Circling Science

Empathy, compassion and mentalizing

Separates feeling with someone, caring about them and understanding them accurately.

Region
Between two people
Distance
Near
Studies what a circle does, in live interaction.
Scale
One person · Two people
Researchers to read first
William Ickes, Tal Eyal, Olga M. Klimecki and Barbara L. Fredrickson

3 works from this field, lit on the map

Moves it sheds light on

Our reading. None of these fields tests a move inside a circle.

  • Their world

    Imagining what it is like to be someone didn’t make people more accurate about them; asking them did.

    Eyal et al. · 2018

  • Assume nothing

    Separates feeling sure you understand someone from understanding them accurately.

  • Own it

    Defines empathy by keeping one’s own feeling apart from the other’s, the distinction Own it asks for; owning language itself hasn’t been studied.

In the catalogue

  1. Perspective mistaking: Accurately understanding the mind of another requires getting perspective, not taking perspective.

    Eyal et al. · 2018

    ExperimentMultiple samples; the final experiment recruited 104 romantic couples

  2. How does emotional intelligence feel? An exercise to cultivate self-awareness, self-regulation, perspective-taking and empathy

    Lychnell · 2021

    Description of a practiceBachelor’s students in business and economics, in a course on global challenges

  3. Boosting Empathy and Compassion Through Mindfulness-Based and Socioemotional Dyadic Practice: Randomized Controlled Trial With App-Delivered Trainings

    Silveira et al. · 2023

    Randomised trial218 participants analysed; 285 registeredCautions: Same study as another entry · Studied by its developers · Commercial interest · No later follow-up