Neurodivergent on Yik Yak | i’ve been told a lot that i’m very unempathetic but i feel like im actually extremely empathetic. i can understand nearly anyone’s motivations and feelings, even horrible and cruel ones. i don’t know how it leads to me looking unempathetic

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Neurodivergent 1d

i’ve been told a lot that i’m very unempathetic but i feel like im actually extremely empathetic. i can understand nearly anyone’s motivations and feelings, even horrible and cruel ones. i don’t know how it leads to me looking unempathetic

Anonymous 1d

AFAIK, empathy primarily involves you ‘feeling’ what they’re feeling rather than just understanding it to most people. When they’re sad, empathy is when you also “feel sad” with them. That’s what I’ve seen at least

Anonymous 2h

There’s two empathies: You described cognitive empathy, the skill of learning what someone else is feeling and understanding it logically. Most people when they talk about empathy mean affective empathy, the usually unlearned high effect of other people’s emotions on your emotions. Autistic people tend to be high in cognitive empathy and low in affective empathy

Anonymous

#2 1h

is there a real practical difference between the two though? i suppose i just don’t understand why it’s important for someone else’s emotions to affect mine. it doesn’t seem like something that should matter

Anonymous

OP 1h

A MAJOR difference. Cognitive empathy is best for working through emotions, but people look for affective empathy when they just want someone to listen to and “understand” them. Cognitive empathy is required for understanding, but affective empathy is better for expressing an understanding. It’s not necessarily important, I disagree with anyone who says it is, and it’s not a choice to or not to have affective empathy. However, you can facsimilate it by matching tone and through active listening

Anonymous

#2 12m

this is great info to think about, thank you :)