The emotional side of empathy is known to everyone. It is the feeling of being able to feel what others feel. When we see someone suffering or going through a difficult time, we can instantly imagine their inner experience, based on our familiarity with pain or painful experiences.
Our feelings are resonating. Those who have a high level of emotional empathy can establish strong bonds with others and have good chemistry in social relationships. This facilitates negotiations, teamwork and virtually all shared work. In this Psychology-Online article, we will see more precisely What is emotional empathy, its characteristics and some examples.
What is emotional empathy
In his studies of emotional intelligence, he distinguishes between cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. Unlike the first, emotional empathy is a visceral emotion and it is tested through the body. Specifically, the meaning of emotional empathy refers to a faculty rooted in the distant past of evolution. We share this neural circuit with other mammals that, like us, must be very attentive to the signals of suffering sent by their little ones.
Emotional empathy operates in the oldest part of our brain, called the ascending system. most of the neural networks used to sense directly what others feel are found under the cortex, in areas of the brain that “think fast” but not deeply. These circuits they connect us with those around us, causing in our body the same emotional states that we perceive in others.
The relationship that is created thanks to emotional empathy is deeper and is able to truly understand and feel the sensations of other people within themselves. It has been scientifically proven that during this phase of empathy, there is a real reflection of the neural system that activates in our brain circuits the same emotions as the person in front of us.
Therefore, emotional empathy goes one step further than cognitive empathy, since It allows us to understand and even feel the moods of others on our skin., but not necessarily feel compassion for them. In this article, we tell you.
Characteristics of emotional empathy
Now that we have seen what emotional empathy is, it is important to know what aspects are typical of this affective reaction. Therefore, below, we will see the characteristics of emotional empathy:
- emotional empathy It is activated more easily when the other looks like us or when, at least, we perceive an affinity that unites us. Instinctively, we are more likely to help and support our family members, the residents of our neighborhood, the people who frequent our own place of worship or whose children play on the same soccer team as ours.
- Empathy, such as It is practiced in most people, is often alive, healthy and in top shape when something happens to a person with whom you have a lot in common. On the contrary, emotional empathy can be weak or completely absent when the other is very different from you. Discover the .
- Emotional empathy too must be maintained in balance with self-control so that we can handle excessive levels of emotional arousal that can confuse boundaries and make us feel distressed. If you are exposed to too much pain every day, as is often the case with oncologists, social workers, and prison guards, excessive emotional empathy can cause , states of, and . In the medical setting, this wasting condition is called compassion fatigue.
Examples of emotional empathy
It has to be said that Most people have the ability to feel emotional empathy.. Let’s look at some examples of emotional empathy to understand it better. Who among us has never seen someone cut themselves by a piece of glass? You will remember that when they did it, you personally experienced a bit of that unpleasant feeling, a physiological emotional resonance. You may imagine the sharp thread of the glass cutting the skin. Perhaps just reading these words has evoked a little of that feeling.
A real fact related to the empathic emotional response is that we may shudder watching another person suffer, but your experience is not identical to theirs. If that were the case, you would focus on his pain and probably not be able to help him. This sophisticated neurological system allows you to observe people in pain, but it makes you feel enough pain for you to consider helping them.
Besides, emotional empathy teaches us what we should avoid. If there were no internal representation of pain based on external observation, we would see what happens without learning anything from it. Rubbing a piece of glass on your skin would be the only way to know it’s not a good idea. Our species would be eternally surprised by the experience of cutting ourselves with glass.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Camuffo, S. (2014). L’empatia e la relazione empatica. Retrieved from: https://www.weplusnetwork.com/it_IT/l-empatia-e-la-relazione-empatica/
- Goleman, D. (2015). Piccolo manuale di emotive intelligence. Milan: Etas.
- Riess, H. (2020). Empathy effect. Le 7 chiavi delle neuroscienze to transform our way of loving, working and communicating. Trent: Erickson.