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Related Concept Videos

Empathy02:34

Empathy

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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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Cognitive bias results from limitations in thinking and information processing, leading to systematic errors in judgment. Conversely, motivational bias stems from personal desires or emotions, causing distortions in perception to align with self-interest. Motivational bias influences how individuals perceive and attribute causes to events, often shaped by personal needs, goals, and self-esteem preservation. This bias can distort judgment, leading to inaccurate assessments of success, failure,...
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Voluntary behavior with the intent to help other people is called prosocial behavior. Why do people help other people? Is personal benefit such as feeling good about oneself the only reason people help one another?
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According to some social psychologists, people tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations—or attributions—for the behavior of other people. They tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. They tend to fail to recognize when the behavior of another is due to situational variables, and thus to the person’s state. This erroneous assumption is...
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During adolescence, individuals experience significant cognitive development that enhances their understanding of others' emotions and thoughts, known as cognitive empathy. This period is marked by an increased ability to adapt to others' perspectives and a more nuanced understanding of others' mental states, a skill that is foundational for social problem-solving and conflict avoidance. The development of cognitive empathy relies heavily on the theory of mind — the...
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Motivation is a multifaceted process that drives behavior toward fulfilling various physiological or psychological needs. This process involves initiating, guiding, and maintaining specific actions influenced by internal and external factors. For example, when someone feels hungry while watching television, hunger is a motivator, prompting the individual to get up, walk to the kitchen, and find something to eat. In this instance, hunger initiates and sustains the behavior necessary to meet the...
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Empathy: a motivated account.

Jamil Zaki1

  • 1Stanford University.

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|October 28, 2014
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Empathy is both automatic and context-dependent, driven by motivation. People approach or avoid engaging with others' emotions based on various social and personal factors, using regulatory strategies to manage empathic responses.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Social Neuroscience
  • Affective Science

Background:

  • Empathy exhibits a duality: automatic, unconscious emotional sharing and context-dependent modulation.
  • Individual and situational factors influence empathic responses, creating a complex interplay.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To reconcile the automaticity and context dependency of empathy.
  • To highlight the crucial role of motivation in shaping empathic engagement.
  • To explore regulatory strategies used to manage empathy.

Main Methods:

  • Review of interdisciplinary evidence on empathy.
  • Analysis of motivational factors influencing empathy (e.g., suffering, affiliation).
  • Examination of regulatory strategies (e.g., situation selection, attentional modulation).

Main Results:

  • Motivation is key to understanding empathy's variability.
  • Factors like suffering and competition decrease empathy, while affiliation and social desirability increase it.
  • Regulatory strategies actively shape empathic episodes.

Conclusions:

  • Empathy is fundamentally motivated, not purely automatic or situational.
  • A motivated model of empathy has broad implications for psychological theory and clinical interventions.
  • Understanding empathy's motivational underpinnings can inform treatments for psychiatric conditions.