The Daily Decision-19-Empathy gap

Hello Hello This is Dr. Z, Zachary Brooks, with The Daily Decision

because you want to make better decisions.

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Today is the NINETEENTH episode of The Daily Decision

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In the last episode we talked about how our desire to show courteous behavior to avoid hurting someone’s feelings can be greater than our desire to share our true emotions.

But what about the opposite of the courtesy bias?

Meet the “empathy gap.” The empathy gap is the tendency to underestimate the influence or strength of feelings, in either oneself or others.

Think of conflicts within organizations. If a person in charge makes a decision, she may underestimate the emotional impact her decision would have on the people that report to her leading to some mis-communication and uncomfortable feelings.

Think about your personal relationships. Often, we are surprised to find out that our friends and significant others are hurt by our choices when they seem perfectly logical to us.

The next time you make a decision that affects someone else take a second to think and feel how the decision may impact the other person and be ready for the empathy gap to show up unexpectedly.

The more you can empathize with others, generally speaking, it is less likely you will fall into the empathy gap.

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Check out Dr. Z’s other programs such as the People Behind the PhDs, Organ Oracles, Leaders on the Line, all based on the 6A philosophy by Dr. Z, that’s me.

As always, Happy Deciding.

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