Empathy is the ability to be sensitive to other people’s positive and negative emotions.
Empathy is a powerful emotion, improving people’s worst days and encouraging cooperation within diverse communities. But some people aren’t very good at it.
“If all you ever saw was people running away or suppressing their feelings that will seem like a very sensible thing to do,” said Emiliana Simon-Thomas, science director of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, to the Wall Street Journal this week. “But if you saw people respond in a generous and responsive way to other people that will seem like the thing to do.”
Compiled by Kelsey Dallas,
