Overcoming cognitive bias to improve professional empathy
The importance and complexity of empathy in the work context, analysed through non-verbal communication and the interpretation of emotions
by Luca Brambilla*.
4' min read
4' min read
In all likelihood, empathy is one of the most quoted (and abused) words in management and HR. Thus, when a topic becomes overused, the risk is to trivialise it by simplifying its complexity. It is therefore better to start by resorting to etymology, remembering that the term derives from ancient Greek, from en ('in', 'within') and pathos ('suffering', 'feeling'). It is therefore the ability to enter into the emotions of another person or, to use a more colloquial expression, to 'put oneself in their shoes'.
But initiating a deep emotional connection is by no means a simple matter. While it can be facilitated by an innate talent, it requires ad hoc training in the interpretation of facial expressions and body signals derived from emotions.
Empathy in the professional field is a real discipline, explored in a structured manner in the book Business Profiling - Handbook of Nonverbal Communication (2022). This highlights the sophistication of the subject, showing how empathy is a fundamental skill and how becoming a skilled business profiler is a greater challenge than one might think.
In university and corporate lectures I often perform an experiment, showing participants some photographs of people and asking them to recognise the emotions captured by the shot. The opinions that emerge are always divergent, showing how there is a gap between the assumptions we make about each other's moods and the reality of the facts.
Underlying this is a neuroscientific mechanism: while we have the impression that other people struggle to understand our emotions, when we observe others we tend to perceive ourselves as impartial and fair-minded observers, capable of recognising the motivations and interests of others. This discordance stems from a cognitive bias called asymmetrical understanding: people tend to see themselves as more empathetic towards others than others are towards them.
