On social networks, you can see everything, especially moments full of empathy between people and between people and animals.
A very particular video was an initiative in the municipality of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in which several bus drivers learned what a cyclist suffers when a bus passes by at full speed.
Undoubtedly, the municipality of San Luis Potosi gave the drivers a lesson in empathy and leaves for the rest of the world a giant learning experience.
The video received comments from a Costa Rican citizen, “I like the example of empathy, I have lived the experience of riding a bicycle, only as a passenger on a bus and as a driver in the opposite lane. The experience is frightening as a cyclist and as a driver when they invade your lane. In San Jose, Costa Rica, I was able to see specific delimitations for bicycles and motorcycles. We all need road education to avoid accidents and therefore deaths. It is important to maintain a road design.
Another video example of empathy was through an interview in which a young woman tells the interviewee that -it is her first interview- and gets a response from her character that, given that, -they would make that the most amazing interview of all because they decide so-. The video published by Upsrosa was replicated on LinkedIn by Diego Dalman, who is a professor international speaker, and expert in emotional intelligence. Dalman regarding the video said “Being kind and empathetic is free and does good, it helps others. He who believes he can, the attitude and how you face challenges impacts the outcome. Believing it is half the battle. The interviewee generated an atmosphere of confidence.”
The psychologist and expert in emotional intelligence, Martin Hoffman, defines empathy as “an affectian effective responseve response that is more attuned to another’s situation than to one’s own,” and this emotional response constitutes a moral motive,meaning, a motive that contributes to prosocial behavior.
Prosocial behavior arises when the individual acts to benefit others rather than him/herself.
The National Institute of Mental Health emphasizes that the degree of empathy in people as adults depends on the education that parents provide when they are children.
Parents are the first empathic contact that the children have until they start schooling and relate to other people outside the family circle, and even so, it is considered that empathy has an eminently natural character in children.
Did you know that Costa Rica is among the 10 most empathetic countries in the world?
Through a study published in 2016, in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, (which is still current), a list of the most empathetic countries in the world was known, to mention some of them: Ecuador, South Korea, United States, Taiwan, Costa Rica, and Kuwait.
In the research, the experts measured each person’s empathy, and basic personality traits, as well as individualistic tendencies (when lax social relations and individualism are preferred) and collectivist tendencies (when relations in tightly-knit social groups with higher levels of interdependence are favored).
In addition, the experts obtained as a response to their analysis, that in societies with greater empathy, there are higher levels of collectivism, kindness, responsibility, self-esteem, emotionality, well-being, and a greater disposition towards the society and -that women are more empathetic than men so that older people are more empathetic than younger people-.
Other details about empathy
Finally, it is important to highlight other benefits of empathy such as mental and physical well-being; teaching children to make responsible decisions as they grow up, and taking into account their family and friends, their community, and the world. Therefore, an empathetic person can be more self-aware and can help others protect them from physical and psychological abuse. Although empathy contributes to social awareness and reduces bullying, prejudice, and racism, there are limits to practicing it, as everything in excess is not good, it is like everything in life, you have to have a balance, a balance when practicing it.
