Motivating empathy: Three methodological recommendations for mapping empathy

Empathy has received much attention in psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. In this article, I first discuss a motivated emotion regulation approach to empathy, outlining some recent advances in motivated empathy. I then discuss how this approach can advance three questions about empathy: (1) How should we assess the boundaries between empathy and other states? (2) How should we assess empathic ability and empathic propensity? and (3) How should we assess automatic and controlled propensities to empathize? In each case, I suggest that the motivated emotion regulation approach can suggest methodological innovations to reframe these questions and outline recommendations for advancing the science of empathy.