Empathic accuracy
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In psychology, empathic accuracy is a measure of how accurately one person can infer the thoughts and feelings of another person.
The term was introduced in 1988, in conjunction with the term "empathic inference," by psychologists William Ickes and William Tooke.[1] Since then research on empathic accuracy has explored its relationship with the concepts of affect sharing and mentalizing. In order to accurately infer another's psychological state, one must be able to both share that state (affect sharing), and understand cognitively how to label that state (mentalizing). Neuroscience research has shown that brain activation associated with empathic accuracy overlaps with both the areas responsible for affect sharing and mentalizing.[2]
Empathic accuracy is an aspect of what William Ickes called "everyday mind reading".[3] A person's understanding of the states of others is extremely important to that person's successful social interaction, and the costs of failing in this task can be high, as seen in the social difficulties of people with autism spectrum disorders.[4] Empathic accuracy is linked to positive peer relationship outcomes and overall healthy adjustment for adolescents.[5] In adult relationships, empathic accuracy correlates with stable romantic relationships.[6]