What is empathy and what do we need it for? Södertörn University, Stockholm Centre for Studies in Practical Knowledge August 16-18, 2012
The last ten years we have witnessed an exploding interest in the phenomenon of empathy. The wave of empathy studies is psychology, philosophy, psychiatry and other disciplines is linked to a parallel theoretical interest in the phenomena of feeling, selfhood, inter-subjectivity and morality, but also to practical attempts to understand and improve meetings between workers and clients in different professions, such as health care professions, teaching professions, psychotherapy or social work.
To be empathic is increasingly viewed as a must for any person working in cooperation with and/or helping other people, although, as is also pointed out, the empathy must be professional in character to not produce destructive intimacy or burn out. The question of what “professional empathy” might be and how it is possible, or, indeed, fruitful to attain such ability is an interesting one in itself.
Her book is more about subjective self-doubt and empathy. She doesn’t critically examine her own policies. Nor does she express empathy for those who felt disadvantaged or excluded by them – granting as always that emergency measures had been necessary. And, as she heads further into an international career, there’s no expression of empathy for those who now need it most, be they children in Gaza or refugees in South Sudan.
It’s disappointing Ardern doesn’t define key words: empathy, leadership or power, for example. There are different ways to understand them, and definitions carry assumptions.
It is these unglamorous moments of her time in office — which she sprinkles throughout the book — that lend credence to her thesis: Leading with empathy and kindness is a choice anyone can make.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
We’re sitting so close to Harvard, which has been at the center of heated debates, and now you’re releasing a book about kindness and empathy in leadership. How does this all fit together?
I started writing it after I left office — early to mid-2023, and look, though there was a lot of difficulty in the world, now feels vastly different from then. So it’s not lost on me, the environment it’s going into. But I would have written the same book regardless. Because, even then, ideas of empathy and compassion and kindness in leadership were treated as if there was a naïveté there, and probably even more so now, and I just push back on that.
Why Empathy Is More Important Than Ever As algorithmic interaction increases, customers are hungry for something real. They want to be heard – not as data, but as human beings with emotions, needs, and experiences.
A Motista study showed that customers emotionally connected to brands have a 306 per cent higher lifetime value (5.1 years) than satisfied customers (3.4 years).
Empathy-driven brands, through thoughtful messaging, proactive support, or co-creative design, establish trust and longevity. Take the example of body care campaigns challenging beauty stereotypes or a shoe’s legendary customer service going the extra mile despite AI being able to close the ticket with ease
Clinical empathy is one of the cornerstones of Healthcare Bioethics, a novel theoretical-normative framework within Clinical Bioethics proposed as an alternative to Principlism. Methodologically, this paper consists of theoretical research aimed at examining the foundational role of clinical empathy on Healthcare Bioethics and its implications on care. In the first part of the paper, we present the theoretical-normative foundations of Healthcare Bioethics, arguing that clinical empathy’s moral role derives from its epistemic and motivational functions. Its epistemic function enables professionals to understand the mental and emotional states of patients, ultimately promoting care aligned with Patient-Centered Care and Shared Decision-Making models.
The “politics of empathy” might not be in vogue, but Ardern remains committed to it. Is it a strong enough weapon against authoritarianism? Elon Musk recently said that “the fundamental weakness of western civilisation is empathy”. She snorts. “What does that even mean?”
Attacking empathy is all the rage with the right, I point out, especially in the US. There are popular books called Against Empathy and The Sin of Empathy. “Well, in that environment, saying loudly and proudly that you believe in empathy and that you’ll govern in that way is an act of strength.”
But public life today is so horrible, so brutal. Why would anyone go into politics? “I think the rehumanisation of people in public life is really important,” she says.
: The Role of Empathy in Math Class; "We teach people, not content" (Allen, 2002) ; focusing on social norms to foster a culture in math class that prioritizes solving problems in multiple ways in order to listen to and respond to people who think differently from you. Two stories - one about a fifth grade class where students were explicitly taught how to listen to other perspectives. Second story is about me, how I learned math successfully in a traditional manner, developed the empathetic ability to value other viewpoints, and the bumps along the way.
Numerous studies have examined the impact of empathetic leaders in organizations. However, the systematic consolidation and categorization of these effects have not yet been conducted. This article presents a systematic literature review of 42 academic studies, carefully selected from 5 databases using a rigorous search process, with the aim of developing a concise category system that synthesizes the effects of empathetic leaders in organizations.
After discussing theoretical lenses and our methodological approach, we outline the various understandings of empathy and the measuring instruments used in the analyzed articles. As our main contribution, we then describe nine categories that summarize the effects of empathetic leaders in organizations. These categories consider affect, attitudes, empathy, equity, interpersonal relationships, leadership practice, perception, performance, and well-being. We further outline the individuals or groups affected by these effects
The last few rounds of conversations surrounded empathy for addicts and these conversations may have fundamentally changed the way I view people’s capacity for empathy.
Many conversations online started with “I have empathy for addicts until…” and you can fill in the blank with whatever you want, until they steal drugs from a hospital or patient.
...Until they endanger someone else’s life. ...Until they’re ungodly mean to someone who’s been nothing but good to them. What people are saying is, “I have empathy for addicts until they start acting too much like an addict.”
When Woolfalk first conceptualized her Empathics, she was addressing a society already struggling with meaningful connection. Her exhibition has the fortune, good or bad, of opening at a moment when empathy has supposedly been ‘weaponized.’ The good news is that the artist convincingly – with tenderness, skepticism, and humor – evokes a kinder world, and visitors find themselves in the presence of that rare body of artwork that even evokes the sacred.
‘It was a very different art world’ when she started, the artist said in a recent walkthrough of the show. ‘My work is made thinking about conversations in the contemporary art world. There weren’t that many artists of color being represented in the mainstream art media, so I started thinking about how I could integrate stories that related to me and my community into this larger art world.’
A community empowered to lead with empathy. Our inaugural chief wellness officer and the director of our campuswide Scarlet Well initiative to fund grassroots wellness projects, train staff peer supporters and create an interdisciplinary minor in holistic wellness. We host an annual summit that brings together more than 125 community organizations. With donor support, we are building a community behavioral treatment center and retreat for adolescents and young adults.
It’s a provocative idea: that empathy — that is, putting yourself in another person’s proverbial shoes, and feeling what they feel — is a sin.
The Bible contains repeated invocations from Jesus to show deep empathy and compassion for others, including complete strangers. He’s very clear on this point. Moreover, Christianity is built around a fundamental act of empathy so radical — Jesus dying for our sins — that it’s difficult to spin as harmful.
Yet as stunning as it may sound, “empathy is a sin” is a claim that’s been growing in recent years across the Christian right. It was first articulated six years ago by controversial pastor and theologian Joe Rigney, now author of the recently published book, The Sin of Empathy, which has drawn plenty of debate among religious commentators.
In this construction, empathy is a cudgel that progressives and liberals use to berate and/or guilt-trip Christians into showing empathy to the “wrong” people.
That’s why empathy is considered a superpower in relationships, especially among our rich and quality singles who desire meaningful connections.
What Is Empathy? Empathy is the ability to understand and share another person’s feelings. An empathetic person doesn't just listen—they genuinely care, connect, and respond with compassion. Whether it's celebrating success or offering comfort during a challenge, empathetic individuals bring emotional intelligence and balance into relationships.
Why Is Empathy So Important in Love?
Deepens Emotional Bond: Empathy allows couples to communicate on a deeper level.
You feel heard, seen, and truly understood.
Reduces Conflict: When both partners are empathetic, arguments don’t escalate. They resolve disagreements with understanding and grace.
Increases Trust: When someone senses your feelings and cares, you naturally open up more, building a foundation of trust.
Fosters Supportive Partnerships: Empathetic singles know how to give support without being asked. They tune into your needs, emotionally and mentally.
Builds Emotional Resilience Together: Life’s ups and downs are easier to face when your partner feels what you feel.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was one of the youngest elected leaders in history, one of only two premiers to give birth while in office and the only one to take her infant into a session of the United Nations.
She's written a memoir about her life and time in office. It is full of surprises, including the story of how a shy sensitive person, full of self-doubt could succeed in such a tough job - modern professional politics.
In this episode of “The Opinions,” the Times Opinion politics correspondent Michelle Cottle speaks to the columnists Jamelle Bouie and David French about the rise of “toxic empathy” and how the right has turned compassion into weakness.
Ben Garrett, a podcaster and pastor, tweeted a photo of Budde in a miter and said, in part, “Do not commit the sin of empathy.” Garrett went viral, though his rhetoric was not original. His initial claim — that empathy can be sinful — has long percolated among a loose network of far-right writers, pastors, and theologians whom some critics call TheoBros.
Evangelicals as I knew them loathed abortion and women in the pulpit and the prospect of same-sex marriage, but that is not enough for Garrett and his peers. They want a Christianity with teeth, a fighting religion that will not only vanquish but eradicate their foes. When Garrett spoke of sinful empathy, he merely echoed writers like Joe Rigney, who helped popularize the idea years before publishing The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits in February.
Hojat et al introduced the concept of empathy in the context of patient care, suggesting that empathy is primarily a cognitive (rather than affective or emotional) attribute that involves understanding patients’ experiences, concerns, and perspectives (rather than feelings), the ability to convey this understanding, and a willingness to help.2 Research shows that empathy helps improve patient satisfaction, thereby promoting their compliance, reducing patient anxiety and depression, and is associated with improved clinical outcomes.3 In addition, empathic physicians are more likely to achieve job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and make better clinical decisions.4–6
Dr. Nicole Ofiesh and Kara Matejka talk about their work prioritising empathy and perspective shifting for individualised instruction to support brain-based learning. Through stories about their experiences in individual private practice (educational therapy and cognitive therapy, respectively) and now through Brain Explained*, they share how their aforementioned practice of utilising empathy leads to brain-based learning, which is known to have a positive impact on individual learners throughout the lifespan.
Key points that Dr. Nicole Ofiesh and Kara Matejka present are when individuals gain an understanding of how best they learn, they are able to navigate barriers and capitalise on their strengths; empathy should function as the guide to supporting who were once called nontraditional learners but now make up the majority of learners; adapting new ways of thinking and broadening our perspective about learning contributes to a foundational shift of brain-based learning.
Practitioners who enhance how they express empathy and create positive expectations of benefit could improve patient outcomes. However, the evidence in this area has not been recently synthesised.
Objective To estimate the effects of empathy and expectations interventions for any clinical condition.
Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials.
Allan Rohlfs is a seasoned psychotherapist, educator, and certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) with over five decades of experience in empathic listening and interpersonal communication. His extensive career includes teaching at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for 30 years, where he focused on pastoral care and listening skills. When I Listen People Speak and Come Alive, is the culmination of author Allan Rohlfs five decades long work of practicing listening and teaching.
Edwin Rutsch and Alan Rolfs discuss the evolution and impact of empathic listening, emphasizing its transformative power in personal and societal interactions. Rolfs, a psychotherapist and author, highlights his journey with Carl Rogers and Eugene Gendlin and the development of his book on empathic listening. They explore the challenges of scaling empathic practices, such as the Empathy Circle and Nonviolent Communication (NVC), and the need for a cultural shift towards empathy. Rolfs suggests that empathic listening leads to deeper connections and personal growth, advocating for a broader dissemination of these practices to foster a culture of empathy.
What Empathy Actually Means (Beyond the Buzzwords) Let’s be honest—“empathy” has become one of those words that gets thrown around in every corporate presentation, right alongside “synergy” and “disruption.” But strip away the consultant-speak, and empathy is actually pretty simple.
It’s asking yourself this: If I were the person on the receiving end of this system, how would I want to be treated?
When you’re looking for a job and get rejected, do you want a one-word email that says “No”? Or would you prefer something that actually acknowledges your humanity?
Artificial intelligence chatbots can draft empathetic responses to cancer questions, but how patients perceive chatbot empathy remains unclear. Here, we found that people with cancer rated chatbot responses as more empathetic than physician responses. However, differences between patient and physician perceptions of empathy highlight the need for further research to tailor clinical messaging to better meet patient needs. Chatbots may be effective in generating empathetic template responses to patient questions under clinician oversight.
Large language models (LLM) applications serve as promising artificial intelligence (AI) tools to address administrative burden and support clinical decision-making in medicine1. Conversational LLM chatbots can provide quality and empathetic responses to questions in general medicine2 and oncology3,4, as evaluated by clinicians. As chatbots are deployed in patient-facing roles, there remains debate about whether patients also perceive that chatbots can demonstrate empathy, a core competency in medicine5. Empathy, defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is central to establishing trustworthy patient-provider relationships which have been linked to improved patient outcomes6. However, patients, rather than clinicians, should serve as the benchmark for determining whether their experiences have been understood, shared, and addressed7.
A new study from Uganda's Budongo Forest draws on decades of data suggesting chimps understand the specific medicinal properties of certain plants and will go out of their way to treat the maladies of their peers.
Empathy is not just a nice-to-have quality in business. It’s a strategic advantage that directly impacts your bottom line. There’s a big debate in the leadership world. Some researchers say leaders should project strength and authority to inspire teams. Others believe in empathetic leadership, where vulnerability and connection take center stage. After decades of working with teams across the globe, I’ve identified three essential questions that help illuminate empathy’s role in business:
1. Is empathy something we activate, or something we are?
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