A neuroscientist explains: the need for ‘empathetic citizens’ – podcast on Guardian website February 2017 – with Dr Daniel Glaser and Professor Francesca Happé (King’s College, London).
This is a very interesting introduction to the phenomenon of empathy and how empathy differs from sympathy or Theory of Mind. The presenters talk about several aspects: for example, how children can show emotional concern, bringing their teddy to comfort another child, but without having an ability to put themselves in the other’s position sufficiently to recognise what the other person might actually need, their own toy or teddy for example. In other words, children can show emotional concern (‘sympathy’) without being able to empathise fully to put themselves in the other’s shoes. On the other hand some fraudsters are very good at putting themselves in the shoes of others, exploiting this knowledge to manipulate people and make themselves convincing, without showing any sympathy for their victims.
In a way, my website on Stories of Experience, Illness and Recovery is about empathy, since it presents stories that give us the chance to see what others might feel in traumatic or stressful or just different situations.