Previous placebo-controlled experimental studies have shown that a single dose of MDMA can increase emotional empathy in the multifaceted empathy test (MET) without affecting cognitive empathy. Although sufficiently powered to detect main effects of MDMA, these studies were generally underpowered to also validly assess contributions of additional parameters, such as sex, drug use history, trait...

This study investigated the somatic underpinning of empathy using an interpersonal physiology approach. Thirty-nine dyads were formed by a "pseudo-patient" and a "listener" (a therapist, a psychologist, or a non-therapist). Dyadic physiological concordance in electrodermal responses and listeners' empathy were evaluated during simulations of clinical sessions. A significant positive correlation...

There is now a societal and cultural expectation that doctors and nurses should feel, and display, empathy for their patients. Many commentators argue that medical and nursing students should be taught empathy. Empathy, however, is difficult to define: it is not the same as kindness, as it implies a degree of psychological insight into what the patient is thinking or feeling. Empathy is seen by...

OBJECTIVE To isolate factors that medical students identify as possibly affecting empathy in pre-clerkship years of medical school. METHODS 12 students in their second year of medical school at Queen's University were randomly selected and asked to participate in semi-structured interviews conducted from an ethnographic perspective. RESULTS Students reported both negative and positive chang...

BACKGROUND Empathy is an outcome-relevant physician characteristic and thus a crucial component of high-quality communication in health care. However, the factors that promote and inhibit the development of empathy during medical education have not been extensively researched. Also, currently there is no explicit research on the perspective of practicing physicians on the subject. Therefore the...

Based on the premise that bullies are deficient in empathy or even lack it completely, bullying prevention and intervention programs often include empathy training. These programs are not always as effective as they aim to be, which may be caused by a failure to acknowledge the multidimensional nature of empathy as well as its complex association with involvement in bullying. To provide a clear...

Empathy features a tension between automaticity and context dependency. On the one hand, people often take on each other's internal states reflexively and outside of awareness. On the other hand, empathy shifts with characteristics of empathizers and situations. These 2 characteristics of empathy can be reconciled by acknowledging the key role of motivation in driving people to avoid or approac...