Empathy

How do we know how someone will react? For example, when telling a joke, we already have a hunch that the audience will find it funny. When we recommend a difficult course of action, we anticipate that the person may become agitated or angry. If you are like most people, you simulate in your head how you would feel in the situation to predict how someone else will feel.

However, research suggests that we often get this wrong. Because we don’t tend to get emotional about events or difficult situations that we have experienced many times, we can underestimate the effects of these situations on others.