The Emerging Study of Positive Empathy

By Sylvia A. Morelli, Matthew D. Lieberman, Jamil Zaki. 2015

327 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Lay intuitions suggest that the ability toshare, celebrate,and enjoy others’positiveemotions– a phenomenon we term positive empathy – bolsters individual well-being and relationship strength. However, it is unclear from the current literature whether (i) positive empathy is distinct from highly related constructs and(ii)whetherpositiveempathyisassociatedwithsalutarysocialandpersonaloutcomes.Here,webegin by examining basic evidence suggesting that positive empathy is related to, but independent from, constructs such as general positivity and empathy for others’ distress. We then review evidence that positive empathy correlates with increased prosocial behavior, social closeness, and well-being. Lastly, we discuss open directions for the study of positive empathy, such as investigating the potential role of positive empathy (or its disruption) in psychiatric disorders.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/26870277ed8bbff87e532c7ed5dde78de3ff8f01

How researchers see this paper

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In Applied Psychology

1. J. Wharton
2. A. Young
3. Kathayoon Khalil

In Social Psychology

1. J. Wharton
2. A. Young
3. Kathayoon Khalil

Citations in the corpus

• Empathy for Animals: A Review of the Existing Literature (2018, background): “Positive empathy can also inspire its own suite of prosocial behaviors, such as spending, helping, or emotional support, though these connections have thus far been primarily indirect or correlational (Morelli et al. 2015; Telle and Pfister 2016).”
• Empathizing With Others’ Pain Versus Empathizing With Others’ Joy: Examining the Separability of Positive and Negative Empathy and Their Relation to Different Types of Social Behaviors and Social Emotions (2015, unknown): “…is consistent with the wealth of existing work linking negative empathy to helping of needy others (see Batson, 2010) and with the only existing study that we know of linking positive empathy to helping of others in need (Morelli, Lieberman, Telzer, & Zaki, as cited in Morelli et al., 2015).”