Question

Which of the following is an example of primal empathy?

- A friend is crying because she is moving for a new job and is so sad to be leaving her friends and family. You are able to sympathize with her combination of hopefulness, sorrow, and fear.

- A woman is having a conversation with a man she's just met. Within a few minutes, she begins to feel uncomfortable. When she notices that he has moved slightly closer, she takes a step backward. Smiling, he touches her arm to emphasize a point anyway.

- You are exhausted because you had a party at your house the previous evening and some guest stayed late. Even though you'd rather take the day off and go back to sleep, you motivate yourself to get to work on time.

- Some of your most prized photographs got destroyed in a flood. You are overwhelmed with emotion. Instead of denying your feelings, you process them by journaling and calling your sister for a pep talk.​

Answer 1

A friend is crying because she is moving for a new job and is so sad to be leaving her friends and family. You are able to sympathize with her combination of hopefulness, sorrow, and fear.

Step-by-step explanation:

Primal empathy is the ability to sense other people's feelings, which makes it a very important aspect of social intelligence. Your friend is sad and you can see that and feel that same sorrow. It's the same when something good happens to someone close to you and they are happy: you are happy for them, too.

This is not present in other examples as they are only about your feelings and how you react to them.