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Dr Eleana Geangu University of York

Host: Dr Michaela Gummerum

Early origins of empathy development
Empathy is often conceptualized as an emotional response elicited by another’s affective state. Although similar in valence with the observed emotion, empathic responses are characterized as being associated with a sense of understanding that the other is the source of this affective experience, and that at least to a certain degree they are regulated so that the observer does not experience the emotions at the same intensity as those observed. It is considered that this ability to resonate to others’ emotions plays an important role in facilitating social bonding, prosocial behaviour towards others in need, and may be linked to the development of morality. Given the complexity of the processes involved in generating empathy, from a developmental point of view this other-oriented emotional experience was traditionally attributed to children older than 18-24 months. In this talk I will present some of the research from my lab that explores the extent to which the ontogeny of empathy begins in the first year of life.

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