Page |85 . daycare is being ignored by the other rr social. erience - children with the exception of one little affectiveccenitive key g—] Pe snae going CAS . J m r ae boy who takes her hand and includes her -e fod 6 a ce eo oie te O . . wae Ba ero ean ores aes ore J pe eelingssase ORS y Os in all his activities. These modest Bprocessing fav gan thic Seay behavior & od a = . . . . # brand ee pat uc other siasss| 12. 8. beginnings signal the important and “acionsg | _jendetnng “os Sains Cased | hal ongoing role of empathy for surviving i ea ee _ and flourishing in our social world. . Empathy has been suggested to be Chapter 9° essential to navigating the social world; it enhances our understanding of others, Empathy and Interpersonal . . . ves improves the effectiveness of our social Sensitivity ae communication, and fosters mutually A young girl, after watching a satisfying social relationships. televised documentary account of child Conversely, lack of empathy or its hunger and suffering in Bangladesh, maladaptive use causes social pleads with her parents to “do relationships to falter and fail. something” to help them. A new child in Empathy tefers to our natural a capacity to quickly and automatically ° The lead author is Jean Decety, Ph.D., the relate to the emotional states of another Irving B. Harris Professor in the Departments of person. Rudimentary forms of empathy Psychology and Psychiatry, and co-director of appear early in the life course, and with the Brain Research Imaging Center at the ‘iaturation. ennsatle nb ° crsned University of Chicago Medical Center. He is the u 2 pa Ea © SADE e oS editor of the journal Social Neuroscience. His by simply reading about or 1magining interests include the investigation of the someone else’s emotion. Empathy neurobiological mechanisms underpinning comes so naturally that physicians must interpersonal sensitivity, particularly empathy learn to dampen their empathic pain and sympathy. His recent work focuses on . . ;