Empathy + Theory of Mind

empathy

ability to understand what another person in experiencing → 2 types: emotional and cognitive

emotional empathy

feeling what other people are feeling

cognitive empathy

ability to process information about other people’s experiences (and understand where they are coming form)

theory of mind

ability to attribute mental states (beliefs, intentions, perspectives) to others

• purely cognitive

• ability to understand another person based on their intention, belief, perspective

• includes false belief understanding

false belief understanding

recognizing that others can hold beliefs about the world that differ from reality and one’s own knowledge of the world → people often act based on what they think is true, though this is not always actually ‘true’.

→ usually developed age 4-5

studies

Baron-Cohen (Sally-Ann Task), Repacholi + Gopnik