Social empathy is the ability to understand people by perceiving or experiencing their life situations and as a result gain insight into structural inequalities and disparities.
The Building Blocks of Social Empathy
Social empathy is built on interpersonal empathy, coupled with a deep contextual understanding of the situations of others and the ability to engage in macro perspective-taking.
Interpersonal empathy is the ability to understand what another person is feeling and thinking.
A lack of interpersonal empathy can lead to:
Expanding this to a larger context, a lack of social empathy can lead to:
Interpersonal empathy is the ability to understand what another person is feeling and thinking.
- It connects us as human beings
- It is critical for our survival – we must accurately perceive and interpret others
- It promotes healthy relationships
- And it can be the foundation for prosocial behavior and moral development
A lack of interpersonal empathy can lead to:
- Bullying
- Violent crime
- Abusive parenting
- Spousal battering
- Sexual offending
- Narcissism
Expanding this to a larger context, a lack of social empathy can lead to:
- Racism
- Prejudice
- Other forms of “us vs. them”
- Distrust
- In extreme cases destruction of other cultures
Research references can be found here.
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