Question

Discuss the difference between emotional and cognitive empathy? Do you think one is more important than the other?

Answer 1

empathy is the ability of recognising and responding the emotions of others. the base of the process id based on sympathy and compassion. through empathy people tend to understand teh emotional signals which allow leaders to feel the emotions collectively. hence empathy people can work effectively with others. it guides our behaviors and is of 2 types-

• Emotional empathy- it is also known as affective or primitive empathy. it is fdifferent from person toperson. it results from emotional state. it is ann uatomatic process to respond to the emotions of the other people. it is an unconscious process involving the sharing the emotions.
• Cognitive empathy- it is a conscious process. it involves recognising and understanding the emotional state accurately. lt is also known as perspective taking.

i believe that true empathy integrates both but the response of brain to both are different. emotional emoathy involves thalamus and limbic areas to be aroused. it also increases the activity of the brain areas involved in cognitive empathy as well. on the other hand cognitive empathy involves process of higher abstraction levels and activate areas in prefrontal cortex and semantic content. cognitive empathy is linked to social and self awareness whereas emotional empathy is linked to self management and relationship management. cognitive empsthy is deliberate but emotional empathy is automatic. both if them contribute equally to society and work life and hence are important. both are activated and help crucially in making decisions and also connecting to people. hence according to me none is more or less important rather both have their own areas of imporatance and hence are equally important.