SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Simon Baron-Cohen defines empathy as the ability of a person to identify what someone else is thinking or feeling and to react with an appropriate emotion. He says people who do evil acts are showing a lack of empathy. This can be temporary, or part of a more permanent condition.
STEVE EMBER: Professor Baron-Cohen and his research team developed a way to measure individual differences in empathy. They found that most people have average levels of empathy, but some people have extremely low or high levels.
SIMON BARON-COHEN: “In my book I call this the empathy bell curve. And part of what I’m exploring in the book is what determines where an individual scores on this empathy bell curve. Why do some people score much lower or much higher than other people.”
STEVE EMBER: Empathy is linked to physical areas of the brain. Medical imaging technology has identified at least ten parts of the brain that are active when people empathize. And, these areas are less active in people with little or no empathy.
Why would someone lack empathy? Professor Baron-Cohen offers evidence suggesting that zero empathy can be the result of environmental, social and genetic conditions.
The question of empathy is a meaningful one in the field of psychology. Lack of empathy has an influence on borderline personality disorder, narcissism and psychopathy and the developmental disorder autism.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Professor Baron-Cohen says borderline personality disorder, narcissism and psychopathy are described as personality disorders. But he says psychiatric experts could instead define them as empathy disorders. This could open up new ways of studying and treating these disorders. Recognizing the importance of empathy could also change the way legal and psychiatric experts consider and treat people who commit acts of cruelty. But this recognition goes far beyond psychiatry. The writer says empathy is one of the most valuable resources in our world.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25