Reader Responce 7

I had always thought of empathy as sympathy, which is feeling bad for someone. Pink describes in his chapter on empathy that this is a common mistake that is false. Empathy is the ability to imagine yourself in someone else's position and to intuit what that person is feeling. I believe that empathy is an important quality to have and I believe it is a quality that I, in fact, do possess. Without empathy it would be difficult to understand much of what is going on around you.

With empathy, you may be able to discover things that you would not orignally believe in or believe to be true. Sometimes things that can important or life-saving. Pink shows us an example of this, where empathy acts as "a whole new health care." Two postal workers went to various health care centers with similar symptoms and believing they were infected with anthrax. One patient, was sent home and told to take tylonal because anthrax wasn't a threat to him. The other patient told his dcotor about his anthrax scare and the doctor didn't hesitate to schedule another test. She ordered the patient antibiotics and made him stay in the hospital overnight. This doctors sense of empathyh ad saved this persons life.

Another aspect of empathy that interested me was comparing men and woman in empathy. When I first read the title without reading beyond, I figured that woman were more empathetic and I was right! As Simon Baron-Cohen states in his book The Essential Difference, "The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems." This is most likely why woman are more prone to crying and feeling distressed at another's distress.

I think that Pink points out really good points about the importance and aspects of empathy. It made me see many different ways that empathy can affect us as well as others. I think for someone who may not be as empathic, after reading this chapter, especially "a whole new health care," will be more open to it.