(1.Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310063, China; 2.College of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310013, China)
Abstract:In 1990, William Ickes et al. proposed the concept of empathic accuracy, emphasizing the role of individuals' accurate inference and understanding of others' thoughts and feelings.Over the thirty years, ample studies have found that empathic accuracy is closely related to individuals’ environmental adaptation and interpersonal skills in dynamic social interaction. This crucial concept hence has become the focus of research in the field of empathy in the past 30 years. Here we systematically reviewed studies on empathic accuracy, in the hope of providing a comprehensive understanding of empathic accuracy.We first introduced the origin of empathic accuracy and the underlying mechanism of empathic accuracy, followed by a summary of the measuring methods of empathic accuracy. Then we pointed out the core factors affecting empathic accuracy from three aspects: the target person of empathy, the empathizer, and the social environment. Finally, we discussed five potential directions that deserve exploration in the future.