Empathy is the capacity to understand and feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, i.e., capacity to place oneself in another’s position.
According to Simon Baron-Cohen, there are three components of empathy viz. cognitive empathy emotional reactivity and social skills.
1. Cognitive empathy – This is called perspective taking, i.e., knowing how the other thinks and feels. Cognitive empathy responds to a problem using brainpower.
2. Emotional reactivity – We feel the emotions as intensely as the other person. It involves connecting intimately with another person to form a strong bonds.
3. Social skills – It involves being moved to help the person using our emotional person to form a strong bonds.
