Empathy Factory

After looking for meaning of empathy and the process of empathy almost everywhere in the world, we drew out our interpretation/ model of how a person empathizes.

For this explanation, let’s take an example of a man. Let’s call him Manas. He is witnessing a baby crying at a carnival. In this case, the event of Manas being present at a carnival, the baby crying, all the things around the baby and Manas, and other people around them are the raw data that Manas has to deal with.

This is the Box of Events. All the bits of data are the candies that are going through a process in our factory. Now in this moment, he can see, hear, smell, taste and feel all the possible things. His sensory organs take all the data in and based on his sensitivity, i.e. the ability of his sensory organs to detect the data, Manas receives a filtered set of data which we’ll call information. This transformation of Data to Information is what happens at the opening of the empathy factory.

Data to information

All the bits of data are the candies that are going through a process in our factory. Now in this moment, he can see, hear, smell, taste and feel all the possible things. His sensory organs take all the data in and based on his sensitivity, i.e. the ability of his sensory organs to detect the data, Manas receives a filtered set of data which we’ll call information. This transformation of Data to Information is what happens at the opening of the empathy factory.

The box of Events

Mama piggy bank

We all have our Data Bank inside our brain where all the experiences we have had, associations we have created, meanings we have inferred, and things we have known and understood are stored. Everytime we take a certain information in, we process it to make sense out of it. We do this by running it through our database and finding similar information. All this is governed by the information we have, the biases we have formed over the years and our ability to build new connections and imagine different possibilities and interpretations of a situation. Based on this processing of information, we either filter out/ dump the unnecessary information or infer a meaning out of it. This is the first decision making process.

The Candies

All the bits of data are the candies that are going through a process in our factory.

The color (primary feeling)

Here, the candies that come out of mama piggy bank, are given a certain colour based on our distinction of the feeling we have with it. This colour might be the same as what the candy had already, or it can be different. For example, the candy can be of a colour of sadness, and our mind can paint it as sadness, or as annoyance in the case of the crying baby. This coloring of candies is the primary feeling we have of the situation. Primary feeling is the instant emotion we have when we witness something. It is what we feel right when we register an event.

After the candies are sprayed with tjhe color of emotion one decides weather or not they want to deal with the situation. Based on our prior experiences, and our ability to make connections, we take this decision. If we do want to take an action the candies then fall into another piggy bank called the baby piggy bank.

Putting into the baby bank

Baby piggy bank

When we decide to take action on this situation, the emotion colored candies go to the baby piggy bank, a subset of mama piggy bank. This is again our database, but this time our mind only deals with the kinds of responses we have given to situations similar to the present situation. Here, again we process the candies based on the information available, biases, ability to imagine possibilities.

Second paint (Secondary feeling)

After processing the candies through the baby piggy bank, we make an inference of that information. And these candies coming out of baby piggy’s mouth are again coloured with our secondary feeling. This is the feeling we have after we think about the situation consciously. This colour can also change from the previous and/ or initial colours; or it can stay the same.

Novel Situations

Now when the candies come out of the mama piggy bank, some of them can be novel situations, and some non-novel. Novel situations are events we have not come across in the past, things that we don’t know, something that we witness the first time. These diamond shaped candies go for inspection.

No Action on novelty

Our ability to make connections and our nature of wanting to know more decides to either dump these novel candies into the garbage box,

Inquire about more

or go back to the event to get more information about them with the help of the crane of inquiry.

The trucks

Coming back to the secondary feeling, this is where we have a conclusion of how we want to deal with a situation. We choose to take a decision here or if we think we need more clarity, go back to mama piggy bank for more processing until we have a fair understanding. The steps we take after this could be divided into three possibilities. First is no action, which is an act of no response. This is where we consciously think that we do not want to deal with this situation after giving it a thought. The second option is the action. We have a conclusion based on previous responses to go about this situation at hand. We act accordingly and face another situation consequently. This includes reactions, expressions in verbal, physical or any other form. Both these outcomes are represented by the truck.

Bubbled Reaction

The third possibility is of holding back our reaction. Sometimes we think the best way to deal with a situation or a person is by not reacting to it. This is represented by the bubbles.

Back to mama bank

Some of these reactions are new for us. Our imagination leads us to take new perspectives and hence new decisions to respond to a situation. These new experiences go back to the mama piggy back (database of our mind).

Other phenomena

Other than this process, there are certain instant ways the mind reacts to a situation. One of them is Mirror Neurons. Mirror neurons is a concept that is still being researched upon; but the general understanding is that our brain sees an activity performed by another the same as it being performed by us. In these cases, our mind directly jumps to a conclusion and reacts.

Emotional Contagion is the automatic replication of another person’s emotions. It is like a reflex. There is no conscious perspective taking involved in emotional contagion.

Another quality of our mind is the emotional disconnection. When we see an event as a threat to our emotional well-being, our mind shuts down the sensitivity towards that event to prevent us from ‘getting hurt’.

Empathy?

This is the general process of how one responds to an interaction or an event. But which part of this is ‘Empathy’?

We believe, that when the colour of the candy painted with the primary feeling is the same as its colour in the event, it’s empathy. After interacting with a person or a situation, if the first feeling that you get resonates with the emotions of that person or situation, it means you empathize with