Hyper-empathy

Hyper-empathy refers to a person having heightened empathy. Reasons and experiences of hyper-empathy vary. Some autistic people have reported experiencing hyper-empathy. In psychopathology, hyper-empathy is viewed as a symptom of a neurological disorder.

The term empath is sometimes used in a broader sense to describe someone who is more adept at understanding, i.e. is more sensitive to the feelings of others than the average person; or as a descriptor for someone who is higher on an empathetic "spectrum" of sorts.^[1]

Autism

Academic literature has long associated autism with empathy deficits.^[2] According to Dr. Lauren Breese, this was a "deeply flawed view".^[3] A 2024 study collected the experiences of a diverse group of 76 autistic people and found that there was a high proportion of hyper-empathic experiences.^[4]

Psychopathology

In neuropsychology, "hyper empathy" has also been described as a dysfunctional empathic emotional overreaction. Some researchers have suggested that hyper-empathy might arise as a consequence of a lack of emotion regulation and hyperactivation of the amygdala.^[5]

A paper published in 2013 reported on a case of a patient who became hyper-empathic after receiving resective epilepsy surgery, a form of brain surgery. The patient's behavioral modification remained unchanged for 13 years.^[6]

Neuroscientists have found evidence to suggest that some people have greater or lesser ability to share and feel the emotions of others.^[7][8] Mirror neurons are neurons that fire both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. Interfering with the level of activation of mirror neurons via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been experimentally studied.^[9]

In popular culture

An artistic interpretation of mirror neurons, the overactivity of which is a possible explanation for hyperempathy, active in two human brains

• In Olivia Butler's Parable of the Sower the main character suffers from a fictional condition called hyperempathy.^[10] In the sequel, Parable of the Talents, she describes the condition:

Hyperempathy syndrome is a delusional disorder, after all. There's no telepathy, no magic, no deep spiritual awareness. There's just the neurochemically induced delusion that I feel the pain and pleasure that I see others experiencing. Pleasure is rare, pain is plentiful, and delusional or not, it hurts like hell.^[11]

• Yuliya Liberman hypothesized that if Brain-to-Brain communication becomes a reality, then two people who share "memories, thoughts, and feelings with each other for a long period of time" could develop "a type of hyper-empathy" that might lead to some loss of individuality.^[12]
• Online, self-describing empaths are sometimes mocked for using the moniker. Shane Dawson was mocked for using the term to describe himself after a poorly-received apology YouTube video in 2018.^[13]