empathy

Empathyrefers to “the affective and cognitive ability to feel and understand what someoneelse is feeling” (Lippman et al., 2014a).Some violence prevention literature distinguishes types of empathy, with “cognitive empathy” referring to one’s ability to cognitively take another’s perspective and identify their state of mind, while “affective empathy” refers to the ability to share in another’s emotional state (Caravita, di Blasio, andSalmivalli, 2008). Across the literature reviewed, there is more evidence linking affective empathy with violence prevention outcomes in youth than cognitive empathy.