Empathy (Maibom) PDF

What is empathy? An overview on empathy studies and their relation to literature Theory of Literature 2024-2025  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○...

What is empathy? An overview on empathy studies and their relation to literature Theory of Literature 2024-2025  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ INTRODUCTION Empathy is an attitude towards others of taking them in, of being open to their emotions and thoughts, and of being interested in understanding them. Empathy is essentially about the other, but in a way that is closely entangled with the personal. What is confusing is the definition of empathy.  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○○○○○○ ○○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ OVERVIEW 1. The nature of empathy 2. Empathy as a way of understanding others 3. Empathy as feeling for and with others 4. Empathy and morality 5. Empathy and art appreciation 6. Empathy and mental disorders 7. The future of empathy studies  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○○○○○ ○○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ 1 3 1. WHAT IS EMPATHY? “A perception-action model of empathy specifically “We define empathy as an affective response that states that attended perception of the object’s stems from the apprehension or comprehension state automatically activates the subject’s of another’s emotional state or condition and representations of the state, situation, and object, is similar to what the other person is feeling or and that activation of these representations 2 would be expected to feel in a given situation.” automatically primes or generates the associated 4 (Eisenberg 2005, 75) autonomic and somatic responses, unless inhibited.” (Preston & de Waal 2002, 4) “[…] the three essential features of “Empathic concern refers to other- empathy: affective matching, other- oriented emotion elicited by and oriented perspective taking, and self- congruent with the perceived welfare of other differentiation.” (Coplan 2011, 6) a person in need.” (Batson 2014, 41)  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○○○○ ○○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ 1 3 WHAT IS EMPATHY? AFFECTIVE EMPATHY EMOTIONAL CONTAGION 2 PERSPECTIVE-TAKING or COGNITIVE EMPATHY SYMPATHY or EMPATHIC CONCERN 4  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○○○ ○○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ EMOTIONAL CONTAGION One person responds to another person’s emotion with a very similar one, almost automatically. Neuroscientific studies show that overlapping brain areas are activated when the person is feeling the emotion directly and when they feel it as a result of others feeling it (Bernhardt & Singer 2012). World War Z (Dir. M. Forster, USA, 2013) Cfr.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8ui9l0krZk  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○○ ○○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ AFFECTIVE EMPATHY Emotional contagion with robust self- other differentiation. It has as an object the other person’s affect and it is directed at the person, situation, or event that caused the target’s affect in the first place. It requires both emotion matching and imagining being in the other’s situation. FRIENDS S08E17 (NBC 1994-2004) Cfr.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMOVSV7b2QY  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○ ○○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ COGNITIVE EMPATHY or PERSPECTIVE TAKING The action of imagining being in another person’s situation and considering what the other person would think, feel or do. (Also called simulation in philosophy)  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○ ○○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ SYMPATHY or EMPATHIC CONCERN Sympathy is responsive to the overall caring for the welfare of the other person. It doesn’t require emotional consonance with what the other person is feeling. It encompasses a robustly other-directed set of emotions.  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ TO SUM UP… AFFECTIVE EMPATHY an emotion experienced by a person A that is caused by A experiencing or imagining person B’s feelings or situation; it has as its object B’s feelings about the situation. The emotion is the same or very similar. Partly for the other, partly for the self. I am sad that you are sad. EMOTIONAL CONTAGION an emotion experienced by a person A that is caused by perceiving affect in another person B. The emotion is the same or very similar. May be a transitory step towards empathy or sympathy. PERSPECTIVE TAKING/COGNITIVE EMPATHY the act of imagining being in someone else’s situation. A imagines that she is the subject of whatever experience B is having. SYMPATHY an emotion experienced by a person A for the wellbeing of another person B who is pain. It is only other-directed.  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ 2. UNDERSTANDING OTHERS Cognitive empathy refers to empathy that is directed towards understanding others. It involves mainly cognitive mental structures. Cognitive empathy is taken to cover what is also known as ‘theory of mind’ = the ability to understand other people in terms of In psychology, cognitive empathy is called perspective taking mental phenomena, by ascribing mental states to psychologists : perspective taking = philosophers : simulation them. It includes the knowledge that others’ Simulation is a way of understanding others through transposing oneself thoughts, desires, beliefs, into their situation intentions, and emotions may be different from one’s own. It does not require to shift one’s perspective.  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ HOW DOES COGNITIVE EMPATHY WORK? We assume that others have inner reactions to what happens in the environment that are largely similar to our own (analogy) We infer that similar types of mental states cause similar types of behaviors, and similar states of the environment cause similar mental states, but we are not aware that all this is based on inferences. SIMULATION: we use ourselves to understand others by a process of mental simulation (Heal 1986; Gordon 1986), by our ability to use our imagination to figure out what we might think or do in the other’s situation (to put oneself into somebody else’s shoes). We reset our egocentric map. Distinction between high-level (conscious) vs. low-level (unconscious) simulation  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ MIRROR NEURONS Neuroscientific evidence to simulation theory at its low level fMRI studies demonstrate activation in overlapping areas in the person who is doing something and the person who is observing (Rizzolatti et al. 1988; Gallese & Goldman 1998)  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○ ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ PERSPECTIVE TAKING Imagine-self perspective taking encourages people to imagine that they are in the other person’s situation and what that would mean to them: «try to imagine how you yourself would feel about what has happened to the person […] and how this experience would affect your life.» (Batson, Early, & Salvarini 1997, 753) Imagine-other perspective taking describes a process where a person uses her imagination to think about the other person’s feeling and her situation: «imagine how the person […] feels about what has happened and how it has affected his or her life.» (Batson, Early, & Salvarini 1997, 753) Ordinary perspective taking is somewhere in the middle.  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ Impact of PERSPECTIVE TAKING “Oh my human brothers, let me tell you how it happened. I am not your brother, you’ll retort, and I don’t want to know. And it certainly is true that this is a bleak story, but an edifying one too, a real morality play, I assure you. […] And also, this concerns you: you’ll see that this concerns you. Don’t think I am trying to convince you of anything; after all, your opinions are your own business. If after all these years I’ve made up my mind to write, it’s to set the record straight for myself, not for you. […] I can guess what you’re thinking: Now here’s a truly bad man, you’re saying to yourselves, an evil man, a nasty piece of work in every respect, who should be rotting in prison instead of wasting our time with the muddled philosophy of a barely half-repentant former Fascist. […] Once again, let us be clear: I am not trying to say I am not guilty of this or that. I am guilty, you’re not, fine. But you should be able to admit to yourselves that you might also have done what I did. With less zeal, perhaps, but perhaps also with less despair, in any case one way or another. I think I am allowed to conclude, as a fact established by modern history, that everyone, or nearly everyone, in a given set of circumstances, does what he is told to do; and, pardon me, but there’s not much chance that you’re the exception, any more than I was.” (Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones, «Toccata», 19-45, Kindle Edition)  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ 3. FEELING FOR AND WITH OTHERS Vicarious affect (or EMOTIONAL CONTAGION) is an affective reaction that is consonant with that of the other person, and it involves ideally the same type of emotion. It is an emotional reaction to the emotions of another It is affiliative, because it is not automatic for people we don’t like (Hess & Fischer 2014) Emotional mimicry may be the first step towards emotional contagion.  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○ ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ 3. FEELING FOR AND WITH OTHERS EMPATHIC AFFECT involves a recognition that the affect felt is for another. You feel with somebody. Empathy may always be a feeling for in addition to be a feeling with another person. We can empathize by witnessing another’s emotion, by imagining being in that person’s situation or by knowing about the other’s feelings or situation (Maibom 2007). Empathy is a process and may arise from emotional contagion or emotional mimicry.  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ 3. FEELING FOR AND WITH OTHERS OTHER CONCEPTS: Empathic concern refers to a range of emotions that are similar but do not usually match the actual affect of the target person (objective assessment of the other person’s situation). Personal distress has all the features of affective empathy except that is is thought to be self- directed because it causes a desire to get rid of one’s own distress more than that of the other. Sympathy is other-oriented because we are concerned with that person for her own sake.  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○ ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ 4. ETHICS AND MORALITY According to the Scottish sentimentalists, empathy (‘fellow feeling’) is foundational to our caring about others Hume: our tendency to empathize with others makes us care about what they do and moves our moral judgements Smith: we project ourselves into the other’s situation and we agree or disagree with their emotions The ability to empathize is a pre-condition for David Hume moral judgement Adam Smith (1711-1776) (1723-1790)  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○○○○○○ ○○○ AGAINST EMPATHY, IN DEFENSE OF EMPATHY Empathy plays a central role in morality Moral perception, moral judgement, moral motivation Some argue that empathy is not required for moral judgements (Maibom 2009, Prinz 2011, Bloom 2016) However, empathy may be necessary for moral development (Eisenberg 2005, Hoffman 2000) Empirical evidence supports the view of empathy as having positive interpersonal and prosocial effects that are commonly regarded as being morally good (Eisenberg & Miller 1987) ☞ Through empathy (or sympathy), we react to what happens to others as if it were happening to us. It then sets in motion the entire system of preoccupation with what others do and what happens to them, therefore our moral sense as well.  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○○○ ○○○ 5. AESTHETICS Experiencing Einfühlung («feeling oneself into») is central to appreciating artworks. Vischer: E. is an active involvement of the imagination with objects of art; it is through identification with art that we come to appreciate it Lipps: aesthetic experiences work thanks to our ability to immediately resonate internally with external objects (transportation in and fusion with the artwork) Robert Vischer Theodor Lipps (1847-1933) For Lipps, E. also extends to our understanding of (1851-1914) people  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○ ○○○ RESPONDING TO FICTION Can we have genuine emotional responses to fictional people? Emotional (and empathic) engagement with fictional characters is what draws us to fiction. Many believe that our reaction is not actually empathic Active involvement of the reader in the enjoyment of fiction; our emotional responses work to fill some of the many gaps in literature (Robinson 2005). Visual arts engage our bodily mimicry responses too. We can empathize with the artist because artworks are expressions of a human being. Artworks educate our emotions and make us exercise our Her (Dir. Spike Jonze, USA, 2013) empathic abilities (Nussbaum 1990, Oatley 2011)  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○○ CONCLUSIONS & FURTHER IDEAS Empathic abilities are not found in every individual: people with mental disorders or people with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) may suffer impairments in their empathic capacity Confusion among definitions of empathy and related concepts Two distinct but interrelated aspects: cognitive and affective Empathy must be seen as a process, rather than as a trait or state, and we must take a holistic approach to it Empirical studies (in social psychology and neuroscience) help to support the philosophy of empathy  Introduction What is empathy? Understanding others Feeling for/with others Ethics and morality Aesthetics Conclusions ○ References Batson, C.D. 2014. Empathy-induced altruism and morality: No necessary connection. In: H.L. Maibom (Ed.) Empathy and Morality. New York: Oxford University Press, 41–58. Batson, C.D., Early, S., & Salvarini, G. 1997. Perspective taking: Imagining how another feels versus imagining how you would feel. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 751–758. Bernhardt, B. & Singer, T. 2012. The neural bases of empathy. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 35, 1–23. Coplan, A. 2011. Understanding empathy: Its features and effects. In: A. Coplan & P. Goldie (Eds.) Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press, 3–18. Davis, M. 1983. Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 113–126. Eisenberg, N. 2005. The development of empathy-related responding. In: G. Carlo & C.P. Edwards (Eds.) Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Volume 51. Moral Motivation Through the Life Span. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 73–117. Eisenberg, N. & Miller, P.A. 1987. The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 91–119. Gallese, V. & Goldman, A. 1998. Mirror-neurons and the simulation theory of mind-reading. Trends in Cognitive Science, 2, 493–501. Gordon, R. 1986. Folk psychology as simulation. Mind and Language, 1, 158–171. Heal, J. 1986. Replication and functionalism. In: J. Butterfield (Ed.) Language, Mind and Logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 135–150. Hess, U. & Fischer, A. 2014. Emotional mimicry: Why and when we mimic emotions. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 8, 45–57. Hoffman, M. 2000. Empathy and Moral Development. New York: Cambridge University Press. Littell, J. 2007. The Kindly Ones. New York: Harper Collins. Maibom, H.L. 2007. The presence of others. Philosophical Studies, 132, 161–190. Maibom, H.L. 2009. Feeling for others: Empathy, sympathy, and morality. Inquiry, 52, 483–499. Nussbaum, M. 1990. Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature. New York: Oxford University Press. Oatley, K. 2011. Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction. Malden: Wiley Blackwell. Preston, S. & de Waal, F. 2002. Empathy: Its ultimate and proximal bases. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25, 1–72. Prinz, J. 2011. Is empathy necessary for morality? In: A. Coplan & P. Goldie (Eds.) Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press, Rizzolatti, G., Camarda, R., Fogassi, L., Gentilucci, M., Luppino, G., & Matelli, M. 1988. Functional organization of inferior area 6 in the macaque monkey. II. Area F5 and the control of distal movements. Experimental Brain Research, 71, 491–507. Robinson, J. 2005. Deeper than Reason: Emotion and its Role in Literature, Music, and Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.