EmpathyTo know how others feel and think

Stanford prison experiment The dark side of human nature

Don’t realize you are hurting peopleHave no idea of others’ feelingIgnore what others are thinking

RelationshipCareerSOCIAL LIFE

Relationship

Study

Friendship

Love FriendshipFriendship

Study

Safety Relationship

Career

SOCIAL LIFEStudy

Friendship

Love

Friendship

Friendship

Study

Safety

Safety

A devil

‘Put yourself in other’s shoes’

Empathy to share emotions as well as to understand other’s thoughts

Cognitive EmpathyEmotional Empathy

Bernhardt and Singer (2012)

Theory of Mind (Cognitive Empathy) Do you know what I am thinking?

Emotional Empathy Do you know I am sad, or can you feel my pain?

What affect empathy

• Empathy grows with age• Reading novels can make yourself more

empathic • Imitation of people’s behavior can make us

understand others more • Doing things together.

– e.g dancing, singing

Question: do you feel my pain?

Xu, X., Zuo, X., Wang, X., Han, S. (2009)

We are the brain; The brain is us.

Neuroscience Psychology

Theory/Philosophy

What’s in the brain?

Mirror-Neuron System

Seeing is doing!

Neural Network for Empathy

Bernhardt and Singer (2012)

Answer: Do you feel my pain?

Xu, X., Zuo, X., Wang, X., Han, S. (2009)

Xu, X., Zuo, X., Wang, X., Han, S. (2009)

Lets improve empathy

Read stories

ReferenceXu, X., Zuo, X., Wang, X., & Han, S. (2009). Do you feel my pain? Racial group membership modulates empathic neural responses. The Journal of Neuroscience, 29(26), 8525-8529.Bernhardt, B. C., & Singer, T. (2012). The neural basis of empathy. Annual review of neuroscience, 35, 1-23.Singer, T., & Lamm, C. (2009). The social neuroscience of empathy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156(1), 81-96.Iacoboni, M. (2009). Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annual review of psychology, 60, 653-670.

Thank you