Paul Ekman, (ChatGPT)
a renowned psychologist known for his work on emotions and facial expressions, defines empathy as comprising three distinct components:
Cognitive Empathy: The ability to understand another person’s perspective or mental state. This is often described as "perspective-taking"—knowing what someone else is thinking or feeling.
Emotional Empathy (also called affective empathy): The capacity to emotionally resonate with another person's feelings—to actually feel what they are feeling. This goes beyond understanding and involves a shared emotional experience.
Compassionate Empathy (sometimes called empathic concern): This is empathy that moves you to take action. It involves both understanding and feeling, combined with the motivation to help or support the other person.
Ekman emphasizes that true empathy involves all three elements—understanding, feeling, and caring—and that people can vary in their capacity for each.
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Gemini - Paul Ekman, a prominent psychologist and researcher in the study of emotions, defines empathy as a multifaceted ability that involves understanding and, in some cases, sharing the feelings of others. He often distinguishes between different types of empathy and discusses it in relation to compassion.
Ekman describes empathy as having primarily two components:
Cognitive Empathy: This is the ability to understand another person's perspective or mental state. It's about knowing how they are feeling or what they might be thinking. Ekman refers to this as "appreciating how others are feeling, but I don't feel it." He also describes it as the ability to "identify and understand other people's emotions." (Sources: cultureofempathy.com, maitenpanella.com, greatergood.berkeley.edu)
Affective Empathy (or Emotional Empathy/Emotional Resonance): This involves feeling what another person is feeling, essentially sharing their emotional experience. Ekman states, "I can and do feel in my body what others are feeling." He further breaks down emotional resonance into:
Identical Resonance: Experiencing the same emotion as the other person. He explains, "Identical Resonance is when you realize that someone is in pain and you actually physically experience that same feeling yourself." (Sources: cultureofempathy.com, paulekman.com, greatergood.berkeley.edu)
Reactive Resonance: Having an emotional response to another's suffering, but not necessarily feeling the exact same emotion. For example, feeling concern or sadness in response to someone else's pain. (Source: paulekman.com)
Ekman sometimes includes a third component, often discussed in the context of leading to action:
Compassionate Empathy (or Empathic Concern): This goes beyond understanding and sharing feelings to being moved to help. It involves not only recognizing and feeling another's emotions but also having the desire to alleviate their suffering. (Sources: maitenpanella.com, dukece.com)
Ekman emphasizes that empathy, particularly cognitive empathy, does not automatically lead to compassion or pro-social behavior. As he points out, a "torturer needs emotion recognition: to know how you feel doesn't imply whether I'm going to try to relieve your suffering or inflict it, or just have no concern."
Specific Quotes from Paul Ekman on Empathy:
Regarding the types of empathy:
"There are two kinds of empathy. - Cognitive. I appreciate how others are feeling, but I don't feel it. - Affective. I can and do feel in my body what others are feeling." (Source: cultureofempathy.com)
On Emotional Resonance, referring to Bill Clinton:
"Emotional Resonance is what Bill Clinton does: 'I feel your pain.'" (Source: greatergood.berkeley.edu)
Distinguishing types of resonance:
"I distinguish between two types of resonance: Identical Resonance is when you realize that someone is in pain and you actually physically experience that same feeling yourself. But when you say, “Oh, you poor baby! What can I do to help you?”—that's Reactive Resonance." (Source: greatergood.berkeley.edu, paulekman.com)
On the ambiguity of the term empathy:
"Empathy is such an ambiguous term. It depends on what you mean by it. If you mean 'to feel what the other person feels,' I don't think empathy is a prerequisite for any type of compassion." (Source: dailygood.org)
On emotion recognition as a part of empathy:
"Emotion Recognition is the easiest—the sine qua non. It's knowing how another person is feeling." (Source: greatergood.berkeley.edu)
Sources:
cultureofempathy.com (Paul Ekman - Culture of Empathy Builder)
maitenpanella.com (3 types of empathy for a better life (and business))
paulekman.com (Cultivating Empathy and Compassion - Paul Ekman Group)
greatergood.berkeley.edu (Empathy Definition | What Is Empathy - Greater Good Science Center; Paul Ekman's Taxonomy of Compassion - Greater Good Science Center)
dukece.com (The empathy problem - Duke Corporate Education)
dailygood.org (How to Cultivate Global Compassion, by Greater Good Science Center)