A friend describes a painful loss and the listener feels a corresponding ache while still knowing the pain belongs to the other. Empathy is the capacity to understand and, to varying degrees, share another person’s emotional state.

Cognitive empathy involves perspective taking—accurately inferring what someone thinks and feels. Affective empathy involves resonating with the feeling itself. Both can be present in different proportions. Empathy motivates prosocial behavior yet can also lead to personal distress or biased concern for those similar to oneself.

Neuroscience points to overlapping networks for experiencing one’s own emotion and representing others’. Empathy can be strengthened by deliberate practice in attention and perspective taking, and it can be eroded by burnout or dehumanizing environments. In clinical and caregiving roles, balanced empathy supports connection without emotional collapse.

• Understanding and sharing another’s feelings
• Includes cognitive and affective components
• Promotes helping yet can produce distress
• Modifiable through training and context