[hkpack]

Why not? I know people who are very good at feeling other people’s emotions but very poor at analyzing them.

In kids you can see it all the time - like a kid started crying because he sees others cry, but if you ask them why they cry - the explanation is always ridiculous.

But even some adults are like that, interpreting your own or even others emotions is both a skill and a talent.

[hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm]

>In kids you can see it all the time - like a kid started crying because he sees others cry, but if you ask them why they cry - the explanation is always ridiculous.

That's just called empathy.

[lisdexan]

Their point is that empathy is a (very useful) emotional response. It doesn't give you a correct model of the other persons mind.

[JumpCrisscross]

Why can’t it be both? We have dedicated neural circuitry to mirroring others’ emotions, and pheromones that directly signal emotions between individuals.

[jjk166]

It just isn't both. Emotional intelligence isn't mirroring others' emotions or smelling their pheromones, it is using the mind to actually understand rationally what is going through someone else's. It's how you can know what an octopus is thinking despite not having the neural circuitry to mirror its emotions or pick up its chemical signatures.

[simondotau]

> It's how you can know what an octopus is thinking

You mean, it’s how you can assign anthropomorphised assumptions to the octopus. There’s a world difference between having semi reliable predictive power and actually knowing something.

[jjk166]

Yes, exactly how you assign those assumptions to humans despite having no way of actually knowing that they have rich internal lives comparable to your own. It is the ability to simulate a mind foreign to your own and anticipate how it would respond to circumstances.

[hkpack]

I think your description would be perfect in describing a psychopath - i.e. someone who can rationalize and think about other beings logically, without actually being able to subconsciously empathize.

Not all people like that at all. Some people really do feel emotions of others before being able to rationalize it.

[yetihehe]

> Some people really do feel emotions of others before being able to rationalize it.

Yeah, they are called empaths. That's empathy. Rationalizing is another process, which can be done faster with high emotional/social intelligence.

> psychopath - i.e. someone who can rationalize and think about other beings logically, without actually being able to subconsciously empathize.

Exactly. Low on empathy but high on intelligence - psychopath. Low on emotional intelligence but high on empathy - empath. Low on both - unfeeling idiot. High on both - a warm kind person.

[jjk166]

No, a psychopath is someone who can't empathize. Theory of mind has nothing to do with empathy. The overwhelming majority of people are capable of both, but they are two distinct skills.