The Little Black Box: Contextualizing Empathy

In the last century since the word “empathy” was first introduced to the English vernacular, it has gained wide attention within academia and society more broadly. However, empathy has proven particularly challenging to define. We suggest that persistent disagreements about its conceptualization partially result from the tendency of researchers to simplify, remove, or ignore the context in which empathy is experienced. But context matters. For instance, we experience empathy when we encounter a grieving friend, but also when our partner expresses frustration with our past behavior. We illustrate how context shapes the experience of empathy by focusing on the diversity of emotional contexts that give rise to empathy and presenting a case study of context-specific empathy in response to another’s pain versus sadness. We conclude with recommendations for academics and those in the public arena who are interested in understanding empathy.