Empathy (noun) is the understanding of the emotional state or thoughts of another person.
Empathy involves being curious about other people, active listening, self-awareness, emotional intelligence and openness.[2]
Some benefits of empathy skills are:[3]
1. Better understanding of the needs of people around you
2. More clearly understanding how you affect others
3. Better at understanding non-verbal cues
4. Better for your career, business success and various social endeavors
5. Better equipped to deal with interpersonal conflict. See: Conflict resolution
6. More accurately predict people’s behaviour
7. Greater ability to motivate the people around you. See: Motivation
8. Greater ability to work more effectively with others. See: Interpersonal skills
9. Ability to see the greater social picture. See: Social analysis
10. Greater ability to be a better leader, worker and friend e active listening
See also: Agreeableness and Interpersonal skills
People build friendships in both leisure and work situations.
The Empathy Quotient ( EQ ) is a 60-item questionnaire (there is also a shorter, 40-item version) designed to measure empathy in adults. The test was developed by Simon Baron-Cohen at ARC (the Autism Research Centre) at the University of Cambridge.
Increasing empathy:
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