Is Empathy A Quality Or A Virtue? A Scientific Overview
Empathy is the faculty to resonate with the feelings of others. When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering.
- Matthieu Ricard
There are many similar questions which were discussed hundreds of years ago by philosophers and writers. Currently, they are investigated by everyone - psychologists, biochemists, sociologists and more. Every one of these professions have their own scientific views and terminology on the topic.
If science has identified neurons which are responsible for empathy, there's no reason to philosophize the topic any further, but it still seems like a hot topic between the various thinkers.
- Mirror neurons are the core of empathy
It has been a long time since mirror neurons have been discovered. A group of scientists from the University of Parma in Italy delved into examining the brain of a monkey, specifically once it was eating. They monitored it's brain activity and as expected, a part of the brain wes responsible for the eating and movement of the monkey. Surprisingly, the same part of the brain was active when the monkey witnessed a person eating food. It was later discovered that the monkey's brain consists 1/10 of mirror neurons, which naturally means that the human's brain has the same effect as well. Scientists think that mirror neurons are a feature of every being that lives in bigger groups, their function being the hastening of interactivity between them.
Fun fact: because of empathy, we mimic yawning from other people.
Firstly, mirror neurons are important for a growing infant, because it helps him imitate his parent's actions, meaning that this way he learns new habits from them. Secondly, because of empathy a person can only understand another person's actions only by witnessing them. For example, a doctor can understand a patient's pain better because of empathy, an artist can portray his feelings better and lifeguard can see if a person is drowning or swimming only by looking at him.
To sum it all up, empathy saves us people a lot of time when we need to understand another person's actions.
- Psychopaths and sadists are the only ones who don't have empathy
Psychopaths and sadists can't really understand the meaning of another human's actions. Their motives are distinguishably cynical, which is why they carry out horrible murders. But from another perspective, it's not their fault. Their actions are horrible because their mirror neurons are genetically disabled and they do not comprehend empathy.
- "Man's best friend is a dog"
This is a quote that's quite familiar and it may not be random at all. Our four-legged friends express empathy to us - they yawn with us, they understand our mood and they try to comfort us. Some years back scientists have discovered that this isn't only their attachment to us. It seems that dogs feel empathy towards a complete stranger as well.
Dogs can even understand the current situation only by observing humans. Imagine you're talking with your family at the dinner table about the food. The dog can decide which plate of food is the tastiest just by the reaction of you eating your food.
- The miracles of empathy
During an experiment, it was discovered that empathy had a role in people's body temperature. Every one of these people were fully healthy. Each of them were watching short videos, which showed other people's hands being soaked in cold or warm water. Interestingly, the body temperatures of the people watching the videos changed accordingly. The biggest change was when the hands were soaked in ice cold water, unlike warm water. The reason for this is that warm water is not associated with any threat, while cold water is certainly more uncomfortable.
This proves how empathy plays a role in feeling not only the same emotions, but experiencing the same physical feelings when witnessing other people's actions.
- Is empathy really that powerful?
If empathy is really that powerful, why isn't it dominating our daily lives? Are there some sort of limits for empathy? There might be.
This is what professor Jeffrey Mogil from the University of McGill sought answers to. Why and what blocks our empathy is what the professor asked. The answer is that we as humans tend to feel empathy towards the people we know and love. This is a natural mechanism of society, because when we meet a stranger, the feeling of empathy is shut down by feelings like stress.
Funnily enough, we are similar to rats in this comparison. They only save their tribesman, but leave other rats on their own. But once they get to know each other, they start saving other rats that are trapped in cages as well.
In conclusion, I would say that empathy is more of a quality than a virtue. We can refuse virtues, but we can't escape qualities that easy. Well, unless you're a psychopath.
Thank you for reading!