empathy

Topic description and stories

Cambridge Festival Speaker Spotlight: Estherina Trachtenberg

24 Feb 2025

Estherina Trachtenberg is a Blavatnik Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge and is currently working...

Study finds that genes play a role in empathy

12 Mar 2018

A new study published today suggests that how empathic we are is not just a result of our upbringing and experience but also partly a result of our...

Genes influence ability to read a person’s mind from their eyes

07 Jun 2017

Our DNA influences our ability to read a person’s thoughts and emotions from looking at their eyes, suggests a new study published in the journal...

Elephants’ ‘body awareness’ adds to increasing evidence of their intelligence

12 Apr 2017

Asian elephants are able to recognise their bodies as obstacles to success in problem-solving, further strengthening evidence of their intelligence...

Does your empathy predict if you would stop and help an injured person?

31 Oct 2016

If you see an injured person by the side of the road, would you stop and help them, or are you more likely to walk on by? What motivates people to do...

Opinion: What your musical taste says about your personality

30 Nov 2015

David Greenberg (Department of Psychology) discusses how musical preferences are linked to thinking styles.

Musical tastes offer a window into how you think

22 Jul 2015

Do you like your jazz to be Norah Jones or Ornette Coleman, your classical music to be Bach or Stravinsky, or your rock to be Coldplay or Slayer? The...

Study confirms a gene linked to Asperger Syndrome and empathy

17 Dec 2013

Scientists have confirmed that variations in a particular gene play a key role in the autism spectrum condition known as Asperger Syndrome. They have...