In the study of interpersonal relations, empathy is often distinguished from sympathy, compassion and emotional contagion that empathic response to other people's emotional states occurs without one feels oneself even the same emotion, or even an emotion whatsoever. Strictly speaking, emotional empathy may not be at all directed towards the welfare of others unlike sympathy. So do act of cruelty requires an empathic capacity to know the feeling, in this case the suffering of others in order to derive pleasure.

Empathy is different from emotional contagion in which a person feels the same emotional state than another without keeping the distance between oneself and others as it is observed in empathy. The laughter is an example of emotional contagion: a feeling of gaiety is felt by both individuals.

Dear Marg, a simple answer is Yes.  Being empathetic means that I may be able to understand what another human is experiencing and feeling.  It also puts a check on my thoughts and feelings that may otherwise focus on myself and those in my little world.

Empathy requires compassion by which we build bonds in all sorts of relationships among peers in the fields you mentioned (politics, science, research, education, marketing, moral suasion, friendship).  Compassion also build bonds between follower and leader, teacher and students, etc.  (Contrary to Dante, some of us recognize that some rules in society are right, just and for our good, and abide by these rules.)

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/making-change/201411/want-better-relationships-learn-be-more-empathic

Empathy --- is the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another --- !

Being empathetic in any circumstance or any case as referred in the question means --- if any idea/thought/rule/law/belief/relation is bad to us, should not be imposed on another one --- or whatever good for us, may be good for another.

Empathy is the key to effective relationships in any type of workplace environment. So in general, it does make organizations be more effective. Also, leadership and organizational development theories all state that emotional intelligence, our fundamental nature as empathic human beings, is a crucial factor in making effective relationships in workplace environment.

Dear Ting,

Indeed empathy is a quality of good consciousness on the psyche and states of others who might be in somewhat different circumstances. Good leaders should indeed have that quality and empathy is the glue and fiber of being human. There will not be space in our mind for ego if the space is occupied by empathy, but in the absence of empathy ego-centrism gets a free ride to flourish.  

Hellò Marg, wellcome with a new and intersting question. The answer requires a deep thinking. Result of my effort follows.

Empathy involves the ability to recognize the signals of others and emotional sensitivity to the emotions and the prospect of others. Empathy is an essential component of emotional intelligence.

The concept of intelligence-based psychometric tests like IQ is now superseded by the concept of emotional intelligence, which is expressed as a meta-ability, ie the ability to move to other higher capacity through the management of the emotional experience. This complex work skills optimizing circulation emotional and is central in the daily process of adaptation that is the basis of wealth and success, as well as a healthy mental life.

This is, in my opinion independent from the field in which this quality is applied.

Dear RG fellows,

nice to meet you again.

The problem is twofold: a) how much is a person able to get in empathy with another; and b) the starting substrate of both people (the one that needs to understand the other and the one that must be understood).

There are people strongly polarized on themselves and then essentially self-referential. They do not allow (or Recognize) That other people think in a different way. Their ego may become presumption and megalomania. The reference sample are just themselves.

However, there are other persons highly open and receptive that tend to cancel their personality to encompass that of others. In this case, the reference sample is the universe world without weighting.

These two excesses obviously can not create a sustainable empathy in our society. Conversely we need a more politically correct approach to this issue so that empathy may be the tool for the creation of a truly representative and unbiased sample .

Empathy is the ability to see the world from the perspective of another person, to share & understand another person’s feelings, needs, concerns and emotional state. Empathy (which is perhaps the most advanced of all attitudes& skills besides being a selfless act ) can be learnt & developed until it becomes natural & spontaneous. To be empathetic, one ought to possess effective communication & powerful imagination.  

Assume you saw a colleague in a terrible state due to an unfortunate stress at work; what is the reaction? Many scholars are usually ambivalent or negative (it is none of my business) or happy inside. An empathetic noble scholar will, at once, imagine himself/herself in the shoes of that suffering colleague. You may not be able to help fully but, at least, you can encourage relieving the stress & you can do something no matter how little.

Effective communication requires from the "would-be" empathizer to listen well & to express well. It is a pity that there are scholars who are self-admirers so in a setting, they will talk much more than listen. There are meetings in which 1 or 2 talk while 10 or 20 are not given the chance to complete one sentence.

Powerful imagination is to see the world from others' perspective and to think about the basis of their perspective.

To feel sorry for those who are suffering, you are sympathetic but not empathetic. There is nothing wrong with sympathy, but its impact is weaker than empathy. The suffering persons, everywhere, need  strong words & actions or deeds from the sympathizers otherwise nothing will change.

Albert Einstein Empathy

Yes. Our mission is to develop the capability to be great.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN: 40 years of the cold war taught us that empathy (understanding how another's feeling--putting yourself in another person's shoes) has another side to it. Understanding how the other person feels has been used as a tool for threats, negotiation, extortion, terrorism, etc. In fact, all forms of psychological warfare and propaganda campaigns starts with the  basic understanding of putting yourself in another person's shoes and ask "how would they respond to this act?" This perspective is not pessimism; we need to also look at another side of human nature. We are reminded of the words of Sir Francis Bacon:

"In order for the light to shine brightly, the darkness must be present."

Collection of traits 

• Agreeableness
• moderately stable and situation-consistent differences
• pro-social behavior
• Genetically shaped from childhood

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~cdeyoung/Pubs/Shiner_DeYoung_Oxford_Chapter.pdf

Dear @Marg, you have got fine responses. Regarding the importance of empathy in market potentials, as you have stated in point 6 of your introductory text, I may bring some fine resources (Apple...). The fine research paper Managerial Empathy Facilitates Egocentric Predictions of Consumer Preferences. It is very good empirical study on this issue. "Common wisdom suggests that managerial empathy (i.e., the mental process of taking a consumer perspective) helps executives separate their personal consumption preferences from those of consumers, thereby preventing egocentric preference predictions. The results of the present investigation, however, show exactly the opposite. First, the authors find that managerial empathy ironically accelerates self-reference in predictions of consumer preferences. Second, managers' self-referential tendencies increase with empathy because taking a consumer perspective activates managers' private consumer identity and, thus, their personal consumption preferences. Third, empathic managers' self-referential preference predictions make them less likely to use market research results. Fourth, the findings imply that when explicitly instructed to do so, managers are capable of suppressing their private consumer identity in the process of perspective taking, which helps them reduce self-referential preference predictions..."

http://journals.ama.org/doi/abs/10.1509/jmr.13.0296

http://info.profilesinternational.com/profiles-employee-assessment-blog/bid/208900/How-Empathy-Can-Backfire-in-Customer-Service

http://info.profilesinternational.com/profiles-employee-assessment-blog/bid/208835/Take-a-Bite-out-of-Apple-s-Empathetic-Customer-Service

My dear friend @Patrick Low, the ex-member of ResearchGate community have posted this attachment on other social network. It is about empathy! "Strongly believe that people must have and they need to understand one another. Cheers, and all smiles, Patrick Low"

In the study of interpersonal relations, empathy is often distinguished from sympathy, compassion and emotional contagion that empathic response to other people's emotional states occurs without one feels oneself even the same emotion, or even an emotion whatsoever. Strictly speaking, emotional empathy may not be at all directed towards the welfare of others unlike sympathy. So do act of cruelty requires an empathic capacity to know the feeling, in this case the suffering of others in order to derive pleasure.

Empathy is different from emotional contagion in which a person feels the same emotional state than another without keeping the distance between oneself and others as it is observed in empathy. The laughter is an example of emotional contagion: a feeling of gaiety is felt by both individuals.

A person has a great degree of empathy with those around her by simple attitudes, for example, knowing how to respect the differences of views and also the differences in ways of being and acting. There are always people who differ (talk little and thus we tend to not like the tyrannical rulers who talk a lot). Now it is vital to recognize that these differences are unintentional and are not intended to offend.

In my view, a person with great empathy has the managerial skills required today, as the led have increasing intellectual level. Thus, the leader command-and-control does not seem the most appropriate.

Empathy perhaps originated in the need of human parents to take care of their young who, for a considerable time, cannot communicate except with smiles and crying. Every parent will, however, not understand every child. Therefore, projecting this to an adult situation, we cannot understand what we have not experienced, eg, I cannot explain the colour green to a colourblind person. Empathy by one person will vary from case to case, depending on the amount of 'resonance' between the experiences of the empathizer and the subject.

Therefore, it is problematic to extrapolate from the experiences of a few case studies. Given the ill use of empathy to assess reactions by the potential victims of bullies, terrorists and other vile organisms, it sometimes happens that the subject is wrongly assessed and the bully is routed.

Therefore, the same person might follow in order to lead in one situation and ignore the law in another situation, this really cannot be generalized with any degree of accuracy, since it does not depend on one person or eve two persons..

Here's what available in ResearchGate;

https://www.researchgate.net/publicliterature.PublicLiterature.search.html?type=keyword&search-keyword=empathy+preventing+egocentric+prediction&search-abstract=&search=Search

Best regards,

Debra

Dear Margherita,

Empathy, which as I understand it, is to take the place of the other, operates about our beliefs. Except for some people in our intimate surroundings, the other trying to 'get on our side', they always do in terms of personal benefit. This is very similar to what happened with the orators of ancient Greece, who tried to persuade their interlocutors into believing they 'felt' or 'suffering' the same as them; something that have inherited our politicians.

But, without doubt, in the field where it is evidence the biased use of empathy is in commerce, the publicity, and marketing, where 'putting yourself in the other's place' does not carry other purpose than obtain a fake ID with the customer, to make him believe that he who offers a product or service, knows perfectly what he needs.

I do not think that expressing empathy can influence an egocentric prediction. An egocentric person is all about themselves no matter what. An egoistic person won't bulge irrespective of how empathetic you were towards them.

Common wisdom suggests that managerial empathy (i.e., the mental process of taking a consumer perspective) helps executives separate their personal consumption preferences from those of consumers, thereby preventing egocentric preference predictions.

The results of a study, however, find differently --- exactly the opposite.

http://journals.ama.org/doi/abs/10.1509/jmr.13.0296

Might morality and empathy not go hand in hand. And if morality is a learnt behaviour might that not too be the case for empathy?

RG Fellow Mohammed Nadeem answers

Hi, Ting:

Is empathy a trap? Is putting ourselves in someone else's shoes is good? What happens when it becomes the default mode of relating to others! Does too much empathy can blind us to your own needs?

In a recent study (Stern & Divecha, 2015) argued that highly empathic people are good at spotting the emotions of others— but not necessarily interpreting them correctly. They might spin an inaccurate narrative about why someone else is having a particular feeling, or they may get stuck in feelings arising from within. It can be helpful then to pause, put your interpretation on hold, and explicitly check in by observing, “Wow, that sounds really important. Tell me more of the story.”

If others question why you are acting differently, talk openly about the changes. “Sometimes I get so caught up in your feelings, I forget about my own. I’m trying to get better at balancing that.” Don’t worry about hurting someone else’s feelings. If the person has empathy for you, the conversation can lead to a closer connection. One way to ensure you are taking care of someone you love while keeping track of your own feelings is to convert excess empathy to compassion. When a friend is distraught, instead of assuming the feeling of distress yourself, take a breath and a step back and say, “That sounds so awful. Is there something I can do for you?”

E m o tio n a l in te llig e n c e always requires being empathic with yourself. And that paradoxically allows you to be even more present for those you love. Take a cue from a temple, Sanjusangen-do, in Kyoto. There, a thousand boddhisattvas of compassion are guarded by 28 fierce deities. The ancients knew that empathy, compassion, and loving kindness need special protections!

Ref:

Stern, R., & Divecha, D. (2015). THE EMPATHY TRAP. Psychology Today, 48(3), 31-34.

Hope this helps!

Nadeem

That's a beautiful question and a complicated one as well :-)

I think it is important in every sector no matter what, the issue is how do we use or abuse this empathy. For a service oriented company empathy is used to make early and proper moves to satisfy customers and get business done. For a business negotiation it is used to get the benefit more on our end. From a administrative purpose it is used to gain better control and administration. So, I personally feel empathy has got to do with how it is applicable based on when, where and why?

Compassion, love, care….EMPATHY are truly beautiful gifts that you have, but your empathy as entrapment in the psychopaths web, or with any other EXPLOITER, --- is dangerous. Save your empathy for those who would appreciate it and respect it. Save your empathy for those who NEED it.

Remember that the psychopath or any other exploitative individual is NOT thinking about how YOU are feeling.

Relationships that have a healthy balance, equally have as much EMPATHY.

https://theabilitytolove.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/psychopaths-the-empathy-trap-its-about-what-they-think-not-what-they-feel/

I had asked for feedback once in a class and got a response, "turn empathy into knowledge and understanding." It sent a signal to me that sometimes students needs us to not only empathise with their situatiosn but also to use it as a learning experience and teach them how to grow out of it thru knowledge and understanding.

Yes, to a certain extent it can. Being aware of how it feels to be in someone else's shoe can improve understanding and situations.

 The capacity differs person to person to place oneself in another's shoes.

Dear all

@Fadel

I agree with your answer Djamel.

Best regards

Fateh

People with a sense of humor tend to be less egocentric and more realistic in their view of the world and more humble in moments of success and less defeated in times of travail.

--- Bob Newhart

You are quite right dear Subhash. The vision of the people in an unbelieving world has changed a lot and thanks to their subtlety

I think that empathy creates important ties bewtess sets of people. Moreover, it ties and decreases the space to selfishness - which is a way of thinking only in their own interests.

Leaders who are kind of insecure or egocentric, they basically sabotage themselves.

--- John C. Maxwell

This is our reality! Read it!

http://quotespictures.net/19173/it-seems-pretty-egocentric-while-we-still-have-malaria-and-tb-bill-gates

Egotist, noun. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than me.

--- Ambrose Bierce

The empathy is for me a shape of supreme intelligence of the fact that it stops as well the knowledge of other one so much from the point of view of the reason and of the sensibility or of the emotion

Sometimes No. Sometimes empathy can be self-vindicating, as when one despot admires another. Does not help a person yet to be broken or humbled.

Deares my colleague, Prof. Irina,

I am with thinking of Shian-Loong Bernard Lew. Bashkim