Suggestions from Susan Kuczmarski, adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and author of “Becoming a Happy Family” and Emiliana Simon-Thomas, science director of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.
Our ability to express empathy is partly genetic. But most of our ability to correctly read and respond to other’s emotions comes from childhood and what we learned from parents, our families and others. “If all you ever saw was people running away or suppressing their feelings that will seem like a very sensible thing to do,” says Emiliana Simon-Thomas, science director of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. “But if you saw people respond in a generous and responsive way to other people that will seem like the thing to do.’
Elizabeth Bernstein
