A new study carried out with 75,000 adults has concluded thatmiddle-aged people are able to feel more empathy than the young and the elderly. That means they are more likely to respond emotionally to other people’s experiences alreadyput yourself in the place of othersto try to understand them. The study, published inJournals of Gerontology: Psychological and Social Sciences, ensures that the evolution of human empathy throughout adult life has an inverted “U” shape, reaching its maximum around fifty years of age. According to Ed O? Brien, a researcher at the University of Michigan and co-author of the work, this evolution is due to the fact thatcognitive skills and experiences accumulated during early adult life improve emotional function; however, when cognitive ability begins to deteriorate with aging, the ability to empathize is affected as well.
However, the researchers do not rule out that this result is due to a “historical effect.” “Americans born in the 1960s grew up in acontext of social movements and the struggle for civil rightsthat could have emphasized their emotions and trained their ability to put themselves in the shoes of other social groups “, they assure.
In any case, the authors insist that it is important to know the origin of empathy because “it plays an essential role in daily social life, it is related to activities such as volunteering and donations, and it is interesting to know if there are ways of increase the empathic response in society “, as stated by Sara Konrath, co-author of the research.
