Antianxiety medications can be enormously helpful to people bedeviled by severe anxiety — no doubt about that. But by tamping down anxious feelings, could it be that these so-called “anxiolytic” drugs are blunting our empathy and rend…

Rats given midazolam, an anti-anxiety medication, were less likely to free trapped companions because the drug lessened their empathy, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists.The research, published in the journal Frontiers in…

Empathy may be one of the most important social skills we learn as humans.  Without it, not only do we fail to understand how our actions affect others, but we also lack the imagination and creativity needed to design tools and communicate our ide…

Here’s how to tell if you’re an empathetic listener and how your empathy skills affect your daily life and relationships. An empathetic person places the needs of people—even animals—over his or her own. “Empathic people are ofte…

Students participating in service-learning classes experience many benefits, including cognitive development, personal growth, and civic engagement. Student development of empathy is an understudied area, especially with respect to how students develop…

Links among neuroticism, inconsistent discipline, and empathy were assessed in a longitudinal study of adolescents. Mothers’, but not fathers’, inconsistent discipline predicted decreases in empathy 2 years later, but only for adolescents w…

Too often children’s playrooms reinforce gender stereotypes that put boys at risk of failing to gain skills critical for success in life and work. The most important of these? Empathy.Meg Bear, Group Vice President of Oracle’s Social Cloud,…

Various studies show that the more empathy a child displays, the less likely they are to engage in bullying, online and in real life. Empathic children and adolescents are more likely to engage in positive social behaviors, like sharing or helping othe…