empathy

Empathy, or being empathetic, is “the ability to comprehend another’s feelings and to re-experience them oneself” (Salovey and Mayer, 1990), while never being judgemental. A key construct in social and developmental psychology as well as in cognitive and social neuroscience, the ability to empathize is important for promoting positive behaviours toward others, and facilitating social interactions and relationships. Empathy is involved in the internalization of rules that can play a part in protecting others, and, it may be the mechanism that motivates the desire to help others, even at a cost to oneself. In addition, empathy plays an important role in becoming a socially competent person with meaningful social relationships (McDonald and Messinger, 2012). Consequently, empathy motivates altruistic behaviour and has the potential to enhance the process by which rights are realized, which is as important as an outcome (Jönsson and Hall, 2003).