Title

Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Relation to Five Paranormal/Anomalous Experiences.

Authors

Parra, Alejandro

Abstract

The term empathy has been used to refer to two related human abilities: mental perspective taking (cognitive empathy) and the vicarious sharing of emotion (emotional empathy). Many psychic claimants seem to act more empathic than telepathic. Five specific hypotheses were tested here: People who have telepathic experiences, aura experiences, sense of presence, experience as psychic healers, and apparitional experiences have a higher capacity for (1) Perspective Taking and Emotional Comprehension (Cognitive empathy) and (2) Empathic Concern and Positive Empathy (Emotional empathy) than non-experients. The participants were 634 adults. Results showed that paranormal/anomalous experients scored higher on Perspective Taking, Emotional Comprehension, Empathic Concern, Positive Empathy and Empathy (total score) than non-experients. Future studies should examine other variables associated with empathy.

Subjects

EMPATHY; COGNITION; EMOTIONS; HEALERS; TELEPATHY

Publication

North American Journal of Psychology, 2013, Vol 15, Issue 3, p405

ISSN

1527-7143

Publication type

Academic Journal