Graded Empathy: A Neuro-Phenomenological Hypothesis.
Frontiers in psychiatry January 1, 2020 Jonathan Levy, Oren Bader 19 citations
The neuroscience of empathy has relied on a simplified affective/cognitive dichotomy that cannot explain recent data from naturalistic and intergroup studies. Drawing on phenomenological philosophy, a new neuro-phenomenological account breaks through this dichotomy, emphasizing empathy as dynamic, subjective, and piecemeal. The graded empathy hypothesis postulates that attending to others' expressions always facilitates empathy, but the level of empathic experience varies parametrically with one's social interest in the observed other, such as through intergroup or interpersonal cues. This framework integrates neuroscience with phenomenology to offer a more accurate perspective for real-life experimentation.