People think empathy is about a warm, fuzzy feeling they get when they help someone. But it’s not. Empathy is about getting inside someone’s head, seeing the world from their perspective and understanding what they need.
Not a psychologist, but I’ve heard this distinction described as “cognitive empathy” vs “affective empathy”.
Empathy can be separated into two major facets. Cognitive empathy refers to the ability to recognize and understand another’s mental state (part of theory of mind (ToM) or mentalising) while affective empathy is the ability to share the feelings of others, without any direct emotional stimulation to oneself
I’m not aware of surveys being done, but I strongly suspect EAs have average to above-average affective empathy, and unusually high levels of cognitive empathy.
I hadn’t looked at it that way, but it makes so much sense.
But I would still say (as you might too) that EA’s tend to be more affectively empathetic than average. We do care.
There is this misrepresentation of EA’s as if it’s some kind of game for us, like Monopoly, but that is absolutely not representative of the EA’s I’ve interacted with.
Not a psychologist, but I’ve heard this distinction described as “cognitive empathy” vs “affective empathy”.
Cognitive and Affective Empathy in Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis—PMC (nih.gov)
I’m not aware of surveys being done, but I strongly suspect EAs have average to above-average affective empathy, and unusually high levels of cognitive empathy.
Semi-related: There’s this great video from Dr K about how smart kids develop a reliance on cognitive empathy, and that reminds me of a lot of EAs.
What a great build! Thank you for this!
I hadn’t looked at it that way, but it makes so much sense.
But I would still say (as you might too) that EA’s tend to be more affectively empathetic than average. We do care.
There is this misrepresentation of EA’s as if it’s some kind of game for us, like Monopoly, but that is absolutely not representative of the EA’s I’ve interacted with.