Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam – acts that denote the obligations of living a good Muslim life.
Leigh Sales at a memorial service of journalist Mark Colvin in 2017. In her recent book, Sales demonstrates the importance of journalistic empathy and disclosure.
Paul Miller/AAP
Part memoir, part investigation, Leigh Sales’s recent book Any Ordinary Day provides rare insight into the journalistic craft.
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern wore a headscarf to comfort mourning family members after the Christchurch mosque shootings.
AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File
After the Christchurch mosque shootings, New Zealand’s prime minister didn’t start a war on terror. She covered her head, cried, paid for funerals and passed gun control. Is it because she’s a woman?
What goes into all for one and one for all?
Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com
Where do the cooperative skills that hold together human societies come from and why don’t our selfish instincts overwhelm them? Evolutionary game theory suggests that empathy is a crucial contributor.
High school can be a hard place to make friends, but research shows being nice may be all it takes.
Simon Maage/Unsplash
We know being nice is good for friendships. But we wanted to find out why some antisocial people are socially successful. So we looked at whether rebels had more friends in high school than nice kids.
Ted Bundy, a day before his execution in January 1989.
AP Photo/Mark Foley
Psychologists are debating whether the presence of one trait – boldness – is the key to determining if someone is a psychopath, or just a garden-variety criminal.
Karen Wu, California State University, Los Angeles
A cold, logical list of attributes sought in a partner is cast aside by the hot emotions that come up in real life. A psychology researcher explains how this ‘hot-cold empathy gap’ works in dating.
To imagine is to form a mental image, to think, believe, dream, picture.
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The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley believed that we can exercise our moral imagination ‘in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb’. Here, then, are some tips for fostering empathy through art.
Catnip induces changes in cat behavior.
Anna Hoychuk
Catnip can induce changes in cat behavior. An expert argues that giving it to cats raises questions about human power and animal autonomy.
Research shows that a parent’s level of generosity and charitable behaviour is linked with their child’s display of the same behaviours.
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Children start developing empathy and compassion as toddlers and should have a good understanding of generosity by age nine. Parents can help foster these behaviours.
Two theories on autism and sex differences are confirmed in half a million people.
Training in improvisational theatre enables health professionals to learn deeper empathy, as well as mental agility and other clinical skills.
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Many dog owners have tales of their faithful companion licking away their tears. Researchers investigated whether, beyond being comforting, canines would actually take action to help an upset owner.
You can’t resist the yawn.
Chayanin Wongpracha/Shutterstock.com
Everybody does it, but why? Scientists aren’t really sure if exhaustion, stress or some other social factor is at the root of yawning – and how it can be so contagious.
Turns out some CEOs are genuinely out to make a difference.
Craig Golding/AAP
It’s easy to be cynical about charity drives like the Vinnies CEO Sleepout. Are they just PR stunts or can they make a difference beyond fundraising? Our study shows they can, and they do.
Photos and history of Holocaust victims frame the ceiling of the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.
White House photo by Chris Greenberg
Foundational to the work of Holocaust educators and many teachers have been the survivors. Given there are fewer survivors who are alive today, how do educators inform future generations?
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary