Reference: Teding van Berkhout, E., & Malouff, J. M. (2016). The efficacy of empathy training: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 32–41. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000093 Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. Psychologist Carl Rogers considered empathy essential for psychotherapists and everyone’s healthy relationships. How do people become empathetic? Can training increase empathy? Researchers debate. Does empathy mean understanding someone else’s perspective and therefore is a cognitive function? Or is empathy primarily feeling other people’s feelings, thus a function of emotions? Or, both? Researchers analyzed 19 empathy intervention studies training 1000+ children, university students, adults, and health professionals. They defined empathy as understanding, feeling, and appropriately commenting on another’s feelings. Training included modeling, role-playing situations of empathy, empathy games, feedback, and lecture-based interventions. Results? All empathy interventions (cognitive and emotional as well as behavioral training) were effective in increasing participants’ empathy as measured by understanding, commenting accurately on, and feeling the emotions of others. Let’s teach young children and everyone empathy and understanding of others who are different from us. We, humans, vary remarkably from gender identity to ethnicity to political party. Appreciate and value everyone’s uniqueness and contributions. With empathy, let’s bring humanity together in peace, understanding, and happiness.

Written by Vanessa Melendez, B.S.