Empathy and its Implications in Uncertain Times

The Center for BrainHealth invites scientists to share their scientific study with students and other researchers at the BrainHealth Frontiers Lunch Lectures. The lectures are heavily science focused and are not intended for a lay audience. 

Friday, 12/11/2020 at noon

Registration is free.  Register now. You will be emailed a link to join the virtual event.

Sara Konrath, PhD
Indiana University

Empathy is becoming a buzzword. But many are not aware of the science behind it. This talk will describe research on empathy and its key implications for empathic individuals themselves, for others they interact with, and for communities. It will then review changes over time in empathy in the US, and key practices that can help to build and sustain empathy.

Learning Goals:

After attending this session, the participant will be able to:

• Understand different definitions of empathy
• Describe empathy’s implications for oneself and others
• Identify key empathy building practices

Sara Konrath, PhD is an Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2007. Konrath is the director of the Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research (iPEAR), a research lab with a primary focus on motivations, traits, and behaviors relevant to philanthropic giving, volunteering, and other prosocial behaviors. Her recent research has found that empathy has been declining in recent years among younger generations in the United States. Other research has found that people’s motives for giving have implications for their health. In her current work, she is using mobile phones to implement empathy-building programs. Her work has been published in top scientific journals and has been featured in several media outlets, including the New York Times, Huffington Post, Time Magazine, CNN, and NPR radio.