Empathy is needed in every family. For spouses, parents, or children, when the other party fails to understand their suffering, they will feel sad or angry. However, as more forceful measures are used to elicit empathy, the empathy actually decreases even more, to an extent where empathy “withers”: Family members don’t even look at each other when they return home.
What are the ways to increase empathy among family members? The human brain releases a hormone called oxytocin, which can increase a person’s empathy.
The first known function of the hormone oxytocin is to cause uterine contractions during childbirth. Furthermore, oxytocin plays an important role in human life. Any gentle physical contact between people will cause the brain to release oxytocin. In recent years, medical research has discovered more of oxytocin’s promoting effects on social skills, including expressing empathy. There are even preliminary studies suggesting that oxytocin can improve social behavior for people with autism.
Empathy, at the cognitive level, means understanding the other person’s feelings and thoughts, and effectively making the understanding known. At the emotional level, you can empathize with other people’s emotions and take on the other person’s situation and role, thereby promoting action. As my family confides in me, for me to show empathy, the first step is to look at their faces.
In August 2020, in the medical journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, a medical experiment found that increased oxytocin in the body can cause people’s eyes to pay more attention to the face of the person in the picture, leading to less attention devoted to other parts of the person and the background picture. The result is an increase in expressions of empathy.
Therefore, give your family a daily hug before leaving home, or give your family a daily massage after returning home. These practices can stimulate the release of oxytocin, causing us to pay more attention to faces, thus allowing empathy to be better demonstrated.
Written by: Dr. William Chui
Originally posted on: HKEJ Health
Translated by: Cheuk Long Chan
