How Humans Simulate Other’s Emotion

Jeremy Holton

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May 17

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1–2 minutes

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“Empathy is seen as the natural capacity to share, understand, and respond with care to the affective states of others”

“The mirror neurons are specialized neurons that “mirror” the actions and behaviors of others and they play a crucial role in the realms of cognition, language, and empathy.”

“Fictional narrative experience may have an important and profound impact on how people feel and behave in their daily lives. For instance, it has been suggested that fictional narratives provide personal insights, and therefore are important for people in order to learn about themselves”

“Finally, the relationship between human empathic concern and empathy for animals was stronger in participants who had pets. These findings provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying empathic behavior and suggest that empathy for humans and animals can be influenced by different factors.”

“Empathy is a crucial human ability, because of its importance to prosocial behavior, and for moral development. A deficit in empathic abilities, especially affective empathy, is thought to play an important role in psychopathic personality.”

Contrary to popular opinion, psychopaths have above average empathic ability. This is what allows them to mirror and imitate other’s emotion to gain trust. There are numerous case studies of this with famous serial killers who have had the ability to peer into other’s minds and sense what they are feeling. So what is it that causes them to be removed from the ability to feel pity?