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Some researchers suggest that altruism operates on empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand another person’s perspective, to feel what he or she feels. An empathetic person makes an emotional connection with others and feels compelled to help (Batson, 1991). Empathy can be expressed in several ways, including cognitive, affective, and motor. 
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Observational Fear as a Model of Affective Empathy in Mice
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Empathy and compassion.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Humans use language and social skills like empathy and mentalizing to understand and share emotions. Empathy allows feeling with others while maintaining self-other distinction, unlike emotion contagion.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Humans are social beings relying on communication and social abilities.
  • Mentalizing (theory of mind) involves inferring others' beliefs and intentions.
  • Empathy is the capacity to share others' feelings, distinct from emotion contagion.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To define and differentiate key human social cognitive abilities.
  • To explain the mechanisms of understanding and sharing emotions in social interaction.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis of social cognition.
  • Distinction between empathy and emotion contagion.

Main Results:

  • Mentalizing enables understanding differing perspectives.
  • Empathy allows resonating with others' emotions without losing self-identity.
  • Emotion contagion, a precursor to empathy, lacks self-other distinction.

Conclusions:

  • Empathy and mentalizing are crucial for human social functioning.
  • Understanding the nuances of empathy is vital for social interaction research.