The Impact of Affective Empathy

Experiencing affective empathy can lead to emotional contagion, where individuals absorb negative emotions from those they empathize with. This phenomenon can increase the risk of burnout, particularly for professionals in caring roles, such as social workers, with burnout rates between 50 to 75 percent. Furthermore, emotional contagion may lead to vicarious trauma, where individuals experience trauma symptoms from those they are trying to help. As empathy becomes more pervasive in modern society, the negative effects of emotional contagion reflect a growing awareness of the costs associated with high levels of empathy.