The 4 types of empathy (and their characteristics)

Empathy is surely one of the most popular concepts in science today. Most people use it as one more word within their linguistic heritage, to define the way in which others (or themselves) tend to get emotionally involved in their relationships.

However, empathy is a very complex phenomenon, with deep roots that go deep into the phylogenetic history of the human being. It is very true that, without it, we would not have reached the degree of social development (and cooperation) that has allowed us to get here.

In the following pages we will delve into this phenomenon, unraveling what are the types of empathy that science has been able to classify and the way in which each of them expresses itself.

• Related article: "Theory of Mind: what is it and what does it tell us about ourselves?"

What is empathy?

Empathy plays a central role in human behavior, and particularly in terms of its social correlates. Any close bond between two people is subject to the influence of emotion, which allows to maintain the foundations on which it is built are intact, despite all the inclemency of the conflict relational. In a simple way, it could be said that through empathy we transcend the limits of the skin and enter the experience of the other.

Science has shown that, already during the first months of life, newborns can show it to the pain of others. Or that they even react empathetically to hearing other children's crying. However, it is a skill that tends to be refined over the years, as we bond and share our relevant experiences. It is, therefore, a result of learning and relational exchange, although some genetic factor may also contribute.

In general, empathy could be defined as the ability to reconstruct within ourselves the "mental states" of others, both in its cognitive and purely emotional components. In this way, it would be possible for us to take an accurate picture of what our interlocutor is feeling, mobilizing the will to help him or to predict his behavior and / or his motivation. And it is that altruism between two human beings cannot be understood by eliminating empathy from the equation.

Types of empathy

Although it could be contradictory in some way, the latest research on the issue shows that empathy is also a relevant element to understand antisocial behavior, and not only from the point of view of an alleged absence of it. And is that some of the components of this ability may be devoid of the emotional nuance, participating in processes such as the simple identification of affections or intentions in the other, but without no degree of self-recognition in them (so it is often used as a basis for manipulation or blackmail) .ç

And it is that empathy implies, at least, three different processes: emotional recognition, emotional integration and implementation of congruent behaviors. They all follow one another in a linear way, in such a way that the first is necessary for the appearance of the second, and the second is necessary for that of the third. In recent years, the inclusion of a fourth step is being considered: the control of one's own emotional reactions, which pursues the end of prevent this phenomenon from overflowing domestic resources and ultimately resulting in damage.

Each of these phases has received its own label, becoming related but independent realities to some degree. With this article we intend to explore them and detail what they consist of, thus tracing the characteristics of what is popularly has come to be called "types of empathy" (although remembering that in reality they are all part of the same process cognitive-affective).

1. Cognitive empathy

Cognitive empathy is the name that has been assigned by consensus to the first part of the process: the identification of the mental state of our interlocutor. From the verbal content (testimonies, confessions, etc.) and non-verbal content (facial gestures, for example) that the other emits During the interaction, deep and very primitive structures are activated in our brain that have the objective of encoding the information of a social type, recognizing in the same act (through inferences) what is passing through the mind of the person who is in front of us.

At this point in the process, elementary for the rest to unfold, a general vision of what the other thinks and feels is articulated; but without a personal implication yet in all of it. That is why it has very often been a phenomenon equated with the theory of mind, a basic milestone by which it is acquired the ability to recognize the other as a subject with their own internal experiences and motivations, independent of the own. With this, the differentiation of oneself with respect to others begins, which happens in the first years of life as a key part of neurological maturation.

The informative analysis of cognitive empathy focuses on the logical / rational elements, extracting from the equation any affective correlate that (logically) could be predicted in the successive. Most people immediately jump into the weighing of other nuances, including the way in which all these intellectual "impressions" resonate in his own emotional life, but in other cases the process ends here. This last assumption is the one that can be found among psychopaths, to cite a well-known example.

Cognitive empathy has many benefits, for example in the field of business negotiations. This is so because it would allow the identification of needs / expectations without the emotional components of the decision, which can be useful in the context that arises. However, the latter is very important for everyday life; as there is much evidence that without the contribution of affect, problems tend to be solved in a more imprecise and inefficient way.

2. Emotional empathy

Emotional empathy requires that we first be able to cognitively "grasp" the experience of others. Once this is achieved, one advances to a second level of elaboration, in which the emotional dimensions stand as a beacon in the vast ocean of inner lives. Generally speaking, this form of empathy endows us with the ability to be sensitive to what others feel, essential to respond adequately to what they demand in the private sphere.

It is a way of sharing the inner world vicariously. The observer of the affect would synchronize with the intimate experience of the one being observed, and would experience a series of internal states very similar (although never identical) to the latter. At a brain level, it has been proven that supramarginal gyrus law has a key role in empathy and even compassion; a region that lies at the intersection of the temporal, frontal, and parietal lobes.

This structure is necessary for contribute to the distinction between the affects that are their own and those of othersIn such a way that if it suffers any damage, a dramatic decline in this capacity is manifested. On the other hand, it is essential to bear in mind that constructive empathy requires adequate ability to regulate what we feel, something that connects directly with the activity of the cortex prefrontal. Without proper management of all this, we may end up overwhelmed by the pain of those around us.

And it is that emotional empathy is not equivalent to "emotional contagion", but it would become the ability to immerse ourselves in the world of the other without ending up inexorably swallowed by it.

• You may be interested: "Are we rational or emotional beings?"

3. Sympathy or empathic concern

The word "sympathy" comes from the Greek, and could be translated as the act of "feeling the same as the other". Is about a concern for the experience of others, which arises from being able to identify it and feel it on one's own skin, and that would often end up leading to helpful (prosocial) behaviors. It is, therefore, a step further within the empathic process, from which everything is would manifest on the social stage through some deliberate act of altruism (and even delivery).

People who reach this point in the empathic process feel motivated to action; since they contribute their effort to help unconditionally, spontaneously and disinterestedly. However, it should be noted that sometimes the reinforcement for these acts is of a social nature (respect for the environment or the relief of a guilt, for example), so they would not be altruistic, but rather prosocial (when carried out with the aim of obtaining a reward).

Despite this, this dimension of empathy represents the culmination of a long process of cognitive-emotional analysis, transforming the intention in acts directed to the relief of the pain of others. It is also the nuance that gives empathy an evident adaptive value, since it stimulates the sense of collaboration and compassion for those in one's own group (to a greater extent than for people outside he).

4. Ecpathy

Ecpathy is perhaps the most recent scientific contribution to the field of empathy and compassion, although it has often been the victim of misinterpretations that do not at all conform to the reality. Through it, people learn to recognize which of the emotions they feel at a given moment do not really belong to themRather, they come from an external source that has "transferred" them.

With its use, confusion would be stopped, and these contents would be addressed in a different way than if they were own, with which the own experience would not be lost in the internal convulsion of who is exposed to the pain of others.

It is, therefore, a mechanism through which it is feasible to avoid the "excesses" of empathy, the main risk of which lies in emotional contagion and manipulation. Thus, it can be said that it prevents the inner life of the other from dragging us in such a way that it blocks the ability to act, but still preserving the possibility of recognizing and feeling everything that happens. It supposes the possibility of feeling, but without falling into a harmful identification.

Bibliographic references:

• Cuff, B.M., Brown, S., Taylor, L. and Howat, D. (2016). Empathy, a Review of the Concept. Emotion Review, 8 (2), 144-153
• Vignemont, F. and Singer, T. (2006). The empathic brain: How, when and why? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10 (10), 435-441