Post by @KatyElphinstone@mas.to

2026-09-19 09:32 UTC

A quick note on empathy here. By empathy, I mainly mean affective empathy (actually feeling with someone). Which of course, however, isn’t usually separate from thought. Affective empathy can follow our biases, just as easily as our better judgement can challenge them. So then all the stuff about social expectation, power hierarchies, etc. This article is one I did about autistic empathy, and the difference between feeling empathy and displaying it in socially expected ways: https://www.neurofabulous.org.uk/autistic-empathy.html

Replies (3)

@Ralph@hear-me.social 2026-09-19 14:44

@KatyElphinstone@mas.to "By empathy, I mainly mean affective empathy (actually feeling with someone)." Also known as 'sympathy'.

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@ghouston@mamot.fr 2026-09-20 10:02

@KatyElphinstone@mas.to let's feel empathy for that poor man accused of domestic violence or sexual assault, that poor cop accused of brutality, that poor politician or billionaire accused of corruption. Imagine how they must be feeling if they were actually innocent?

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@khleedril@cyberplace.social 2026-09-20 19:46

@KatyElphinstone@mas.to That's a great article you've written, but 1) doesn't permit browser read mode presentation, 2) doesn't list under any RSS feeds, 3) doesn't accept webmentions, 4) doesn't accept feedback of any kind. Maybe it is just me, but I look for all these things in a good on-line article.

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