So I was in the Middle East in the days after 9/11. And we had garnered the empathy of not only most of the world, but the Muslim world who were appalled at what had been done in the name of their religion.
And the tragedy was that if we had the courage to be vulnerable, if we had built on that empathy, we would be far safer and more secure today than we are.
Evolutionarily, it would make great sense for a warring, social species such as ours to feel the most empathy for those most closely related to us, and the most enmity for those most genetically distant. But the dominant theme across the broad sweep of history—and in billions of individual lives—is the gradual expansion of the in-group.
From family to clan, clan to tribe, tribe to nation and on … horrifying exceptions notwithstanding, it is readily apparent that our empathy can cross the boundaries of genetic and geographical connection, of race, of gender, and even of species.
“The Appleton Compassion Project” is a community art project involving 10,436 Appleton Area School District K-12 art students. In Fall 2010, participating students received a 6-inch-by-6-inch art panel to draw or paint their idea of compassion.
The inspiration behind the project came from Richard Davidson, PhD — a University of Wisconsin-Madison brain researcher who has found that those who practice compassion have measurably healthier brains. What’s more, Davidson’s research shows that compassion can be learned, and should be practiced, as a skill. “A little more joy might be within everyone’s reach,” says Davidson.
Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.
In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain’s grey matter. Check the end of this report for a download link to the original, full-text journal article.
The teens participated in a poverty simulation as part of a week of service learning in Boise that also had them volunteer at homeless shelters and build a safety gate at a preschool.
Simulations like this are one way that service groups and welfare agencies in Idaho and across the nation raise awareness about the issues their clients face while increasing empathy among employees, volunteers and donors.
But in an economy where so many are seeking services, it is even more important for those who can give or serve to have that empathy.
some measures suggest women are on average better than men at some forms of empathy, and men do better than women when it comes to managing distressing emotions. Whenever you talk about such gender differences in behavior, your are referring to two different Bell Curves, one for men and one for women, that largely overlap.
What this means is that any given man might be as good or better as any woman at empathy, and a woman as good as or better than a specific man at handling upsets.
Let's look at empathy. There are three kinds: cognitive empathy, being able to know how the other person sees things; emotional empathy, feeling what the other person feels; and empathic concern, or sympathy -being ready to help someone in need.
We figuratively (and sometimes literally) beat ourselves up. In small doses, self-criticism can be helpful - it encourages us to take responsibility for our actions and motivates us to improve ourselves - but excessive self-criticism can be debilitating and self-defeating.
So what's the solution? Researchers have begun to examine the importance of self-compassion, which means treating yourself with kindness and understanding when you make a mistake or go through a difficult experience, just as you would treat another person you care about.
Social Media Developers are talking more and more about how their products support creating more empathy. Mark says he and FAcebook value: Empathy, Openness, Transparency, Connection & Understanding.
"I had never really taken a step back to reflect on what were the core things that I really believed in.... I took a month and I traveled around the world and I reflected. A lot of the founding principles of Facebook are that if people have access to more information and can be more connected then that will hopefully make the world better. It will make it that people will have MORE EMPATHY.
According to a study published in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, Botox may not only numb facial muscles, but also – and for the same reason – numb users' perception of other people's emptions.
Taken together, the two studies seem to indicate a direct relationship between ability to express emotion through facial expression, and the ability to experience emotion oneself, or identify it in others.
A new study has come out today saying that Botox may dull your ability to understand the emotions of others.
Why would a potential dulling of empathy necessarily be a cost, i.e. something valuable which is lost? Since women are the vast majority of Botox users and studies all over the world have concluded that women already have a superior ability to empathize and detect emotions than men do, might not Botox merely help level the empathy playing field?
Botox injections may smooth facial wrinkles but they may also hinder our ability to understand the emotions of others, according to scientists. Botox paralyses the facial muscles making it difficult to mimic other people's emotions.
Prof Neal said the disconnect happens because people read others' emotions partly by mimicking their facial expressions.
'When you mimic you get a window into their inner world,' he said.
'When we can't mimic, as with Botox, that window is a little darker.'
English, Math, and Science are taught in the classroom, but has anyone ever taken a class on “empathy?” Probably not.
Dr. Denvy Bowman, President of Capital University, is trying to teach empathy outside of the classroom, with a program known as the Empathy Experiment. Beginning this past January, six Capital students will began exploring the condition of the working poor in Columbus by immersing themselves in different experiences designed by community partners.
We’ll discuss the details of the program, and most importantly, whether or not it’s achieving its goal of teaching empathy.
Guests:
* Denvy Bowman (President, Capital University) * Andy Grizzell ( Empathy Experiment Student Participant) * Barb Packer (Food Pantries Corporate Director) * Jeff Biehl (President, Access HealthColumbus)
Now that nobody in their right mind really believes in the goaty old Devil, all hooves and pitchfork, Hitler is our benchmark of evil. Yet we don't know what the word means. It's self-referential. What was Hitler? Evil. What's evil? It's what Hitler was.
Baron-Cohen's "new theory of cruelty" is that there is also a spectrum of empathy, and at the far end of that spectrum, evil - cruelty - lies.
Both the good and bad in our species come from our primate background, says primatologist Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy.
Richard Dawkins has declared that humans are “nicer than is good for our selfish genes.” Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal argues against this popular picture of evolution as a Hobbesian wilderness of selfishly competing individuals, where life is “nasty, brutish, and short.” De Waal focuses his research on the social behavior of primates, studying questions of culture, altruism, morality, and empathy.
Many of us care so much about other people that we are neglecting our own needs.
Empathy is roundly seen as a good thing. Frequently, we consider people who lack empathy to be evil — after all, how could someone murder or torture another human being if they had any empathy for their fellow man at all? But is it possible to care too much? To care so much about other people that you actually neglect your own needs?
Would you believe that people who live with each other for 25 years actually develop similar facial features?
People grow to look similar because they are empathising with each other and so copying each other's facial expressions. Over time because of all the empathising they are doing, their faces come to look more similar. For example, if one partner often smiles in a particular way, the other is likely to copy it - so creating similar patterns of wrinkles and furrows on the face.
I think I'm a pretty empathic person. But how would I know, asks Clare Allan...
There is a certain dark humour in finding such statements in a piece on empathy, but I can't say I'm laughing. I think I'm a pretty empathic person. But how would I know, after all? I know plenty of people with BPD and not one of them fits Baron-Cohen's description. But do I fit it? That's the question. Do I?
The next day of note promoted by Bloggers Unite is the 1st International Day of Compassion on May 15, 2011.
This day is in honour of Dr. Patch Adams. Bloggers Unite would like this to become a UN sanctioned day and have sent a petition to Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon.
So how do we revive Empathy in America? It shouldn’t be difficult. Almost each and every one of us enter this world full of it, ready to give and accept love and not to “think” about what’s best for us as individuals.
Seeing ourselves in others and vice versa isn’t a burden or a version of community service — it’s a gift we give others and a reward we receive. Fixing this problem starts with a reminder — when you hurt another you are actually hurting yourself. If we could all see the greater whole and not just the individual goal — then empathy won’t only survive but it will flourish…
Perhaps the most anticipated keynote at last week’s Where 2.0 conference in California’s Silicon Valley came from D.J. Patil, the former chief scientist of LinkedIn who is now chief product officer of the hot Silicon Valley startup Color, which recently raked in $41 million in venture backing.
He said; “Technology should enable us to share each other’s experiences through each other’s eyes, helping us walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,” he said. “That leads to empathy, which in turns spurs people to take action. It changes the paradigm.”
Color is just one of the likely apps in this empathy arsenal of mobile and social tools that appear to be emerging. Let’s keep a close eye on this to see where this is heading — and whether this will bring philanthropy closer to home.
If you had a blank canvas in front of you, how would you paint the word "compassion"? In this project, students have become the teachers. Here's something to think about: If you had a blank canvas in front of you, how would you paint the word "compassion"?
In Appleton, more than 10,000 students have taken on that task, and their work will soon be featured at the Trout Museum of Art.
"We suggested to challenge our students and teachers in the community to visualize compassion and figure out what compassion might look like," museum executive director Tim Riley said.
When you shoot Botox into your face to freeze it into a mask of dispassionate youthful non-expression, you might also be harming your ability to perceive emotions in others, a new study says.
"if muscular signals from the face to the brain are dampened, you're less able to read emotions."
Why would Botox injections blunt a person's ability to interpret another's fear, worry, joy or sadness, while dermal fillers do not?
The study's lead author, USC psychology professor David T. Neal, surmised that it is Botox's hallmark paralyzing effect on facial muscles in the immediate vicinity of the injection site that would negatively affect a person's ability to read another's emotional state.
Baron-Cohen, whose book Zero Degrees of Empathy has just been published, wants to raise awareness of the human empathic system and the devastating consequences when it malfunctions. He wants society to progress from condemning people as evil and instead understand why they acted without due concern for the pain they would cause.
It was a full house and with the RI's 19th century clock reliably ticking, and its president His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent in attendance, the evening's lecture was introduced by Claudia Hammond
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