empathy
The ability to feel and understand what another person is feeling, as if you were in their place.
The ability to understand and share another person's feelings by mentally putting yourself in their situation.
In psychology, the mental skill to correctly understand what another person thinks and feels, and to react in a helpful way.
In psychology and related fields, the capacity to accurately recognize, understand, and respond to another person's thoughts, emotions, and intentions.
In art theory, the idea of putting your own feelings into an object or picture in your mind, as if it had your emotions.
In aesthetics and some branches of philosophy, the process of mentally projecting one’s own feelings, emotions, or sense of movement into an object, artwork, or scene.
- Base: empathy
- Plural: empathy
cognitive empathy
1thinking-based understanding of emotions
The mental skill to know what someone else feels or thinks, even if you do not feel the same emotion yourself.
- Cognitive empathy helps negotiators predict the other side’s reactions.
- The study found that cognitive empathy and emotional empathy are related but distinct abilities.
- Teachers can use cognitive empathy to see a situation from a child’s point of view.
emotional empathy
1sharing others' emotions directly
The ability to feel the same kind of emotion that another person feels, almost as if their feelings were your own.
- High emotional empathy can make some people feel overwhelmed in crowded places.
- Therapists must balance emotional empathy with professional boundaries.
- The film was designed to trigger emotional empathy for its characters.
empathy fatigue
1feeling worn out from caring
A feeling of being too tired or emotionally empty to care about other people’s problems, often after seeing a lot of suffering.
- Frontline workers reported empathy fatigue after months of crisis care.
- Constant exposure to bad news can lead to empathy fatigue.
- Organizations are trying to prevent empathy fatigue among volunteers.
empathy for others
1empathy directed at other people
Empathy that you feel for people in general, not only for one specific person.
- Stories can help children build empathy for others.
- Her work is driven by deep empathy for others.
- We try to teach empathy for others in our school program.
empathy gap
1difficulty imagining others' feelings
A situation where someone cannot really imagine how another person feels, often because they feel very different themselves.
- The empathy gap makes it hard for healthy people to understand life with chronic pain.
- Policy makers often have an empathy gap with the people their decisions affect most.
- The study explores the empathy gap between those who have experienced poverty and those who have not.
empathy machine
1tool or medium that creates empathy
A creative way to describe something, like film or virtual reality, that makes people strongly feel what others feel.
- Some critics call cinema the greatest empathy machine ever invented.
- Virtual reality is promoted as a new empathy machine for social issues.
- The director sees her art as an empathy machine for marginalized voices.
empathy map
1diagram to understand users' feelings
A picture or chart that helps teams understand what a customer or user thinks, feels, says, and does.
- The design team created an empathy map before building the new app.
- We used an empathy map to understand our key customer segments.
- An empathy map can reveal hidden user frustrations.
empathy training
1programs to build empathy skills
Courses or activities that try to help people become better at understanding and sharing others’ feelings.
- The hospital introduced empathy training for all new nurses.
- Many companies now offer empathy training for their managers.
- Empathy training can improve communication in diverse teams.
have empathy for
1to feel empathy toward someone
To be able to understand and share the feelings of a person or group.
- Teachers need to have empathy for students under stress.
- She has a lot of empathy for people who grew up in poverty.
- It’s hard to have empathy for him when he never listens to anyone else.
lack of empathy
1not having enough empathy
A situation where a person does not understand or care about other people's feelings.
- His comments showed a complete lack of empathy for the victims.
- Many people criticize the policy for its lack of empathy toward refugees.
- A lack of empathy can make teamwork very difficult.
show empathy
1to demonstrate empathy in behavior
To act in a way that makes someone feel that you understand and care about their feelings.
- Managers should show empathy when giving difficult feedback.
- He showed real empathy when he listened without judging.
- The nurse showed empathy by taking extra time to explain the procedure.