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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Empathic Concern: What It Is and Why It's Important

Empathic Concern: What It Is and Why It's Important

Batson, C. Daniel

Hardcover

CognitionGeneral Psychology

ISBN10: 0197610927
ISBN13: 9780197610923
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Jul 11 2023
Pages: 280
Weight: 1.21
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.38 Depth: 9.33
Language: English
Empathy has received much attention in recent years, being touted by some as a cure for what ails our society but considered by others to be a source of trouble. One reason for the very different assessments is that empathy has been used to refer to different psychological phenomena. For some scholars and researchers, empathy refers to feeling as another feels. Others think of empathy as feeling for, not feeling as, another. When the other is in need, feeling for him or her has been called empathic concern.

This book provides an evidence-based review of developments in our understanding of empathic concern over the past five decades, clarifying what empathic concern is (and isn't), where it comes from, what its forms are, its motivational consequences, and its importance in interpersonal and intergroup relations. Rather than lauding empathic concern as a panacea or castigating it as a problem, the evidence supports a more nuanced view: Empathic concern has benefits but also liabilities, and its benefits can be realized only if we recognize and address its liabilities. The evidence-based review also points to needed next steps in research on the nature and function of empathic concern-and on its use in interventions to increase sensitive response to the needs of others near and far.

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