking AI to summarize a document or requesting the fastest route to get you to your destination, but it breaks down in more “human” settings like wellness and education, where outcomes depend as much on emotional alignment as factual accuracy. In fact, a 2025 study published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science found that smartwatch stress scores often failed to align with how users actually felt, highlighting the disconnect between physiological data and emotional reality.
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