The Social Neuroscience of Empathy

Cross-disciplinary cutting-edge work on human empathy from the perspectives of social cognitive developmental and clinical psychology and cognitive/affective neuroscience.In recent decades empathy research has blossomed into a vibrant and multidisciplinary field of study. The social neuroscience approach to the subject is premised on the idea that studying empathy at multiple levels (biological cognitive and social) will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of how other people's thoughts and feelings can affect our own thoughts feelings and behavior. In these cutting-edge contributions leading advocates of the multilevel approach view empathy from the perspectives of social cognitive developmental and clinical psychology and cognitive/affective neuroscience. Chapters include a critical examination of the various definitions of the empathy construct; surveys of major research traditions based on these differing views (including empathy as emotional contagion as the projection of one's own thoughts and feelings and as a fundamental aspect of social development); clinical and applied perspectives including psychotherapy and the study of empathy for other people's pain; various neuroscience perspectives; and discussions of empathy's evolutionary and neuroanatomical histories with a special focus on neuroanatomical continuities and differences across the phylogenetic spectrum. The new discipline of social neuroscience bridges disciplines and levels of analysis. In this volume the contributors' state-of-the-art investigations of empathy from a social neuroscience perspective vividly illustrate the potential benefits of such cross-disciplinary integration.ContributorsC. Daniel Batson James Blair Karina Blair Jerold D. Bozarth Anne Buysse Susan F. Butler Michael Carlin C. Sue Carter Kenneth D. Craig Mirella Dapretto Jean Decety Mathias Dekeyser Ap Dijksterhuis Robert Elliott Natalie D. Eggum Nancy Eisenberg Norma Deitch Feshbach Seymour Feshbach Liesbet Goubert Leslie S. Greenberg Elaine Hatfield James Harris William Ickes Claus Lamm Yen-Chi Le Mia Leijssen Abigail Marsh Raymond S. Nickerson Jennifer H. Pfeifer Stephen W. Porges Richard L. Rapson Simone G. Shamay-Tsoory Rick B. van Baaren Matthijs L. van Leeuwen Andries van der Leij Jeanne C. Watson