When Empathic Concern and Perspective Taking Matter for Ethical Judgment: The Role of Time Hurriedness

AbstractThe role of compromise in EU politics has been widely recognized by scholars and practitioners alike. At the same time, the systematic conceptual, analytical and normative study of compromise has remained an exception. This is surprising, given that the study of compromise can be linked to three broader questions at the heart of integration: (1) How does the EU accommodate diversity? (2) What makes supranational rule normatively justifiable? (3) Who or what defines the limits of cooperation? Against this backdrop, this article sheds light on the concept of compromise, on the role of compromise in legitimizing supranational governance and on the limits to compromise in the European polity. I argue that the EU – a divided, multilevel and functionally restricted polity – is highly dependent on the legitimizing force of ‘inclusive compromise’, which is characterized by the recognition of difference. This is true for horizontal or micro-level relations between political actors (where compromise works through concessions as well as justification, perspective-taking and empathic concern in a process of ‘procedural accommodation’), and for vertical or macro-level relations between systems of governance (where compromise works through ‘constitutional compatibility’). Given the legitimizing force of inclusive compromise, I subsequently identify the limits to such agreements and, thus, to supranational cooperation; I argue that these limits are issue specific and depend on where the costs of cooperation are borne. The article concludes by outlining routes for follow-up empirical research.

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Feeling Touched: Empathy Is Associated With Performance in a Tactile Acuity Task

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.593425 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Schaefer ◽

Marcel Joch ◽

Nikolas Rother

Keyword(s):

Personality Trait ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Empathic Concern ◽

The Body ◽

Reactivity Index ◽

Tactile Acuity ◽

Somatosensory Cortices ◽

Trait Empathy ◽

Healthy Participants

The concept of empathy describes our capacity to understand the emotions and intentions of others and to relate to our conspecifics. Numerous studies investigated empathy as a state as well as a stable personality trait. For example, recent studies in neuroscience suggest, among other brain areas such as the insula or the ACC, a role of the somatosensory cortices for empathy (e.g., when observing someone else being touched). Since the classic understanding of the primary somatosensory cortex is to represent touch on the body surface, we here aimed to test whether tactile performance is linked to the personality trait empathy. To test this, we examined the tactile acuity of 95 healthy participants (mean age 31 years) by using a two-point discrimination threshold task at the index fingers. Trait empathy was assessed by employing the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI), which measures self-reported empathy with four scales (empathic concern, perspective taking, fantasy, and personal distress). Results of regression analyses suggested the subscale empathic concern to be positively associated with performance in the tactile acuity task. We discuss this finding in the light of recent studies on empathy and consider possible implications of tactile training to enhance empathy.

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Examining the role of psychological inflexibility, perspective taking, and empathic concern in generalized prejudice

Journal of Applied Social Psychology ◽

10.1111/jasp.12355 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 46 (3) ◽

pp. 180-191 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Michael E. Levin ◽

Jason B. Luoma ◽

Roger Vilardaga ◽

Jason Lillis ◽

Richard Nobles ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Perspective Taking ◽

Empathic Concern ◽

Psychological Inflexibility

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The Role of Emotion Regulation Strategies and Delusion Proneness on Empathetic Tendencies in a Community Sample

10.31234/osf.io/7xqtv ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Emma Herms ◽

Amanda Bolbecker ◽

Krista Wisner

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Linear Models ◽

Community Sample ◽

Empathic Concern ◽

Reactivity Index ◽

Key Factors ◽

Negatively Associated ◽

Regulation Strategies

Empathic tendencies (i.e., perspective taking and empathic concern) and emotion regulation (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) are key factors in successful social relationships. Relationships can also be negatively impacted by mental health symptoms, including psychosis. While psychotic-like experiences are often detrimental to social functioning, it is unclear whether certain psychotic-like experiences, such as delusions, are negatively associated with empathetic tendencies after accounting for emotion regulation skills and comorbid dimensions of psychopathology. Linear models were employed to test these associations in an adult community sample (N = 128). Measures of interest included the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Peter’s Delusion Inventory. Results indicated that perspective taking was positively associated with reappraisal and negatively associated with delusional proneness, after controlling for age, sex, race, intelligence, as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression. Furthermore, a significant change in R2 supported the addition of delusion proneness in this model. Specificity analyses demonstrated perspective taking was also negatively associated with suppression, but this relationship did not remain after accounting for the effects of reappraisal and delusion proneness in the same model. Additional specificity analyses found no association between empathic concern and reappraisal or delusion proneness but replicated previous findings that empathic concern was negatively associated with suppression. Taken together, findings highlight that delusion proneness accounts for unique variance in interpersonal perspective taking, beyond that explained by demographics, intelligence, reappraisal skills, and internalizing psychopathology.

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