News Feature

Cognitive Empathy: Its Development, Genetic Influence, and Mechanisms of Control

Cognitive Empathy: Its Development, Genetic Influence, and Mechanisms of Control

Empathy plays a critical role in morality and social cognition. The term “empathy” first emerged in 1909 as a Greek-rooted equivalent of the German word Einfühlung, meaning in-feeling. The etymology of this term gives it a new dimension because of how it allows us to understand empathy as the ability to emotionally connect with not only other human beings, but with literature, art, animals, characters, symbols, and anything else in our surrounding world.