Do you have emotional empathy for other people?
This seems like a no-brainer but research is now suggesting that people who have had severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) have a loss of emotional empathy , which is the ability to recognize and understand the emotions of other people.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales, conducted a study to investigate whether physiological responses to emotions are connected to emotional empathy.
PsychCentral reported that the team used electromyography and skin conductance to analyze two groups of adults, one with severe TBI and a healthy control group, focusing on the participant’s facial muscle and sweat glands while they viewed happy and angry facial expressions.
“The results of this study were the first to reveal that reduced emotional responsiveness observed after severe TBI is linked to changes in empathy in this population…,” said study author and doctoral candidate Arielle DeSousa.
What are your thoughts on Emotional Empathy or the lack thereof?