American scientists from the University of Denver in Colorado studied the connection between empathy and physiological processes in the human body. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Biological Psychology.
Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the emotions of others. Previous research has shown that empathetic people are more likely to engage in altruistic behavior, experience less loneliness, and enjoy higher quality relationships.
But this useful character trait had a downside.
“As a society, we tend to highly value empathy as a personality trait. But several previous studies have shown increased levels of markers of chronic inflammation in people with high levels of empathy; This shows that, at a biological level, empathy depletes the body’s resources,” said study author Eric Manchak.
Researchers analyzed data from the 1994-1995 U.S. Population Health Survey and then compared it with results from examinations taken eight years later, when participants were between 32 and 40 years old.
The researchers looked at three main factors: emotional empathy (the degree to which people perceive the feelings and emotions of others), depressive symptoms, and levels of C-reactive protein, which serves as an indicator of inflammation in the body.
It turned out that in the absence of severe depressive symptoms, people with high empathy had increased levels of C-reactive protein in their blood. This means that the tendency to empathize contributes to increased inflammation.
High C-reactive protein levels are associated with heart disease, bowel disease and stroke. Individual differences in the content of this marker may become more pronounced with age, the researchers noted.
Previous scientists developed Empathy teaching methodology.