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Exploring Actual and Presumed Links between Accurately Inferring Contents of Other People’s Minds and Prosocial Outcomes

Authors :
Sara D. Hodges
Murat Kezer
Judith A. Hall
Jacquie D. Vorauer
Source :
Journal of Intelligence, Vol 12, Iss 2, p 13 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2024.

Abstract

The term “empathic accuracy” has been applied to people’s ability to infer the contents of other people’s minds—that is, other people’s varying feelings and/or thoughts over the course of a social interaction. However, despite the ease of intuitively linking this skill to competence in helping professions such as counseling, the “empathic” prefix in its name may have contributed to overestimating its association with prosocial traits and behaviors. Accuracy in reading others’ thoughts and feelings, like many other skills, can be used toward prosocial—but also malevolent or morally neutral—ends. Prosocial intentions can direct attention towards other people’s thoughts and feelings, which may, in turn, increase accuracy in inferring those thoughts and feelings, but attention to others’ thoughts and feelings does not necessarily heighten prosocial intentions, let alone outcomes.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20793200
Volume :
12
Issue :
2
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Journal of Intelligence
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.1d1da7879634a25ac2a30f7920008a8
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence12020013