Tag: empathy

Virtual reality activates brain networks that increase your ability to identify with other people, according to new research published in eNeuro. The technology could become a tool in the treatment of violent offenders to empathize more with others. Understanding someone’s point of view is crucial for successful relationships. When this doesn’t come naturally, virtual reality

UCLA researchers have found that it is possible to assess a person’s ability to feel empathy by studying their brain activity while they are resting rather than while they are engaged in specific tasks. Traditionally, empathy is assessed through the use of questionnaires and psychological assessments. The findings of this study offer an alternative to

You’re flipping through the television channels when you hear the familiar beginning strains of a Sarah McLachlan song. You hastily click to the next channel, before the haunting images of homeless animals appear. Or you’re scrolling through the news one morning when a headline makes you pause—a mass shooting, perhaps, or a tsunami halfway across

Love can make us do crazy things. It often prompts us to behave in counterintuitive ways, like, for example, placing the wellbeing of our loved ones above our own. But why? Such altruism has perplexed and intrigued scientists for centuries. A new study out of UC Santa Barbara explores how an individual’s genetics and brain

Giving up a kidney to a stranger requires a certain sense of selflessness, what’s come to be known in social science as extraordinary altruism. University of Pennsylvania psychologist Kristin Brethel-Haurwitz wanted to understand the connection between this trait and empathy, specifically empathy for distress emotions. Using fMRI scans, Brethel-Haurwitz and colleagues from Georgetown University discovered