Читать книгу The Communication Playbook - Teri Kwal Gamble - Страница 152

Differing perceptions lie at the heart of many of our personal and societal challenges. If we can exhibit empathy, that is, experience the world from a perspective other than our own, we can do our part to foster mutual understanding.

Both cognitive and emotional behaviors are integral to empathy. The cognitive component, perspective taking (the ability to assume the viewpoint of another person), requires that we take on the point of view of another, setting our own point of view away until we understand theirs. The second component of empathy, emotional understanding, requires that we step into the shoes of the other person and feel what they are feeling. The third component is caring.

When you genuinely care about the welfare of another person and you combine this with the personal realization of what that person’s situation is like, you gain a greater appreciation of what you and the world look like through that person’s eyes. The reflection or mirroring response reveals that we have the capacity to understand more fully what others are doing, feeling, and saying. Empathizing frees us to take action, feel emotions, and perceive situations in different ways.

Unfortunately, research reveals that since 2000, the ability of college students to empathize has declined. Researchers believe that social media bears some of the blame because it encourages self-promotion at the expense of self-awareness. It also reduces the amount of time we spend face-to-face during which we ordinarily would learn to make eye contact and develop skills to interpret the other person’s posture and tone.⁵²

Skill Builder

Assessing the Nature of Fact–Inference Confusions

Assess your ability to distinguish facts and inferences by reading the following story, assuming the information it contains is true and accurate, and then answering questions based on it by indicating whether you think the statement made is definitely true (T), definitely false (F), or questionable (?) meaning that it could be either true or false, but on the basis of the information contained in the story, you cannot be certain). The correct answers appear at the end of the text in the Answer Key.

A tired executive had just turned off the lights in the establishment when an individual approached and demanded money. The owner opened the safe. The contents of the safe were emptied, and the person ran away. The alarm was triggered, notifying the police of the occurrence.

1 An individual appeared after the owner had turned off the store’s lights. T F ?

2 The robber was a man. T F ?

3 The person who appeared did not demand any money. T F ?

4 The man who opened the drawer was the owner. T F ?

5 The owner emptied the safe and ran away. T F ?

6 Someone opened the safe. T F ?

7 After the individual who demanded the money emptied the safe, he sped away. T F ?

8 Although the safe contained money, the story does not reveal how much. T F ?

9 The robber opened the safe. T F ?

10 The robber did not take the money. T F ?

11 In this story, only three people are referred to. T F ?