Empathy Gap

The empathy gap is also sometimes referred to as the hot-cold empathy gap. This is a reference to two kinds of visceral states. ‘Hot’ visceral states are when our mental state is influenced by hunger, sexual desire, fear, exhaustion, or other strong emotions. A ‘cold’ mental state is one that is not being influenced by emotion and is usually more rational and logical.¹ When we are in either a hot or cold mental state, we fail to acknowledge the temporary nature of that mental state, and can’t put ourselves in the mindset of the other. Either we overpredict how rational we will be or believe that we will always feel as heated as we do in an emotional state.

For example, imagine that you are asked how you would respond in a situation where there was an unconscious person in need of help. Since you are currently not in that intense situation, you might have a very rational response, such as claiming that you would perform CPR. You predict a logical response because you are currently in a “cold” state of mind. However, if you found yourself in that situation, fear and anxiety might cause you to behave very differently. You would be in a hot mental state and powerful emotions may influence how you behave. This situation demonstrates the empathy gap, where we are unable to correctly predict how we will behave because we make our predictions based on current emotional states.