Assessing Empathy

People use the word empathy constantly, yet agreeing on what it means is hard. Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience have located brain networks linked to empathic responses, but that raises a basic question: what do we really mean when we call someone empathic or say they lack it? The book also asks how empathy differs from sympathy and pity, and whether society faces the "empathy deficit" some commentators have warned about.

Elizabeth Segal and her collaborators draw on years of research to offer a thorough definition of empathy that connects neuroscientific findings with the practice of human services. The opening section explains current thinking on empathy in neurological, biological, and behavioral terms, then argues that empathy matters both for individuals and for society as a whole. The authors next separate interpersonal empathy from social empathy and consider how the two can overlap or function independently.

The final section reviews the shortcomings of existing empathy measures and presents three validated tools: the Empathy Assessment Index, the Social Empathy Index, and the Interpersonal and Social Empathy Index.