Participants in both the hot and cold phases are asked to indicate the minimum amount they need to stop smoking “right now.” The cold tag under the participants provided their monetary compensation for the delay in smoking, and the hot spot above the participants provided their monetary compensation. [Sources: 6]
The effects of empathic gap have been investigated in the field of sexual decision making, where young people in an unexcited “cold state” were unable to predict that when they were “hot” they would be more likely to engage in risky sexual relationships. solutions (for example, do not use a condom). The empathic gap between hot and cold is a cognitive bias in which people underestimate the influence of internal drives on their attitudes, preferences, and behavior. An empathic gap is a cognitive bias that makes people struggle to understand mental states that are different from their current state, or to think about how these states affect people’s judgment and decision-making. The gap between cold and hot empathy occurs when someone is in a cold (emotionally neutral) state and finds it difficult to understand someone in a warm (emotional) state, usually due to underestimation of the influence of emotions, impulses, and urges. an individual in a hot state. [Sources: 3, 6, 10]
For example, a person who is currently calm may experience a gap between cold and hot empathy, trying to predict how they will behave in a situation when they are upset. For example, someone who is currently passionate about a topic may experience a gap between warm and cold empathy, trying to figure out how other people feel about the topic if they are not so passionate about it. An empathic gap can prevent us from seeing that someone doesn’t necessarily have the same feelings for us as we do for them, or it can make us underestimate how much our feelings for someone have influenced our judgments in the past. It is important to note that failure to minimize the empathy gap can lead to negative outcomes in a medical setting (for example, when a physician needs to accurately diagnose a patient’s physical pain) [2] and in a work environment (for example, when an employer must assess the need for an employee to take leave of bereavement). [Sources: 3, 5, 6, 10]
When people are in an emotionally “cold” state, they cannot fully understand how the “hot” state will affect their preferences and behaviors. On the other hand, people in a “cold” state underestimate the ability of attachment to influence their decision-making in future situations and do not take enough action to avoid a “hot” state. [Sources: 2]
Previous research has shown that people incorrectly predict their behavior and preferences through affective states. The same prejudices apply at the interpersonal level; for example, people who are not emotionally aroused underestimate the effect of being hot on other people’s behavior. The gap between hot and cold empathy occurs when people underestimate the impact of visceral states (for example, [Sources: 2, 9, 12]
The empathic gap between hot and cold is the tendency to underestimate how our preferences will change when we are in a hot or cold emotional state. However, in some cases, we can make the most of the energy contained in a warm state and do something good, even when we have calmed down and returned to a warm state. For example, if you are feeling calm and collected right now, your thought processes may be too “cold” to remind you of the power of intense emotion, passion, or pain. [Sources: 1, 4, 11]
Generally speaking, people are more likely to underestimate the impact of pain in the cold state than in the warm state. Parents who report a lot of negative emotions are more likely to overestimate the pain of their children. [Sources: 4, 6]
Providing consumers with an understanding of the gap between hot and cold can help them understand why they are unable to follow their behavioral intentions. In the examples above, cold decision making helps to control and direct warm behavior. Conversely, decisions made in hot conditions are usually not very smart; an immediate email response to a coworker who pissed you off, impulsive purchases made before your bank account was checked, or a decision to end a relationship in the middle of a line. [Sources: 11]
When we are in different states, we cannot effectively predict our future behavior. Brain scans show that when we make seemingly hypothetical decisions or decisions that are far from the here and now, our brains do not turn on in the same way. When faced with popular choices, the brain’s reward center-and the amygdala-become more active (Kang and Camerer 2013). [Sources: 4, 5]
The empathic gap makes it difficult for us to understand a point of view or predict the actions of someone who is in a different state of mind, whether that person is someone else, our past or future. Overall, the main reason people experience empathy gaps is because human cognition is condition dependent, which means it is heavily influenced by our current mental state, making it difficult to correctly assess other mental states or predict their impact. … [Sources: 5, 10]
The division between hot and cold empathy was proposed by George Loewenstein, a well-known and influential figure in behavioral economics4. Levenshtein argued that “affect has the ability to profoundly transform us as human beings; in different affective states it is almost the same. if we were different people ”(1). 4 Through a series of studies that he has conducted or participated in, Lowenstein has demonstrated an empathic gap in responses to pain, addiction, thirst, and fear. This is an important step because no previous study of the empathy gap between hot and cold has compared hot and cold biological activity and has shown no direct neural evidence consistent with affective difference (empathic versus emotional). This fMRI evidence of the differential activity of the islet and amygdala provides new evidence for the biological coding of a gap between warm (real choice) and cold (hypothetical choice) empathic gap in the brain. The assumption of underestimating the visceral response also offers some potential ways to deflect the blame from hypothetical future studies. [Sources: 7, 8]
Further understanding of how the brain makes hot and cold decisions (real and hypothetical) can help individuals and society make these difficult decisions more effectively. For clarity and brevity, these techniques are usually written with an emphasis on one of the main types of empathic gap, namely cold-hot, intrapersonal, perceived bias, which presents our difficulty in predicting what he will think and do in the future. the future. when we are in a more emotional situation than the current one. Whether you are trying to understand someone else’s point of view or to put yourself in place in the future, make an active effort to visualize mental states that are different from your current one. Talk to your child about situations in which you miscalculated and how your emotional state played a role. [Sources: 4, 5, 7, 10]
If we no longer have feelings for someone, then underestimate how much our feelings for someone affect our past judgments. We have heard that there are people who cannot reconcile what they believe to be people and their behavior, and they are in a state of intense experience. When it is difficult for us to remember or understand our actions in different states. [Sources: 0, 3, 5]
— Slimane Zouggari
##### Sources #####
[0]: https://www.npr.org/2019/11/27/783495595/in-the-heat-of-the-moment-how-intense-emotions-transform-us
[1]: https://www.research-live.com/article/opinion/bias-in-the-spotlight-the-hotcold-empathy-gap/id/4013735
[2]: https://longevity.stanford.edu/hot-cold-empathy-gaps-and-medical-decision-making/
[3]: https://nextbigwhat.com/the-empathy-gap-why-we-fail-to-understand-different-perspectives/
[4]: https://parentingscience.com/empathy-gap/
[5]: https://nesslabs.com/empathy-gap
[6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot-cold_empathy_gap
[7]: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2013.00104/full
[8]: https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/empathy-gap/
[9]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16045419/
[10]: https://effectiviology.com/empathy-gap/
[11]: https://www.researchworld.com/bias-in-the-spotlight-hot-cold-empathy-gap/
[12]: https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/resources/mini-encyclopedia-of-be/hot-cold-empathy-gap/