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GROWINGEMPATHY

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GROWING EMPATHYVolume 19, Issue 2, Number 58

Brain, Mind, Soul, and Mirror Neurons 1Dr. Marco Iacoboni

Mama’s Last Hug 3Dr. Frans de Waal

Mind and Conflict 5Dr. Emile Bruneau

Art as Medicine for Empathy 7Dr. Michael Flanagan

How Does the World Children’s Festival Develop Empathy? 11by Dr. Ashfaq Ishaq

Fellow Feelings in New York or New Guinea 15Dr. Tom Maschio

Learning and Teaching Empathy 19by Dr. Carolyn Zahn-Waxler

Building Bridges through Music 21by Andrea Green

Be Synchronized and Seek Serendipity 25Dr. Ryszard Praszkier

Compassion’s Benefits 27Dr. Emma Seppälä

Gaming with Empathy 29Dr. Karen Schrier

Empathy Mapping 31Sarah Gibbons

Listen To Your Heart 33What is Your Empathy Quotient? 34

Dr. Judith Orloff

Growing EmpathyVolume 19, Issue 2, Number 58

Editor & PublisherAshfaq Ishaq, Ph.D.

Assistant EditorsTyler Galarneau, MPPAurora Sidney-Ando, Ph.D.

Creative DirectorDavid Garnerwww.garnerdesign.net

ContributorsEmile Bruneau, Ph.D.Frans de Waal, Ph.D.Michael Flanagan, MDSarah GibbonsAndrea GreenMarco Iacoboni, MD, Ph.D.Ashfaq Ishaq, Ph.D.Tom Maschio, Ph.D.Judith Orloff, Ph.D.Ryszard Praszkier, Ph.D.Karen Schrier, Ph.D.Emma Seppala. Ph.D.Carolyn Zahn-Waxler, Ph.D.

ArtworkCover: World Children’s Festival PhotoBack cover: Artwork of Amal Al Hajj, age11, Yemen

The International Child Art Foundation dedicatesthis nal issue of ChildArt quarterly to Dr. EmileBruneau and his battle against a brain tumor.

APRIL - JUNE 2019 VOL.19, ISSUE 2, NUMBER 58

Dear Reader,

This issue of ChildArt is path-breaking

for two reasons. First, its focus is

empathy—mother of all emotions which

influences our perspectives and actions.

Some never feel empathy or find the

need for it, but the world cannot improve

without it. We are most grateful to the

experts who took the time to contribute

to this issue to make you realize the

importance of growing your own

empathy.

The second reason is that this is the very

last issue of ChildArt quarterly.

Publishing this ad-free magazine since

1998 has been a labor of love. It is no

longer feasible to persist against an

environment that does not induce

private foundations to lend support to

worthy publications for young readers.

We are grateful to you and all ChildArt

subscribers, some who have stayed with

us for many years. We are sorry that this

quarterly for a brighter future is now a

thing of the past.

Happy reading and best wishes.

APRIL - JUNE 2019 GROWING EMPATHY 21 CHILDART ICAF.org

Brain, Mind, Souland Mirror NeuronsProfessor Marco Iacoboni talks with ChildArt

Born and raised in a tight-knit family in Rome, Italy, Marco

grew up surrounded by his parents,three aunts, and his grandmother.With both his parents working, hespent most days with his grand-mother. A strong-willed woman, hisgrandmother taught him a lot andstarted him on the path to where heis now. As a child he liked to write,play music, and watch movies, butthere was an idea even back thenthat he would grow up to be a doctor.

When he entered medicine, he immediately fell in love with thehuman brain as one of the most important organs for decision making and life choices. He becamefascinated with how the brain interacts with the rest of the bodyand the surrounding environment.He says, “These interactions are thebasis of who we are and what wedo—our mind and soul.”

At the UCLA Brain Mapping Center,Dr. Iacoboni and his team study the

brain harmlessly and painlessly byusing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). They record picturesof the brain when people see certain things, do certain things,and experience certain emotions.They can also excite parts of thebrain, or prevent them from exciting—called inhibition—andsee what the effects are. By excitingor inhibiting specific parts of thebrain, he can determine cause-and-effect relationships between thebrain and human behavior. Andthrough brain imaging and map-ping, he has worked out what partsof the brain contain mirror neurons.

He became interested in mirror neu-rons gradually. Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti,who first discovered mirror neurons, approached him at the UCLA BrainMapping Center because he wantedto expand the research on mirror neurons using brain imaging in humans. Though he was not entirelyconvinced about mirror neurons, in1998 he visited Dr. Rizzolatti at theUniversity of Parma in Italy and realized that the empirical findingswere solid. He had an intuition thatthe discovery of mirror neurons wasgoing to revolutionize the way wethink about the brain and ourselves. It took him several years of experi-mentation to fully grasp the explana-tory potential of mirror neurons tovalidate why humans are social beings.

His generation–he says–was alwaystaught that humans are selfish beings,motivated by self-preservation andself-gain. “Mirror neurons are a wholenew realm of hope that people arewired to be selfless and empathetic.The mirror neurons are a really important mechanism in the brain for empathy, for getting into your mentalstate, your emotional state, for connecting with you. So that tells methat indeed the classical story that humans are selfish beings is completely wrong, we’re actuallywired for empathy—that’s our nature.”

Not only has he discovered the con-nection between mirror neurons and

empathy, and knows where to find themirror neurons—they are all over thebrain!—he now experiments on howto make people empathic. He and histeam have stimulated certain brainareas in a laboratory setting and observed people become more empa-thetic and generous towards others.

Though he has worked primarily onthe brain, he says “to be honest, I really don’t give a damn about thebrain. I care about the human soul. I believe that the soul is in the mind,and that the mind is a functionalprocess instantiated by the brain with its interactions with the bodyand the environment. Hence, I studythe brain.”

He has a message for you as well. He says that young people are the futureand hope of humanity, so he wantsyou all “to really try to support eachother, to empathize.” He hopes thatyou all lead a life that gives meaningto you and the people in your com-munity. Don’t just be empathetic now,but be empathetic toward yourself inthe future and future generations.“You want to have a solid education toactively engage with the world andsteer it for the better.”

He reminds us all that “we really needthe younger generation to step upand save humanity because otherwisethese nice things that we have on ourplanet may disappear entirely in a notso distant future.” n

A neurologist and neuroscientist,Marco Iacoboni is an MD and a Ph.D.,a professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA,he is also director of the Neuromodu-lation Lab at UCLA’s Brain MappingCenter where he has conducted seminal research on mirror neurons.

Marco as a table tennis champ.

I care about the human soul. I believe that the soul is in the mind,and that the mind is a functional process instantiated by the brain with its interactions with the body and the environment.Hence, I study the brain.


One of the world’s best-knownprimatologists, Dr. Frans de Waal explains in his book “The Age of Empathy” that while economists andpoliticians model human society on the perpetual struggle they believe exists in nature, in reality many animals survive throughcooperation and empathy, which ispart of their survival package, as it isfor the human society.

Have you ever thought of building your own zoo? That’s

basically what Franciscus BernardusMaria "Frans" de Waal did, as a youngkid growing up in The Netherlands.“From very young I was interested inanimals,” he told ChildArt. “Like allthe small towns in Holland, my townof Hertogenbosch (which translatesas The Forest of the Duke) was sur-rounded by channels, water-ditches,and a river.” On weekends he wouldride his bicycle to see what he couldcatch and would usually bring backaquatic animals, like fish and salamanders. He’d also keep birds andmice and other animals.

He read many books about animalsand by the time he entered Universityto study biology, he had already donea lot of things with animals, in his ownamateurish way. “I was disappointedin the first few years of university because everything they wanted meto do was on dead animals or deadplants or microbiology or biochem-istry. I barely saw a live animal and, forme, that was the reason I wanted tostudy biology.”

To fulfill his dream, de Waal switchedUniversities where he studied ethol-ogy–the study of animal behavior,usually by biologist. There, he workedprimarily with birds and rats. At histhird university, he had the opportu-nity to work with monkeys while completing his dissertation on animalbehavior. After completing his Ph.D.,he finally transitioned to working withchimpanzees, a type of ape. Apes aredifferent than monkeys because theyhave no tails. Humans belong to thesame small family as apes.

de Waal’s initial goal with the chimpswas to study their aggressive behav-ior, because that’s what everyone wasinterested in at the time. But, as hestarted observing the world’s largest

colony of chimpanzees at the Arnhemzoo, he discovered the group ofchimps to be quite harmonious, not atall aggressive. This discovery sparkedhis interest in reconciliation instead, ashe documented how the chimpsmade peace after fights.

A year or so after his initial work withthe chimps, a power struggle beganto develop between four males in thegroup. The dominant alpha malebegan losing his position. All sorts ofcomplex coalitions began to takeshape, which de Waal refers to asChimpanzee Politics, the title of hisfirst book. Since the dominance orderis decided by coalitions rather than bywho's the biggest or the strongestmale, in principle even the smallestmale can be the alpha if he has theright supporters, such as that of thealpha female, known as Mama.

In the 1970s, at the time of de Waal’sstudies, no one talked about the ideaof animal cognition. Animals weresupposed to be simple. Animals eitherhad inborn instincts or relied on verysimple learning. “As soon as you saidthey had strategies, they think aboutthe future, they have complex tooluse, or you claim internal processeslike they have feelings, scientists gotvery upset because this was taboo.”

Today, there are all sorts of experi-ments on animal cognition but sincethis was not an acceptable topic in the1970’s, de Waal became interested in

cognition through social be-havior. When he came to theUnited States he started conducting non-invasive behavioral experimentswhere he brought the primates into a room andgave them a computer, forexample, to see how theysolved a problem presentedon a touchscreen. This led tonew insights into cognitionand the intelligence levels ofthese animals.

Additional research eventu-ally led to the idea of empa-thy, of consolation behavior,and the connections bet-ween various animals, including humans. Just likethe chimps, consolation is areaction used in humans totest empathy. When ahuman adult cries in thepresence of a young child,the child will touch and kissthem and try to console thehurt person. This is referredto as empathic concern.

The origin of empathy isfound in mothers who need to re-spond to the distress of their offspringwhich is “important for survival. This iswhy empathy is more developed in females and why oxytocin, which is involved in maternal care, is part ofthe empathic reaction. Once this capacity exists, it spreads to other

domains in society. “Empathy is amammalian characteristic found in allsorts of relationships beyond themother-child one, such as friendshipsin both sexes. It may be even olderthan mammals because there are nowstudies on birds, which means the ca-pacity may have originated in reptiles.

Mama’s Last HugDr. Frans de Waal

Frans when ten years old

Continued on page 37.


because his definition of empathy isunderstanding the thoughts, emotions, and feelings of others.”

“Think about these farmers andherders in Nigeria. For generationsthey live in a symbiosis. The farmershave crops, the herders come throughand the dung from their cattle andgoats fertilize the crops. Everybody ishappy. Everybody coexists. Then oneyear the farmers are given artificial fer-tilizer. All of a sudden they have noneed for the herders. In fact, now thehoofs of the herd might trample theircrops. So the farmers put up fences.When the herders come by and forgenerations they have taken theirherd across the land and they see thefence, what do they assume? They assume nefarious thoughts and theythink the farmers have put up thefence because they don’t like them,and they respond in turn and you getthis spiral of conflict between groupsthat is essentially based on a mis-conception. It’s entirely based on afalse meta-perception. This is so common in intergroup conflict and itis correctible.”

“Our assumptions about what theother group thinks of our group(‘meta-perceptions’) are subject to anegativity bias: we think that othergroups think worse of us than they actually do, which has enormous potential to drive conflict. The excitingpart is that meta-perceptions are correctable! The human brain is naturally biased, but it is also incredi-bly flexible—so correcting false per-

ceptions and false meta-perceptionscan help prevent the worsening ofconflicts between groups of people.”

Emile explains that there are differentforms of empathy with different definitions. Trait empathy is how empathetic somebody is regardless of situation—overall, how much theyfeel the suffering of others, cry at sadmovies, or are compelled to helpsomebody who’s suffering in thestreet. State empathy is how muchempathy you feel under certain circumstances, in a specific real-worldsituation. Then there is parochial empathy, which is the difference inempathy between in-group and forout-group. “Somebody can have incredible trait empathy, but only toward individuals within their group.And in fact, more empathy towardtheir own group may actually predictsupport for violence against othergroups, because they believe thoseother groups are responsible for thepain and suffering of their own group.”

One obstacle to addressing conflictbetween groups, such as Palestiniansvs Israelis or Catholics vs Protestants inIreland, is not only developing empathy, but developing the rightkind of empathy. “If a program bringstogether individuals from both groupsto foster and develop trait empathy,research suggests this may do absolutely nothing to resolve the conflict. And if individuals developmore parochial empathy—empathyfor their own group members, andhostility or resentment toward the

other group—that will make the situation and conflict worse than before the program started.”

Emile feels like his calling is to evaluate programs to make sure theyare very clear about what their goalsare, because simply improving empathy will not improve outcomes.He believes research, policy, and programs need to be directly relatedto individual situations, and tailoredto individual conflicts. Some programsmay work better for some groups, orwork for some groups and not others.And if we know which programs workbest in which situations, we can makemuch more progress.

Emile does a lot of work on Islamo-phobia in both the United States andacross Europe—both places where itis extraordinarily high. He’s learnedthat Muslims are openly dehumanized.The more dehumanized they feel, themore aggressive they are towardAmericans and Europeans. The moreaggressive and hostile they feel, themore radicalized they become. Andjust like meta-perceptions, Islamopho-bia is easily correctable because ofhow flexible the human brain is. “I have found that a one-minute activity addressing Islamophobia can reduce support for anti-Muslimpolicies for at least a year, and that’sincredibly exciting.”

After doing all this work and research,Emile is more optimistic than beforehe became a neuroscientist. “Thebrain’s flexibility and ability to change

Born in Northern California to parents who were hippies, Emile

was raised in a cooperative commu-nity in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Heattended an alternative elementaryschool that had no grades and morethan half of the day was devoted tocreative play. It was there he madethe connection between school andenjoyment, and his love of learningstayed with him. After his bachelor’sat Stanford University, he taught science at a high school, obtained hisdoctorate from the University ofMichigan, worked at the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology, and thenjoined the faculty at the University ofPennsylvania.

His father was a tremendous source ofinspiration but in a unique way. “De-termined not to influence my growth,he gave me the specific gift of beingmy own inspiration.” Emile learned toenjoy the process of learning throughplayful family conversations aroundthe dinner table, taking out books tolook up things like types of birds andthe meanings of different words(what IS the difference between a‘nook’ and a ‘crannie’, anyways?).

He became interested in neurosciencefrom a young age, because shortly

after he was born his mother devel-oped schizophrenia. “Like many whohave loved ones with a mental illness,I became interested in the brain afterseeing how mental illness changedmy mother.” As a high school teacher,he would save up his money duringthe year and travel in the summers. Bychance, his travels took him to regionsin the middle of conflicts, includingSouth Africa, Ireland, and Sri Lanka.“I observed that all of these very different conflicts seemed to shareeerily similar causes and motivations.These experiences and observationswouldn’t let go of me, so I made it mylife’s work to understand the psycho-logical obstacles to peace and how toovercome them.”

The most interesting part of empathyfor Emile is the ability to identify andempathize with people with whomwe have nothing in common. “For example, how a straight white malecould empathize with a friend orcoworker who is a gay black woman,who just went through a racist experi-ence.” This creative ability to reach farbeyond anything we have ever expe-rienced to empathize with peoplethat have little or nothing in commonwith us is based on theory of mind.“Empathy requires theory of mind,

Mind andConflictDr. Emile Bruneau talks to ChildArt

A neuroscientist at the University ofPennsylvania and director of thePeace and Conflict Neuroscience Lab,Emile researches the biases that driveconflict between groups of people,and focuses on dehumanization andthe restoring of empathy and humanity.

Continue to page 38

That’s how neuroscience works! You can shape your mindhowever you want to be, you can become the person you want.“ ”

Emile when ten.


Art, Empathy,and MedicineDr. Michael Flanagan talks to ChildArt

A physician, professor, and assistantdean at the Penn State College ofMedicine University Park RegionalCampus located in State College,Pennsylvania, Dr. Michael Flanaganhas played a key role in introducingthe arts and humanities to the regional campus. There is growingevidence that including the arts inmedical education can develop andpreserve vitality, resilience, and empathy in medical students anddoctors.

Growing up in rural Maryland,Dr. Flanagan had an interest

in both science and the arts, as wellas animals and people. He remembersdeveloping his first sense of empathywith the many animals he raised:ducks, geese, chickens, dogs, cats,rabbits, pigs, and even a goat and apony! He first wanted to be a veteri-narian, but decided that he enjoyedinteracting and working with peopleeven more, so he chose a career inmedicine.

He points to his mother as “alwaysinstilling a desire for education andintellectual pursuits.” She was an accomplished writer and publishedpoet, and his paternal grandmotherwas an oil painter whose work hungin his childhood home. He still follows their example, enjoying reading, writing, and painting, andcurrently teaches a course in medicalcommunication and impressionistpainting to fourth-year medical students.

Dr. Flanagan attended the Universityof Maryland at College Park as an undergraduate, followed by the University of Maryland School ofMedicine in Baltimore. He remembersreceiving a very good medical edu-cation, but realizes how dramatically

medical training has evolved in thedecades since—including the inte-gration of humanities and the arts.Yale, Columbia, Harvard, and PennState are leaders in the field of medical humanities. The Departmentof Humanities at Penn State Collegeof Medicine, the first of its kind, influences nearly every aspect of thecurriculum. Fourth-year medical students are required to take a humanities elective before graduating, which can include a “subject like photography, creativewriting, literature, music, or art.”

One of the most popular humanitieselectives offered at the College isJazz and the Art of Medicine taughtby Paul Haidet, MD. Dr. Flanagan actually completed this coursealongside a cohort of medical students to learn more about devel-oping his own humanities elective.“It was a transformational experi-ence for me to see how the study ofjazz music could be related to thepractice of medicine, and how wemight communicate with patientsmore effectively by developing anunderstanding of jazz.” He adds thatjazz musicians give each other thespace to riff and communicatethrough music in their own way,while respecting the space of other

Michael when eleven.


musicians when they take the lead. He relates that to giving patients thespace to tell their story, their medicalhistory, without being rushed or interrupted.

Though he had a newfound apprecia-tion for jazz, he was passionate aboutfine arts, particularly the impressionists.He created a course that he called “Impressionism and the Art of MedicalCommunication.” He explains that“studies on a national level suggestthat medical students possess ahigher level of empathy than theirpeers, at least when they begin medical school. But by the time theyfinish medical school they often havesignificantly less empathy, possiblybecause of the need to protect them-selves from the suffering and deaththey experience day after day, patient

after patient. Sleep deprivation, highacademic pressure, and intense work-loads combined with social isolation,financial burden, and a chaotic environment wear away at their capacity for empathy. Now we knowthat introducing the arts and humanities into medical educationcan help preserve medical students’empathy, as well as prevent burnout.”

The College recognizes that doctorsand medical students regularly face

these kinds of pressures during theirtraining, and offers humanities classesto help students maintain their empathy, vitality, and resilience, aswell as guard against burnout. Dr.Flanagan’s course focuses on fourareas to make the connection between impressionist art and empa-thetic communication. The first is‘Structure and Space’. He has his students role-play doctor and patientduring a painting exercise. The physician-painter must paint an unseen image of an impressionistpainting held by their student colleague who serves as the patient.The physician-painter takes a “history”from the student-patient by askingclosed and open ended questionsabout the impressionist image theyhold. Students observe the differ-ences between rushing in and leading

the patient versus giving them thetime and space to tell their story– in this case, a description of the impressionist image they hold.

The second area of focus is the ‘Artof Observation’. This class is held atthe Palmer Museum of Art on thePenn State main campus. It beginswith analyzing a single painting for45 minutes using Visual ThinkingStrategies, a technique he learnedat the Harvard Macy Institute. Dur-ing the observational session, the

students share what they see andthink about the painting, with the goalof being able to understand it on adeeper level through dialogue, andnot just by superficial observation andan assumption. This is compared tohow the impressionists observed theworld around them differently thatother artists of their time, which wasreflected in their unique painting style.

The third area of inquiry is on ‘Cognitive Bias’. Experts in late 19th

century Paris did not value impres-sionist art because it did not embracethe lifelike mythical and biblicalscenes they considered to be essential.This remote cognitive bias among artcritics at the Parisian Salon can becompared effectively to the cognitivebiases of our own times, which can befound in most humans to some degree, including medical students.Becoming aware of such biases is thefirst step toward overcoming them.

The fourth area addressed is, ‘TheChallenging Patient’, whether they beanxious, angry, grieving or manipula-tive. “This is connected back to themany impressionist artists who dealtwith mental health issues, such as VanGogh. Understanding and developingempathy toward these artists withtheir individual challenges can beconnected with effective approachesto manage challenges presented bydifficult patients in the present.”

After a long career as a practicingphysician and medical educator, Dr.Flanagan had the following guidanceto share with young leaders in medicine:

First, do not immerse yourself in tech-nology to the point of ignoring yoursurroundings. The less you connectwith people in your life and in theworld, the fewer opportunities youmay encounter to develop empathy.“One way to promote engagementwith the surrounding world is art, andit creates connections on a very personal level. Shared work andshared creation is an exhilarating experience and allows each person to really understand and appreciateothers for all of their differences andcontributions. When you engage in arttogether, you connect on a higherlevel.” n

It was a transformational experience for me to see how the study of jazz music could be related to the practice of medicine.”“

11 CHILDART ICAF.org

young athletes and the "inner ath-lete" in young artists, academics, andintellectuals. The idea is to liberatechildren's natural tendency towardcreativity and good health by linkingimagination with embodiment. Theprogram works because it targets stu-dents aged 8 to 12—a cohort mostvulnerable to the well-documented"fourth grade slump in children's cre-ativity" and to the obesity epidemic.Students’ self-images solidify and theclass becomes a more integrated community when they depict them-selves as "artist-athletes" as part of theArts Olympiad school art contest.

Developing empathy in kids from dif-ferent cultural, ethnic, social, religious,or national backgrounds is more problematic than growing mutual empathy in students living in thesame neighborhood or attending thesame school. Though learning is a biological activity that causes neuronsto create new connections, learningempathy requires unlearning inheritedbigotry and prejudice. A tribe's cadetsmust be separated from its emissaries,even if for a single day before the WCF.The children congregate in one con-ference room while their parents andteachers convene in another. In bothrooms, everyone must walk up to themicrophone and introduce themselves,with interpreters assisting whereneeded. Art therapy follows to alleviate anxieties and ease tensions.Activities for children are specially designed to help them form a tribe oftheir own—a united tribe of theworld's children. Our presentations toparents and teachers explain why creativity and empathy are necessaryto advance, or even save, a civilization.

The WCF is curated as an interventionto turn delegates into creative empaths. Workshops and activities arebased on STEAMS education to inte-grate STEM disciplines with the arts tofoster imagination, and sports to develop teamwork. This engages theentire body, not just the intellect.Since the brain filters all new information and discards that whichchallenges ingrained beliefs, encodingempathy requires circumventing thenativist ramparts to activate mirrorneurons. Once a brain is convincedthat the WCF is enhancing its execu-tive functions and creative potential, it can fully commit to opening up andjoining in.

Gaining children’s confidence is essential to this process. When kidsenter the festival grounds, they are astonished that other kids their age oronly slightly older are running theshow. They meet the ICAF Youth BoardMembers acting as emcees and areamazed to learn that they too couldbe selected to join the Board andemcee the next WCF. They feel awe tosee that all performances on theWCF's "World Stage" are conducted bychildren, and that some kids are hosting activities while workshops areled by prominent experts. They realizethe WCF is truly a children's festivalwhere they are the celebrities and in

complete control. This consciousnessboosts their confidence and self-esteem—smiles break out and ramparts crumble.

The WCF educational programmingbegins with “Health & EnvironmentDay” with workshops and activities focused on the children’s concerns,and these shared interests develop asense of community and purpose.Next is the “Creativity & ImaginationDay” with workshops and activitiesabout children’s own potential and future prospects, so they can come tounderstand their creativity and learnhow to enhance their potential for asuccessful future. The third and finalday is “Peace & Leadership Day,” which imparts leadership training and inspires them to become change-makers.

Each WCF has prepared a cadre of creative-empaths, inspired and readyto bring about positive social changein their respective communities. Theygarner support from each other because they have shared the WCF’stransformative experience, and canstay connected with each other virtually throughout their lives. Such agrassroots movement, never possiblebefore, promises a more prosperousand peaceful world. n

How does the WorldChildren’s Festivaldevelop empathy?by Dr. Ashfaq Ishaq

Do you know that what makes ushuman, our creativity and empa-

thy, are key attributes of successfullearners and leaders? Creativity canbe learned and developed without assistance, but empathy requires ateacher and an enabling environment.Learning and embracing empathy isnot simple or easy. This is because weare all born into tribes, and the natureof our heritage is sacrosanct and invi-olable. Our traditions lend meaning toour life, animate our creativity, andmark our destiny. Without our nativeshell and its familiar trappings, we feelrootless and naked, at risk of be-coming adrift in a rapidly evolving,eternally revolving, and evermorecomplex and confusing world. Forreasons that include avoiding conflictwith loved ones, we stay in our nativeabode, in harmony with the tribe. Wedefer to the tribe's dotty opinions andfalse narratives about out-groups in adeliberate act of loyalty and solidarity, but also because we do notentertain the perspectives of out-siders whom we are instructed neverto trust. When conflict arises with anopposing tribe, we proclaim that his-tory and morality are on our side; andto preserve stability and unity, any

compromise is considered treason. Inthis primitive order, our past stalks thepresent and scares the future away.

To reduce the intergenerational trans-mission of prejudice and hatred in ourworld, the ICAF identifies the world'smost creative children—its leadingchild artists—through the school-based Arts Olympiad and brings themtogether at the World Children's Festi-val (WCF) in Washington, D.C. toimbue their creativity with empathy.The parents and teachers who accom-pany the Arts Olympiad winners,along with crowds of visitors and at-tendees—since the three-day cele-bration is free and open to thepublic—add a level of diversity andcomplexity to the WCF.

The seeds of creativity and empathyare planted in schools with the ArtsOlympiad. In a typical classroom, students self-segregate into groupsthey often label as jocks, nerds,techies, or artists. Through structuredlesson plans, the Arts Olympiad introduces students to the "Artist-Athlete Ideal" of a creative mind in ahealthy body. This new identity awakens the dormant "inner artist" in

As ICAF founder and chair, Dr. Ishaqorganizes the Arts Olympiad inschools across the US and around the world. He has produced theWorld Children's Festival every fouryears since 1999 to honor the ArtsOlympiad winners. Located at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the World Children’s Festival is a celebration of "Creativity, Diversity,and Unity."

Ashfaq when six years old

Ashfaq with Maori children at the 2015 World Children's Festival


Creativity can be learned and developed without assistance, but empathy requires a teacher. “ ”

The idea is to liberate children's natural tendency toward creativityand good health by linking imagination with embodiment.“ ”

APRIL - JUNE 2019 GROWING EMPATHY 16CHILDART GROWING EMPATHY

Though learning is a biological activity that causes neurons tocreate new connections, learning empathy requires unlearninginherited bigotry and prejudice. “

”

APRIL - JUNE 2019 1817 CHILDART ICAF.org

Fellow Feelingsin New York or New GuineaDr. Tom Maschio talks with ChildArt

Tom grew up the youngest ofthree other siblings in Benson-

hurst Brooklyn. His dad was an electrician in the Brooklyn Navy Yard,putting radar systems in the ships.Growing up he spent a lot of timewith his mother attending lifecycleceremonies like births, baptisms, wed-dings, wakes, and funerals. Tom wouldtag along with his mother when shecared for ailing relatives, like his uncleFrankie who lived nearby and hadcolon cancer. He suffered agonizingpain and she would talk to him andminister him. She was always showingcare and concern for the lives offriends and family. “My mother, in asense, provided my initial introduc-tion to an anthropological way ofthinking.”

Tom has an ethnic upbringing in anextended family. His grandparentshad come from Italy. They were laborers,fisherman, spinners, weavers, one wasa priest. Learning was not a priority.His father lived in a family where hisfather would send the children out asearly as 9 or 10 and get whatever jobthey could get. Whatever money theyearned would be kicked back into thefamily coffers. Children were seen asresources and they would all help to

uphold the material prosperity of thefamily.

But the 1960s were about makingyour own way, separate from thatolder kin-based culture. He attendeda public school, which means it wasan egalitarian school close to wherehe lived. There were all sorts of folkwho were the same, but also somewho were different. “It was a time ofgreat tumult and controversy aroundbussing and integration. I was goingto school with African American kids.White kids and African American kidsand Asian kids were rubbing elbowsfor the first time in the history of thecountry. It was very tumultuous butgroundbreaking time in our country’shistory.”

He reflects and adds, “I think that hadan effect on me. You could reach outto other people. You could under-stand their life ways and becomefriends with them. You could developempathy for them. Not that thereweren’t problems and difficulties.There were many. I remember ItalianAmerican teens chasing black kidswho came into the neighborhood. I remember going into an AfricanAmerican neighborhood one time

Growing up in an Italian-Americanworking-class family in Brooklyn, Dr.Tom Maschio leveraged his surround-ings to develop an interest in anthro-pology, studied in Canada and didfieldwork in New Guinea, before re-turning to New York City to helpcompanies understand if and whyconsumers feel empathy for theirproducts.

and having stones thrown at me bysome kids. It was a little wild-westy.But we worked it out. It gave me a realsense of the difficulties of empathy,but it also taught me it’s somethingyou have to work at.”

He observes that seeing things fromanother point of view is so crucial tothe development of American culture.“I was a very shy and very withdrawnchild. They didn’t have a word for itthen, but they thought I was on thespectrum a bit because I was so with-drawn and shy. They didn’t have theconcept of Autism. That turned outnot to be the case. I was just quite shyand as my father would say ‘over sensi-tive.’ I had a rich inner life.” His motherread to him quite a lot. They had anice library for a working class family.He read the Iliad, the Odyssey at avery young age. Also, Maupassant andEdgar Allan Poe. He read the classicson his own. Books nurtured hisimagination. He developed a sense ofthe poetry of social and cultural life.

His parents wanted him to make theleap from working class to a morewhite-collared profession. His brother became a lawyer. “They wanted me to do that sort of thing. Become an

engineer, become a lawyer. I did wellin school, but in some subjects likemathematics I did quite badly. So thatput a crimp in their plans for me.”

He did not do well in high school andgot into the New School for LiberalArts at Brooklyn College which hadopen admissions at that time. Thevery first year there he got straight A’s.A teacher saw that he had potentialand with his help he got a transfer toColumbia College.

There he took an anthropologycourse. Claud Levi Strauss’s bookTristes Tropiques (Unhappy Tropics)struck a chord with him. He said tohimself that this is what he wanted todo, become an anthropologist.“There’s a kind of voyaging outside ofoneself and one’s own culture andseeing the world open up before you.You have to grapple with entirely dif-ferent ways of being and thinking andfeeling. That sense of opening yourspirit up to new ways of doing andfeeling and looking at the world. Itwas very appealing to me at the time.It provided an avenue of expressionfor me.”

He graduated from Columbia College

and took a year off, travelled throughEurope to Italy and went to a little island called Ischia, where his peoplecame from to find his roots. “It was interesting to see the simplicity of mybackground. And how people made aliving doing simple things like fishing,vineyard tending, small farming, andanimal husbandry.”

Upon his return he attended New YorkUniversity and after he obtained hismaster’s degree, he took another yearoff. “I didn’t have a materialistic drivefor status and money. The watch wordfor young people then was “do yourown thing.” We felt that the world wasour oyster. We had time to explore ourinterests and feelings. We didn’t haveto follow the hyper-professional tracktowards white collar-hood. It’s quite a different environment for young people now.”

For his Ph.D. he went to McMasterUniversity, just north of Niagara Fallsin Canada because the graduate

Carrying a pig home from the forest.

Tom with his daughter, Claudia.

Tom when seven.


program supported research inMelanesia, especially Papua NewGuinea. He had developed a fascina-tion with that country during his stud-ies at NYU, where he made friendswith a New Guinean. He won a Fulbright grant to go into the field.

“As an anthropologist you have to establish rapport with people beforethey’ll talk with you, before they’ll re-veal the most intimate secrets of their

religious life with you, to even talkabout their sexual life, which is some-thing culturally important. To talk about their kinship and family life.They’re not just going to open up toanyone. You have to show you havesympathy and fellow feelings for theirways of life and their ways of feelingabout their lives. You can’t just standback and just prescriptively writeabout what you see. You have to writefrom the inside. You have to live it.”

On defining empathy, Tom says, “empathy implies you getting in touchwith a suffering subject, feeling theirpain. That’s part of feeling the tragedyand pain and difficulties of other people’s lives. That’s very important toan anthropologist. But people alsohave joy. They struggle to achieve andexperience happiness and joy, and insometimes quite difficult circum-stances. There’s nothing pitiful aboutthat. Empathy implies a more holistic,

more complete felt understanding ofanother’s situation. I think I have theability to aquire such understanding.My mother gave this to me.”

Anthropologists must have a 360view of things and understand a people’s joys and pains. He has written a personal essay about hisfieldwork in New Guinea, called “NewGuinea Fishing Song.” He hadn’t setout to study song poetry. The NewGuineans that he lived with had cere-monies and songs for the big treesthat they would cut down. Every timethey made a garden, they had gardenrituals. When they went fishing, theyhad fishing songs. When they sentthe dead on their way, they had ceremonies and songs to honor thedceased. There had songs for children to prompt their growth andtheir initiation rites were grand ceremonies. The people he lived with,called the Rauto, also had magicalsongs for women when they werepregnant and there were songs whena child performed an important cultural task like going hunting orfishing for the first time. There wouldbe a ceremony when he or she losthis first tooth or baby hair.

“Each aspect of life had this imagina-tive element to it. People would com-pose poetry to honor these culturalmoments. And so I put aside all mypreconceived notions as to what religion was and what ceremony was.

I just paid attention to these imagina-tive and feeling moments and triedto really understand them. The songswere the way to their imagination.”

When Tom returned to New York City,he got involved in a project which explored the emotional dimensionsof a commodity, a Chevrolet truck.He began exploring the gender dimensions of this outside shell andthe way people were projecting allkinds of attitudes on it. The projectled to a successful advertising campaign. Anthropology andethnography became this buzz wordin businesses because they neededinsights into what people were reallydoing with their products. This waythey could construct their productsin ways that were more compellingor useful.

“I had spent most of my adult life upuntil that point trying to avoid theWest and commoditization. Anythingto do with business. I was into reli-gious life and religious poetry, andlanguage and culture, and expressiveart. And here I was working for for-tune 500 companies as an anthropol-ogist. I was looking at airplanes andairline services, I was looking at carsand trucks. I was looking at healthfood products and pet food.”

Actually, he was doing what he haddone in New Guinea: looking ateveryday things that are close to the

ground, the everyday activities thatgave meaning to life. Just as in NewGuinea people in American cities andtowns were weaving everyday thingsinto their cultural performances. “Icouldn’t dismiss the western cultureas I did before as meaningless. Because it was actually quite mean-ingful to people. I was studying themeaningfulness within the materialculture and the meanings peopleattributed to the materials of the culture. I had to have a certain levelof empathy for the subject.” He adds,“I think it’s important to understandwhere we are in regard to our ownmaterialism. I had to understandwhat this was all about. In one of myconsulting projects I had to under-stand people’s relationships to theirdogs and cats. I tried to decipher aninteraction ritual between a personand his or her pet. And I use anthro-pological theories about ritual to understand consumer thoughts andfeelings about their own actions, as well as their preferred productsand brands.”

Tom ended our talk with the followingobservation: “All over the world, people are afraid of difference or areangry about it. It’s fear displacement.And they’re animated by vulgar prejudices against people who aredifferent than them. As an anthropol-ogist, it’s a difficult time and theworld needs empathy for other people.” n

“There’s a kind of voyaging outside of oneself and one’s own cultureand seeing the world open up before you. You have to grapplewith entirely different ways of being and thinking and feeling.”

“All over the world, people are afraid of difference or are angryabout it . . . As an anthropologist, it’s a difficult time and theworld needs empathy for other people.”

Tom with the big man, Kienget.

“ “

” ”


Learning and Teaching Empathyby Dr. Carolyn Zahn-Waxler

An honorary fellow at the Center forHealthy Minds, University of Wisconsin, Dr. Zahn-Waxler has conducted seminal studies on theorigins and development of empathyand caring behaviors beginning inthe first years of life. She has writtenabout the intergenerational transmission of depression frommother to daughter from a personalperspective and has worked to de-stigmatize mental illness.

Igrew up in a small town in Wisconsin. I had good friends and

we were often playful and silly. Insome ways it was a carefree life butless so as I got older. Both my motherand my father lost their motherswhen they were very young, and theirgrowing up years were difficult. Bothof them developed emotional prob-lems, that carried into their adult lives.Their anger, fear, and sadness wereoften part of family life. My sister and Ifelt their emotions and it could bescary. My mother and father wouldargue a lot, yelling at each other. Mymother often was depressed andwent to bed for days at a time. My sis-ter and I took care of ourselves andeach other. We also had happy timestogether as a family. So, it was com-plicated, as families often are. Motherwould sometimes say I was an uncar-ing person, --- that I did not have em-pathy for her. I learned over time thanI was caring, even though I could nothelp with her emotional problems.Children shouldn’t have to do that.

Empathy is the ability to feel what an-other person feels. It can help us tounderstand their situation and to carefor them. If someone is hurt or sad orfrightened, empathy can give usdeeper awareness of their troubles.

Ordinarily, this is very useful. If we canfeel for their difficulties, we can helpand comfort them. We can give thema hug or try to cheer them up whenthey are sad. We can help them whenthey are hurt or find an adult who cantake care of them. We can share withothers in need. We can stand up tobullies and comfort their victimswhen they are being picked on. Thereare many ways to show kindness andgenerosity, and to care for others. Butwhen we get overinvolved in other’sstrong feelings, this can hurt us. Westart to worry so much about theother person that we don’t take careof our own needs. My mother wasgood at helping others outside thefamily but less so at home. She was in-sightful about others’ problems and Ilearned a lot of psychology “at herknee”. But I did not always personallybenefit from it. Later in life we cameto get along and to even enjoy eachother.

My family experiences created a cu-riosity that led me to become a childpsychologist. I studied how childrendevelop healthy empathy, as well as

both too much empathy or too little.This became a lifetime passion. Some-times early adversity has positive out-comes. For me it opened up a wholenew world of experiences. I went touniversities in the Midwest to get theformal training to study these inter-ests. Of course, I didn’t realize that’swhat I was doing then. As a youngadult, I just was interested in leavinghome and starting my own life.

After college I took a job at the National Institute of Mental Health inBethesda, MD. I worked with MarianRadke-Yarrow, a psychologist interested in ways children could betaught to care for others in need. Westudied how nursery school childrenwere influenced both by (1) how anadult teacher treated them (eitherwarm and kind or aloof and uncar-ing), and (2) how the teacher treatedothers in need (either with limitedempathy or more expanded em-pathic concern for others). The mosteffective condition for learning empathy was when the teacher wasboth kind to children and taughtthem many different ways to care forothers. This is called generalized altruism, i.e. when we are able toreach out into the world more broadlyto care for others. Many decades havepassed since then and others havefound similar results. Also, we nowknow that it is easier for some childrento show empathy than others. Butpractice helps.

I continued to study the developmentof empathy in babies and toddlers. We followed them for several years,observing them at home and in thelaboratory. Earlier theories said chil-dren do not show caring and concernuntil they are school age. However, wefound that some forms are present inthe first years of life, even in some

three- month-old babies. Like allhuman emotions and behaviors, people vary in how much empathythey show. We learned some of this isdetermined by our genes. In onestudy we compared identical twins(who come from one egg and share alltheir genes) with fraternal twins (whocome from separate eggs and sharehalf their genes). Identical twins weremore similar in empathy toward others than fraternal twins. But howwe are raised also makes a differencein children’s desire to care for others.Both nature and nurture matter.

So how can empathy be developed? If you are lucky, you have parents arecaring, both to you and to othersaround them. This is not always truefor many children and youth as parents have their own struggles.If there is trouble at home, it can behelpful to seek out other caring rela-tives and friends (and even our pets!).That’s what I did. There are many kindpeople in our lives if we look for them.They are examples of concern andcompassion that we can use to guideus. The world is filled with conflict.Many people want to dominate, hurt,

and control others. This too starts inchildhood. When you see bullying,you can look for ways to help. This isanother form of empathy. Empathycan lead to the bravery and couragerequired to stand up for others lessfortunate and to resist oppression andcruelty.

Since our early studies, other scientistshave tried similar and new ways to increase empathy and caring actionsin children, as well as adults. One ofthe promising new approaches involves meditation and other ways ofself-reflection for developing a senseof calm. When we are emotionallystirred up it is hard to settle down,much less care about another’s emo-tional needs. When we are emotion-ally comfortable with ourselves, wecan more easily reach out to others.Being kind to yourself is the best placeto start. One form of meditation iscalled loving-kindness meditation. Itstarts with sending thoughts of kind-ness and caring to yourself and laterextending it to others in your life andbeyond. Scientists at the Center forHealthy Minds in Madison, WI foundthat loving-kindness meditation increased caring actions in preschoolchildren. This study, like our earlierone, also included a warm adult whotaught a variety of ways to care forothers. Similar practices also workwith older children and adults.

There are many ways to be a caringperson. So, take good care of yourselfand others. In some ways it soundssimple, but it is not always easy to‘grow’ empathy. Some things in lifecan’t be changed, but other thingscan. It’s important to try. It dependson all of us to try to create a more just and peaceful world. Empathy isthe “glue’ that can bind us together inthis effort. n

Carolyn at ten.


BuildingBridgesthroughMusicBy Andrea Green

Andrea with her Dad

Andrea with the Muusikateater Generatsioon of Estonia, the cast of her musical ‘The Return of Halley’s Comet’


“”

Andrea with film maker Henry Nevison

For the past 35 years as a music therapist, Andrea Green has been creating and producing musical theater as a vehicle to bring togetherdiverse groups. She lives in Philadelphia and works across theUnited States and in several othercountries.

There is no time more relevant forchildren to feel safe, to develop

empathy and understanding of differences, and to work together withmutual respect.

Music has always been my passionand an outlet to express what's in myheart. When I was 12 years old, myDad, a physician, would take me withhim on house calls. I also accompaniedhim to the nursing home where hewas the medical director. I wouldbring my guitar and play and sing forhis patients. I would go from room toroom making connections with people who desperately needed to benoticed and heard. I listened to their stories, as they coped with emotionaland physical challenges. I felt theirpain and responded by playing musicand creating songs that reflected theirexperiences.

I remember one woman who was bat-tling crippling arthritis. She called out,“I wanna get my feet a goin, fly on out ofhere. Standing on my own again.” Herdetermination and courage inspiredme to set her words to music and Iadded the lyrics, ”on this my mind isclear.” We then collaborated on creating the song ‘Standing on MyOwn Again’. At an early age, I came to understand the value of music tobring out feelings, to change moodsand to heal.

My mother was also a significant mu-sical influence on me. She was a poetand a music teacher. She, like my Dad,nurtured my sensitivity to other peoples' feelings, as she encouragedme to develop my musical talents andskills. My mother reminded me topractice and study. Both of my parents

recognized my skill for helping people through my music. Theirunique personalities and perspec-tives remain important to me.

I studied music therapy at the University of Miami in Coral Gables,Florida, and did my graduate workin the Creative Arts in Therapy Program at Drexel University inPhiladelphia. In 1982, I was workingas a music therapist at the HMSSchool for Children with CerebralPalsy in Philadelphia. While in ameeting, a debate was going on asto whether our students with se-vere physical disabilities could participate as equal partners withnon-disabled youngsters from thenearby Germantown FriendsSchool. As I sat there listening tothe discussion, the words “On theOther Side of the Fence” jumpedinto my mind. I imagined a farm divided by a fence, where the farmanimals on the two sides were curious about each other but therewas a huge barrier between them. I raised my hand and stated, “I’mgoing to write a musical that will

bring the children together asequal partners!”

Several HMS teachers were worriedthat our students would be patron-ized, excluded, or not ‘seen’ as viablepartners. I brainstormed for twoweeks, and the musical “On theOther Side of the Fence” was bornand became the theatrical frame-work for music to build bridges. Asyoungsters act out the story andsing the songs (with themes of em-pathy and acceptance), they beginto build friendship and take downtheir own fences of fear about differences. In 2014, ‘On the Other Side of the Fence’ became a docu-mentary that was aired nationallyon Public Television. The film received a Mid-Atlantic Emmy, aPublic Service Bronze award fromthe United Nations and a GoldMedal from the New York Interna-tional Film Festival. It became clearto me from the response from viewers that my musicals have universal appeal to explore thethemes of acceptance of others aswell as ourselves.

In recent years, I produced and directed my musical 'The Same Sky'at the Stephen Sondheim Centerfor the Performing Arts in Fairfield,Iowa and at the St. John School ofthe Arts in the US Virgin Islands. I used the story about diverse fabriccharacters that come to life in a fabric shop to help kids like youembrace differences and buildbridges to each other.

It is my mission to make the world a more inclusive, understanding, respectful, and peaceful place.

“Everybody is One of a Kind. Everybody is One of a Kind.Everybody has something to say, in this great big world we’ve got.

Everybody is one of a kind, and we all have a part to play. In this great big world. This great big melting pot.”

For more information, visit www.andreagreenmusic.com

There is no time more relevant for children to feel safe, to develop empathy and understanding of differences, and to work together with mutual respect.

APRIL - JUNE 2019 GROWING EMPATHY 28 27 CHILDART ICAF.org

Be Synchronizedand SeekSerendipityDr. Ryszard Praszkier talks with ChildArt

Dr. Praszkier grew up right afterthe World War II in Warsaw when

the city lay in ruins. He used his imagination and played games tomake this ugly world turn into some-thing unseen. His mother took himtracking in the mountains to showhim plants and trees. His father waspositive and resourceful: “Don’t worry,you have a future.”

Synchronizing is something helearned as a boy scout. Being a loneranger doesn’t work. You have to tunein with the group, dig holes together,play in the forest together. He thinksdancing is a great example of synchronicity. When you are dancing,you have to tune in, to synchronize onemotional, cognitive, and kinestheticlevels. Dancing activates your entirebody: mind, emotions, movement.“The more you are synchronized withothers, the better you perform.”

In the 1980’s he joined the under-ground peaceful freedom movementcalled Solidarity. On the surface hewas the director for a communitymental health clinic for children and

youth. Under the surface, he was illegally active in this freedom move-ment, organizing discussions and actions, candles in the windows, etc.“Even in the worst conditions ever, ifyou are empathetic, and synchronizedwith others, you can survive with yourown values as a group, as a society. Instead of confronting or attackingthe oppressors, just pursue your ownvision, regardless, and build a strongcivil society bottom-up.”

In 1989, the oppressors became help-less and gave up and Solidarity tookover. The many underground initia-

tives became legal and became asso-ciations and foundations. He was nowpart of the legalized civil society. Hestarted developing social entrepre-neurship in Poland and conducting research on the commonalities in individuals who spark a change andhow this change becomes endurableand irreversible. “Now I travel all overthe world. I meet the best of the bestpeople. I just returned from Nigeriaand next I go to Colombia.”

Serendipity, he thinks, is a most im-portant issue now for the world. “Howto modify the environment to increaseserendipity?” Serendipity is having un-expected ideas come into your brain.Some of the most important humandiscoveries were serendipitous, frompenicillin to mirror neurons. “It’s aroyal gateway to boosting creativity.”

His message for you: “Try to do thingswith joy. That’s the first thing. Becausewhen you do everything seriously andstruggling, you lose your ability to becreative. Joy boosts creativity. Whenyou do things with joy, and when youare joyful, when you work with joy, it’sbetter for your life. Also, never confront things directly if you findthings that are difficult. Don’t getoverwhelmed with the problem. Stepaway. Build distance through singing,dancing, some simulated action. Distance also boosts creativity.” n

A researcher emeritus at University ofWarsaw’s Institute for Social Studies,Dr. Ryszard Praszkier studies the dynamics of social change and whatmakes change durable and irreversible. For more than 20 yearshe has worked to empower social innovators around the world and haswritten books on entrepreneurshipand social change.

Serendipity is having unexpected ideas come into your brain. Some of the most important human discoveries were serendipitous, from penicillin to mirror neurons.

It’s a royal gateway to boosting creativity.

Horse-riding adventurer since earlychildhood Trekking in the Polish Tatra Mountains


Compassion’sBenefitsby Dr. Emma Seppälä

Why Compassion is Good?Why does compassion lead to healthbenefits in particular? A clue to thisquestion rests in a fascinating newstudy by Steve Cole at the Universityof California, Los Angeles, and APS Fellow Barbara Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina at ChapelHill. The results were reported at Stanford Medical School’s Center forCompassion and Altruism Researchand Education’s (CCARE) inaugural Science of Compassion conference in2012. Their study evaluated the levelsof cellular inflammation in peoplewho describe themselves as “veryhappy.” Inflammation is at the root ofcancer and other diseases and is generally high in people who liveunder a lot of stress. We might expectthat inflammation would be lower forpeople with higher levels of happi-ness. Cole and Fredrickson found thatthis was only the case for certain “veryhappy” people. They found that people who were happy because theylived the “good life” (sometimes alsoknow as “hedonic happiness”) hadhigh inflammation levels but that, onthe other hand, people who werehappy because they lived a life of purpose or meaning (sometimes alsoknown as “eudaimonic happiness”)had low inflammation levels. A life ofmeaning and purpose is one focusedless on satisfying oneself and more onothers. It is a life rich in compassion,altruism, and greater meaning.

How to live longer?Another way in which a compassion-ate lifestyle may improve longevity isthat it may serve as a buffer against

stress. A new study conducted on alarge population (more than 800 people) and spearheaded by the University at Buffalo’s Michael Poulinfound that stress did not predict mortality in those who helped others,but that it did in those who did not.One of the reasons that compassionmay protect against stress is the veryfact that it is so pleasurable. Motiva-tion, however, seems to play an important role in predicting whether a compassionate lifestyle exerts a beneficial impact on health. Sara Konrath, at the University of Michigan, discovered that people who engagedin volunteerism lived longer than theirnon-volunteering peers — but only iftheir reasons for volunteering were altruistic rather than self-serving.

Another reason compassion mayboost our well-being is that it can helpbroaden our perspective beyond ourselves. Research shows thatdepression and anxiety are linked to astate of self-focus, a preoccupationwith “me, myself, and I.” When you dosomething for someone else, how-ever, that state of self-focus shifts to astate of other-focus. If you recall atime you were feeling blue and suddenly a close friend or relative callsyou for urgent help with a problem,you may remember that as your attention shifts to helping them, yourmood lifts. Rather than feeling blue,you may have felt energized to help;before you knew it, you may evenhave felt better and gained some “perspective on your own situation as well.

Social ConnectionFinally, one additional way in whichcompassion may boost our well-beingis by increasing a sense of connectionto others. One telling study showedthat lack of social connection is agreater detriment to health than obesity, smoking, and high bloodpressure. On the flip side, strong socialconnection leads to a 50 percent increased chance of longevity. Socialconnection strengthens our immunesystem (research by Cole shows thatgenes impacted by social connectionalso code for immune function and inflammation), helps us recover fromdisease faster, and may even lengthenour life. People who feel more connected to others have lower ratesof anxiety and depression. Moreover,studies show that they also havehigher self-esteem, are more empathic to others, more trusting andcooperation as a consequence, othersare more open to trusting and cooperating with them. Social connectedness therefore generates apositive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical well-being.

Unfortunately, the opposite is alsotrue for those who lack social connectedness. Low social connectionhas been generally associated withdeclines in physical and psychologicalhealth, as well as a higher propensityfor antisocial behavior that leads tofurther isolation. Adopting a compassionate lifestyle or cultivatingcompassion may help boost socialconnection and improve physical andpsychological health. n

As a graduate student at Stanford University, Emma was amazed by thebeauty of the campus and dismayedat how miserable and anxious manystudents were. So she started a science of happiness class. Today, sheis science director of the Center forCompassion and Altruism Researchand Education at Stanford. Originallyfrom Paris, France, she speaks five languages: French, English, German,Spanish and Mandarin Chinese

Compassion may have ensured our survival

‘because of its tremendousbenefits for both physical andmental health and overallwell-being. Research showsthat connecting with others ina meaningful way helps usenjoy better mental and physical health and speeds uprecovery from disease. It canalso lengthen our life spans.

The reason a compassionatelifestyle leads to greater psychological well-being canbe explained by the fact thatthe act of giving appears to beas pleasurable, if not more so,as the act of receiving. Abrain-imaging study headedby neuroscientist Jordan Graf-man from the National Insti-tutes of Health showed that the“pleasure centers” in the brain, i.e., theparts of the brain that are active whenwe experience pleasure (like dessert,money, and sex), are equally activewhen we observe someone givingmoney to charity as when we receivemoney ourselves! Giving to otherseven increases well-being above andbeyond what we experience when wespend money on ourselves.

In a revealing experiment by ElizabethDunn, at the University of British Columbia, participants received a sumof money and half of the participantswere instructed to spend the moneyon themselves; the other half was toldto spend the money on others. At theend of the study, participants whohad spent money on others felt significantly happier than those whohad spent money on themselves.

Social connectedness therefore generates a positive feedbackloop of social, emotional, and physical well-being.


Everyone played video games whenshe was a kid. “We had a Nintendo,then a Super Nintendo, and I actuallyhad an Atari 2600 growing up—it wasjust how we spent our time. It was another way of immersing ourselvesin stories and participating in play. Itwas great!” When she was at MIT, shebecame interested in the differentways one could teach and supportstudent engagement and learningthrough games. “Now I get to com-bine all my interests, dreams, andpassions to create and researchgames.”

Her book Knowledge Games exploreshow one can use games to help alldifferent people of all different ageswork together to solve problems.“Maybe we could use games to showus how to solve bullying problems,and answer other open questionsthat require different perspectives.”

What about empathy? “Like a film, abook, or a momentous event in yourlife, games are another meaningfulexperience where you could experi-ence empathy. It’s possible through

powerful storytelling alone, butgames also have another layer thatyou’re performing in that story. You’reinteracting with some of those char-acters, affecting how other charactersrespond, and whether they meettheir goals. In a way, you’re responsi-ble for some characters, and that re-sponsibility might help you toengage more and care about them—to empathize with them.”

In some games you are makingchoices and seeing the consequencesof those choices. Through seeing thatthose choices matter, and that whatyou do matters, you may begin caringabout the outcomes of your actionsand practicing skills related to empa-thy. Games can grow empathy byhelping you express your thoughts,emotions, or identity. They mighteven help you experiment with differ-ent responses or identities. Not everygame is going to affect you in theseways, but some may be meaningfulexperiences that grow empathy.

She thinks of games as another formof human expression, another place

people can interact and be part of acommunity. Just like anything, thereare good ways you can use it to sup-port your growth, and there’s a darkside as well. Sometimes people arepracticing empathy, and sometimesthey’re practicing cruelty. All thoseshades are part of humanity, so youhave to think about encouraging positive behavior without ignoringthe darker side of humanity as well.

As a recommendation, she says tothink about a game that is meaning-ful to you—and personal to you—and share that game with others.“Also, make games for other people,think about what may be exciting ormeaningful for them.” Sometimessimply making things for other people can grow your empathy. n

Gaming withEmpathyDr. Karen Schrier talks with ChildArt.

Dr. Schrier grew up with her par-ents and brother in a small town

called Setauket on Long Island in NewYork state. She was always interestedin combining writing and art with sci-ence and technology. In the elemen-tary school honors program, she wasparticularly inspired by a field tripwhere they needed to work in teamsto build an imaginary civilization—which they called “Metallica” afterband, Metallica. They decided every-thing from where the people lived towhat they ate and how they ate, andthey even designed their houses. Theythen buried artifacts of their civiliza-tion for other teams to unearth andstudy it as if they were anthropolo-gists. Later, in high school, she builtbridges and other contraptions, andtried to protect an egg from breakingwhen it was dropped. When 16, shestarted working in a biochemistry labat Stony Brook University—conduct-ing real-world scientific experiments,which was super exciting!

A writer at heart, she enjoyedAmherst College because instead of

just multiple choice tests, studentsgot to write essays explaining whatand why—even in science classes.Though she loved science, her biol-ogy professors discouraged her fromstudying biology because she wasn’tinterested in being a doctor—shewanted to be a researcher. Had she at-tended another college, she mighthave continued with biology. But shewas glad that she could combine herinterests in art, writing, science, andtechnology. This led her to a master’s,then a doctorate, and now as directorof a games program.

Associate Professor of Media Arts andDirector of the Games and EmergingMedia program at Marist College, sheis also Director of the Play InnovationLab at Marist, where her team studiesplay to teach, help, heal, and under-stand humanity. This year she is aBelfer Fellow at ADL’s Center for Tech-nology & Society.

Just like a film, a book, or a momentous event in your life,games are another meaningful experience where you couldexperience empathy.“

”

Karen at thirteen with her brother


Using EmpathyMapsDr. Sarah Gibbons talks with ChildArt

Born and raised in Raleigh, NorthCarolina, Sarah believes she was

always meant to be a creative. As akid, she was always designing outfits,rearranging furniture, and creatingartwork. She stumbled into graphicdesign when studying at North Carolina State University, back wheneverything was done on paper instead of on computers. She startedlearning about psychology and what’scalled human factors—designingthings to work better with the humanbody and mind.

Today, she has many clients with different needs and requirements. Forexample, she’ll work with a companyto understand what kind of peopleare using their app. Then she’ll conduct research, observe people, interview them, and recommendchanges that improve the users’ experience. She also works behind thescenes at companies, looking at howdifferent teams are working together,and trying to improve how well orhow quickly they are able to producesomething amazing.

“Any user research, observation, or interviewing isn’t very helpful if we

cannot empathize with users and better understand their needs,” shesays. But building empathy is a loteasier said than done, so she uses atool called an empathy map to visualize motivations that are some-times missed. “The empathy mapenables me to visualize what some-one is thinking, feeling, saying, anddoing. I can put myself in their situa-tion, understand them more deeply,and form empathy for them.”

Developing an empathy map can helpyou build personal empathy for some-one else, but it can also be used formore. Speaking with other peopleand sharing that same empathy mapwith them can spread understandingand help them develop empathy aswell. “Think of it as two sides of thesame coin. On one side is your ownempathy, possibly starting with anempathy map. On the other side ofthe coin is communicating that un-derstanding to other people so theycan develop empathy too. In business,a decision could be worth millions ofdollars, so it’s extremely importantthat everyone understands and em-pathizes with real users so everyone isall on the same page.”

Chief Designer at the NielsenNorman Group, Sarah Gibbons ispassionate about system design—how and why things work the waythey do. Designing products and experiences involves understandinghow users think, why they feel theway they do—and that requires empathy.

Sarah hopes to remind people thatempathy is different than what a lot ofpeople practice—pity and sympathy.Pity, sympathy, empathy, and compas-sion all exist on the same scale, butare often confused. She describes pityon the far-left end of the scale as apersonal feeling of discomfort whensomebody else is hurt or upset andyour feelings are centered on you.Next on the scale is sympathy. This iswhen you start to think about howhard that might be for that personwho is going through something.

Sarah encourages everyone to movebeyond just pity and sympathy, andtry practicing more empathy. Empa-thy is when you don’t just feel bad forthat person, but you try to thinkabout what it would be like to be intheir shoes. Empathy is understand-ing what somebody else is goingthrough, and mirroring their hard-ships as if you were them. Sarah be-lieves there is even one step pasteven empathy—on the far right endof the scale. This is compassion,where we feel compelled to help

them. And that’s what she thinks userexperience work should be, empa-thetic and compassionate to trulyhelp other human beings.

Her parting message for you: “Youcarry a very important task for societybecause your generation will shapewhat it becomes. For this, you mustget to know other people, especiallythose you might disagree with. Develop empathy for who they areand why they may believe what theydo. This doesn’t mean you have toagree with them or their motivations,just that you understand. Under-standing is what we need most rightnow, and it’s the bridge to making usmore compassionate human beings.”She adds that empathy maps can bethe tool for those wanting to becomemore empathic, but just don’t knowhow.n

You carry a very important task for society because yourgeneration will shape what it becomes.“ ”

Sarah when nine.


She offers three beginning stepsfrom her book to embrace empathy:

1. Begin to listen to your heartand see things from the otherpoint of view, even if you don’tagree with them.

2. Allow yourself to feel wheresomeone else is coming from soyou can walk in their shoes.

3. Be a good listener, don’t cut people off—they are doing thebest the can, and you want to listen so you can have a conversa-tion with them.

Similar to other experts, she believes that empathy is innate,that we’re designed to be empa-thetic. She’s fascinated by mirrorneurons, and suspects they are hyperactive in empathic people—always feeling for everyone andeverything around them. n

What is Your Empathy Quotient?

Just as intelligence can be measuredwith an IQ, empathy can also be as-sessed with an Empathy Quotient (EQ).Empathy is when you care about othersin both sadness and joy. It is a skill thatcan be developed through mindfulawareness. The world needs more empathic leaders, parents and people inevery profession. Empathy allows you tounderstand where another person iscoming from even if you don’t agreewith them. It bridges differences andopens communication with others.

Take the following quiz to determineyour EQ:

What is Your Empathy Quotient (EQ)?

1. Are you sensitive to others, careabout them, and want to help?

2. Do you listen with your heart notjust your head?

3. Can you hold space for others toexpress their emotions?

4. Can you listen without needing tofix someone’s problem immedi-ately?

5. Are you capable of the give andtake of intimate relationships?

6. Are you intuitive and sensitive toother’s needs?

7. Do you care about the greatergood, and the wellbeing of Earth?

n If you answered “yes” to six to sevenquestions you have an extremely high EQ

n Responding “yes” to four to five questions you have a high EQ

n Responding “yes” to two to threequestions you have a moderate EQ

n Responding “yes” to zero to one questions you have a lower EQ

“No matter what your EQ is at this point,it’s always possible to develop more empathy,” says Judith Orloff, MD. Thisquiz is adapted from her book, The Empath’s Survival Guide: Life Strategiesfor Sensitive People.

Listen toYour HeartJudith Orloff, MD talks to ChildArt

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniaand raised in Beverly Hills,

California, both of Judith’s parentswere doctors. She was an “emotionalsponge” growing up, taking on otherpeople’s emotions without knowingwhat to do because her parents didnot understand the intensity of em-pathy she possessed. She tried to runaway from her empathic abilities as ateenager, and engaged in substanceabuse in an effort to numb herselffrom others’ emotions. It was onlyafter a horrible car accident that shesought help from a psychiatrist. Shecame to understand that she had toincorporate empathy and intuitioninto her life to be happy and whole.She describes the psychiatrist as “anangel in my life.”

Empathy to Judith is “the ability forour hearts to reach out to other people and feel what they’re feeling,in joy and in pain.” Being an empathis going even deeper and taking onthe emotions of others. Although it’sa precious trait in both children andadults, if left unchecked it can lead to

exhaustion, anxiety, and depression.Existing alongside empathy is intuition, which she describes as firstimpressions and gut feelings, as wellas sudden revelations. “Intuitionstarts biologically with the nervesliterally in our guts, similar to thenerves in our brains, and can providepowerful information.”

She adds that “while the brain is responsible for certain things likereasoning, logic, and analysis, theheart is what allows you to fall in love and get over heartache, so youwant to use the best of both.” Sheemphasizes being loving to our-selves and loving to other people,being kind, and having mercy. Butshe also wants to remind us that issafe and healthy to set clear bound-aries and say no sometimes.

A New York Times best-selling author,empath, and psychiatrist in Los An-geles, California, Judith is on the clin-ical psychiatric staff at the Universityof California at Los Angeles (UCLA),and specializes in treating empathsand sensitive people through her private practice. Her latest book, TheEmpath’s Survival Guide, helps sensi-tive people embrace empathy andavoid burning out because of it.

Judith at six

Intuition starts biologically with the nerves literally in our guts, similar to the nerves in our brains, and can provide powerful information.

“”


Empathy is a biased mechanismwhich normally helps animals takecare of those close to them, however,it has restrictions which pose a prob-lem in the human world. This meansempathy is more developed for individuals who are similar and familiar. This also means we have trouble with empathy for individualswho are different or unfamiliar.Human societies are very big com-pared to primate groups—thousandseven millions compared to about ahundred. Our societies are far morecomplex and while there is a ton ofempathy in them, there is also agreater lack of empathy for certainthings and certain people.

This lack of empathy can lead to hatred between groups, such asracism. The more exposure we have topeople different from us, the soonerwe can overcome such hatred. By mixing racial relationships as we do insports, we address fears and ignorance to move beyond our hate.That’s why sports are so important,because sports mix races freely. Thishas a tremendous positive effect because from exposure we build understanding and from understand-ing we build empathy.

De Waal’s advice to young people isthat you should be open to those different from you and get to knowthem. Familiarity is the best weaponyou can have against hatred. You canlearn more about the emotions in the

lives of animals, which is often under-estimated, in de Waal’s new bookcalled “Mama’s Last Hug”. It’s aboutMama and her importance in the social group of chimpanzees but alsoabout the rich emotional lives of animals, especially primates. “I’vestudied facial expressions all my lifeand facial expression of primates arevery similar to ours. You cannot reallystudy facial expressions without

thinking about the emotions behindthem. I’ve always been familiar with emotions and in my book I explainhow we study emotions and how developed they really are.”

Frans de Waal believes the world isfull of empathy. From his own small“zoo” to chimpanzees, he believes thatempathy is a survival value in a cooperative society. n

Contined from page 4

mer white supremacists fightingagainst the same groups they used to be a part of, and I have been impressed, to say the least.”

Emile’s message for you is that youhave an extraordinary amount of

control over the type of person youbecome. “It’s entirely up to you. Thepatterns of thought you develop become who you are as a person.” He recites a Buddhist quote that says‘the thought becomes the word, theword becomes the deed, the deed

becomes habit, and the habit hardensinto character.’

“That’s how neuroscience works! Youcan shape your mind however youwant to be, you can become the person you want.” n

Contined from page 6

Emile with his wife and kids

Empathy is a mammalian characteristic found in all sorts of relation-ships beyond the mother-child one, such as friendships in both sexes.

It’s entirely up to you. The patterns of thought you develop becomewho you are as a person.”““

””

Ella Gordon-Latty, age 12, New Zealand


”“We live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us

our principal goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses.

—Northwestern University 2006 commencement addressby then-Senator Barack Obama

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”

INTERNATIONALCHILD ARTFOUNDATION

Amal al Hajj, age 11, Yemen

The mission of the International Child Art Foundation—to democratize creativity and grow empathy universally through the arts—is worthy of your involvement and support.

To donate online, please visit ICAF.orgTo mail your tax-deductible contribution, please send your check to:

ICAF, Post Office Box 58133, Washington, D.C. 20037

Someone always gets hurt when masses of individuals do what is only in their own self-interest. Freedom is liberty coupled with responsibility to something bigger orhigher than the self. It is a selfless freedom. It is sacrificial freedom. It is the pursuitof our dreams with an eye towards the common good.

— Heritage Foundation speech in 2005 by then-Senator Rick Santorum

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”

June 30–July 2, 2015The Ellipse

Child Art Magazine copy 1 - International Child Art Foundation · The International Child Art Foundation dedicates this nal issue of ChildArt quarterly to Dr. Emile Bruneau and his

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