ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an illustration of the problems facing a person trying to understand what empathy is by comparing and contrasting four different definitions in the literature. It explains each aspect of empathic responding in turn: emotional contagion, affective empathy, sympathy, and perspective taking. Cognitive empathy is sometimes used broadly so as to signify any kind of folk psychological understanding. Sympathy is the fuzzy other-directed cousin of empathic distress described in. In the psychology literature it is known as ‘empathic concern.’ There is a wide range of tests of empathy in psychology. Some are intended to measure empathy as a relatively broad and inclusive phenomenon, whereas others are more specifically oriented towards theory of mind-related abilities. The discussion so far will hopefully have made the reader appreciate the similarities and differences between the different aspects of what is commonly called ‘empathy.
