A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Flikr Images We find that people imitate not only the particulars of positive actions, but also the spirit underlying them. This implies that kindness itself is contagious, and that it can cascade across people, taking on new forms along the way. We still don’t fully understand the psychological forces that power kindness contagion. [...]
Flikr Images There is a persistent stereotype that people with autism are individuals who lack empathy and cannot understand emotion. It’s true that many people with autism don’t show emotion in ways that people without the condition would recognise1. But the notion that people with autism generally lack empathy and cannot recognize feelings [...]
The prairie vole is capable of consoling behaviour that previously has only been known in humans and a few higher animals, such as chimpanzees. Photo: PA A new study has found that prairie voles will console other voles who are feeling stressed - which researchers have described as evidence of empathy. A study [...]
Photo: Oliver Rossi/Corbis, Stock Image When the animals are confronted with a human displaying strong feelings, they themselves produce a similar emotional response, the researchers found. The discovery could cast light on how dogs' pack behaviour has been translated into the modern world. Biomedical scientist Dr Karine Silva, of the University of Porto, [...]
Stock Photo Scientists studying animal behaviour believe they have growing evidence that species ranging from mice to primates are governed by moral codes of conduct in the same way as humans. Until recently, humans were thought to be the only species to experience complex emotions and have a sense of morality. But Prof [...]
Big hug. (Reuters/Miguel Vidal) Empathy is hot in business wisdom these days: Forbes says it’s invaluable, Apple’s training manual offers empathy exercises, and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson calls caring “key.” “Corporate empathy is not an oxymoron,” concluded an article in the Harvard Business Review on January 8. “It is a hard skill that should be required from [...]
Stress is the reason why we find it hard to empathise with someone we do not know, researchers suggest. In separate tests in mice and people, empathy towards strangers increased when stress hormones were blocked by a drug. Playing a fun video game with a stranger was found to have a similar effect to the drug. [...]
Since I’ve become a mother I have received all kinds of advice about what my daughters should learn in order to be successful. Computer programming. English. Chess. Ballet. Chinese. Math. Team sports. Music. Martial arts. I’m pregnant with my third daughter; I’m already in my seventh month, with a visible belly. Every day, when I [...]
Do you jump to help the less fortunate, cry during sad movie scenes or tweet and post the latest topics and photos that excite or move you? If yes, you may be among the 20 percent of our population that is genetically predisposed to empathy. - Stony Brook Univ. via Empathy May Be Genetic.
This is an edited extract of a blog post by Polly Chester. Read the full piece here. I’ve learned that knowledge of mental health practice can give us a dangerous and false sense of galvanization against what we advocate for. The conversation I had with the previously unknown general practitioner who recently assessed me said [...]
