Emotional v Cognitive

Is It Emotional Empathy or Cognitive Empathy?

Looking within to build emotional empathy.

September 27, 2020

by Annie Tanasugarn

"Cognitive Empathy vs. Emotional Empathy

Some are very skilled at cognitive empathy and being able to read other people’s emotions. This is both good and bad. First, on the good side, being able to read what someone is feeling is the first important step in being able to relate to, and experience others feelings. However, some who resort to using cognitive empathy aren’t using it for the benefit of others, but for the benefit of themselves."

"Understanding what a person is feeling is basically labeling it, without actually relating to it."

"Emotional empathy is about not only understanding or labeling what someone may be feeling or experiencing, but it’s the act of jumping into their world and experiencing things from their vantage point. It includes being non-judgmental and in being vulnerable enough to share a person’s lived experiences and emotions."

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. New York: General Learning Press.

Cavner, D. (2008). Teaching Empathy. Exchange (01648527), 179, 92–95

Meghan L. Healey, & Murray Grossman. (2018). Cognitive and Affective Perspective-Taking: Evidence for Shared and Dissociable Anatomical Substrates. Frontiers in Neurology, 9.

Szanto, T., Krueger, J. (2019). Introduction: Empathy, Shared Emotions, and Social Identity. Topoi 38, 153–162.

Turner, I. N., Foster, J. D., & Webster, G. D. (2019). The Dark Triad’s inverse relations with cognitive and emotional empathy: High-powered tests with multiple measures. Personality and Individual Differences, 139, 1–6.