Empathy

Empathy

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

Sharing in or caring about another person's state; here, the concern observers feel on seeing tears.

What it is

Empathy covers both feeling something of what another person feels and caring about their situation. In the study of tears across 41 countries, empathic concern helped explain why tears raised the wish to offer support. In work on yawning, empathy is a proposed but disputed explanation for why yawns spread most between people who are close.

In effect

In the articles on crying and on contagious yawning, it is the link between seeing another person's state and responding to it.

What it does not say

It is a broad idea rather than one measured effect. The link between contagious yawning and empathy in particular is not settled.

Sources

  1. Zickfeld, J. H., van de Ven, N., Pich, O., Schubert, T. W., et al. (2021). Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 95, 104137.
  2. Massen, J. J. M., & Gallup, A. C. (2017). Why contagious yawning does not (yet) equate to empathy. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 80, 573-585.