Page |92 Seeing into My Mind and Other consequences for the way we feel and Minds think about and behave toward others. Empathy is defined by Jean Decety as “the natural capacity to share, appreciate, and respond to the affective states of others.” Empathy rests on our ability to see into the mind of another while distinguishing it from one’s own to be in a position to cooperate, coordinate, and provide the needed care for others. The possession of empathic capacity is not sufficient to determine the precise nature of the response toward others, however. As Decety points out, whether an individual attends to and responds empathically upon observing emotion in another individual depends on, among other things, dispositional tendencies, the relationship between the individuals, and contextual constraints. Motivation to help another is also influenced by the amount of cognitive effort we are willing and able to exert to take the perspective of the other. Perspective-taking is essentially an attempt to see into the invisible mind of another. What we can’t see, we model based on our own mind and like-minded individuals. Nick Epley shows that seeing into and connecting with other minds is such a frequent operation of the social brain that the absence of others inclines people to see human minds in nonhuman entities. Whether it’s a tree, a pet, or God, ascribing mind to others endows them with the capacity to experience the same affective states we experience. This shared capacity evokes in us a tendency to feel and express empathic concern for their well-being. Unfortunately, humans do not grant all individuals, much less non-human entities, an equivalent degree of mind. Epley articulates how differences in the capacity to see mind in others have HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021338