Page 36 - Effective communication Skills by Dale King

one is good. It could be argued that people with psychopathic tendencies have

higher morals than normal people, who would likely not push that person off
of the bridge, because they aren’t as influenced by their emotions when they
make their decisions.

Measurement of Empathy

Empathy is typically measured through a self-reported questionnaire like the
Questionnaire for Cognitive and Affective Empathy or Interpersonal
Reactivity Index. These normally ask people to say whether or not they agree
with certain statements in order to measure empathy.

With the QCAE, it asks things like “It affects me very much when one of my
friends is upset,” which helps to give a score for affective empathy. The
QCAE figures out cognitive empathy by placing a value on statements like,

“I try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before I make a
decision.”

Through this particular questionnaire, researchers have discovered that those
who scored higher with affective empathy has more grey matter, which is a
group of nerve cells, in the part of the brain known as the anterior insula.

This is the area of the brain that is involved in regulating negative and

positive emotions by using environmental stimulants with automatic and
visceral bodily sensations. People who had higher scores in cognitive
empathy had greater grey matter in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

This is the area of the brain that is normally activated during cognitive
processes, like the Theory of Mind, which is having the ability to connect
mental beliefs to others and yourself. It also means that you understand that
others have perspectives, intentions, desires, and beliefs that are different

than your own.

Selective Empathy?

Research has found that people normally feel more empathy for people
within their own group, like those in a single ethnic group. There was one
study performed that scanned the brains of Caucasian and Chinese

participants as they watched a video of people of the same ethnic group in
pain. They also watched a video of people of a different ethnic group in pain.

They discovered that the anterior cingulate cortex, which is activated when