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Examples of Empathetic reactions

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10 Traits Of An Empath - Signs You Are A Highly Sensitive Person

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Are people born with empathy, or is it something we can develop?

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Answer (1 of 11): Empathy is a learned trait. The people who grow up to feel no empathy are not born without it. They are born with a miscommunication in their brain that do not develop the way the average persons would. These people are called Psychopaths. Not to be confused with sociopaths.

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How do serial killers have empathy for their children and not those they kill?

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Answer (1 of 4): Not all serial killers are psychopaths. Some are sociopaths. > Because sociopathy [vs psychopathy] appears to be learned rather than innate, sociopaths are capable of empathy or forming an emotional connection with others but only to certain individuals such as a family member ...

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5 Cases When Animal Showed Human Emotion

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Sermon Illustrations provides sermon illustrations, sermons, eulogies, funeral helps, and counseling aids for ministers.

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Do children learn Empathy from Cartoons?

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Do children learn Empathy from Cartoons?

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Start With Sorry: Children's Empathy Story, Read Aloud

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What age do we start having connections?

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When we experience social pain - a snub, a cruel word - the feeling is as real as physical pain. That finding is among those in a new book, , and it is part of scientist Matthew Lieberman's case that our need to connect is as fundamental as our need for food and water. He answered questions from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook.

You argue that our need to connect socially is "powerful." But just how powerful is it?

Different cultures have different beliefs about how important social connection and interdependence are to our lives. In the West, we like to think of ourselves as relatively immune to sway of those around us while we each pursue our personal destiny. But I think this is a story we like to tell ourselves rather than what really happens.

Across many studies of mammals, from the smallest rodents all the way to us humans, the data suggests that we are profoundly shaped by our social environment and that we suffer greatly when our social bonds are threatened or severed. When this happens in childhood it can lead to long-term health and educational problems. We may not like the fact that we are wired such that our well-being depends on our connections with others, but the facts are the facts.

What is the connection between physical pain and social pain? Why is this insight important?

Languages around the world use pain language to express social pain ("she broke my heart", "he hurt my feelings"), but this could have all just have been a metaphor. As it turns out it is more than a metaphor - social pain is real pain.

With respect to understanding human nature, I think this finding is pretty significant. The things that cause us to feel pain are things that are evolutionary recognized as threats to our survival and the existence of social pain is a sign that evolution has treated social connection like a necessity, not a luxury. It also alters our motivational landscape. We tend to assume that people's behavior is narrowly self-interested, focused on getting more material benefits for themselves and avoiding physical threats and the exertion of effort. But because of how social pain and pleasure are wired into our operating system, these are motivational ends in and of themselves. We don't focus on being connected solely in order to extract money and other resources from people - being connected needs no ulterior motive.

This has major consequences for how we think about structuring our organizations and institutions. At businesses worldwide, pay for performance is just about the only incentive used to motivate employees. However, praise and an environment free from social threats are also powerful motivators. Because social pain and pleasure haven't been a part of our theory of "who we are" we tend not to use these social motivators as much as we could.

You devote a section of your book to what you call "mindreading." What do you mean by this, and why do you see it as so essential?

First off, I'm not referring to the ESP kind of mindreading. I mean the everyday variety that each of us use in most social interactions. We have a profound proclivity towards trying to understand the thoughts and feelings bouncing around inside the skulls of people we interact with, characters on television, and even animated shapes moving around a computer screen. Although we are far from perfect at gleaning the actual mental states of others, the fact that we can do this at all gives us an unparalleled ability to cooperate and collaborate with others - using their goals to help drive our own behavior.

The funny thing is that thinking about others' thoughts doesn't feel particularly different from most kinds of analytical thinking we do. Yet, fMRI research shows that there are two distinct networks that support social and non-social thinking and that as one network increases its activity the other tends to quiet down - kind of like a neural seesaw. Here's the really fascinating thing. Whenever we finish doing some kind of non-social thinking, the network for social thinking comes back on like a reflex - almost instantly.

Why would the brain be set up to do this? We have recently found that this reflex prepares us to walk into the next moment of our lives focused on the minds behind the actions that we see from others. Evolution has placed a bet that the best thing for our brain to do in any spare moment is to get ready to see the world socially. I think that makes a major statement about the extent to which we are built to be social creatures.

One of the long-standing mysteries of psychology is the question of where the "self" comes from, and what the "self" even means. Does your research shed any light on this question?

Social psychologists have long speculated that the self is a much more social phenomenon then it intuitively feels like from the inside. There have certainly been studies over the years that are consistent with this idea, however neuroscience is bringing new data to bear that speaks directly to this idea.

There's a region of the brain called "medial prefrontal cortex" that essentially sits between your eyes. This region has been shown again and again to be activated the more a person is reflecting on themselves. It is the region that most clearly and unambiguously is associated with "self-processing." If you think about your favorite flavor of ice-cream, precious personal memories, or consider aspects of your personality (e.g. Are you generous? Are you messy?) you are likely to recruit this brain region.

Given that we tend to think of the self as the thing that separates us from others - that allows us to know how we are different and how to walk our own path - it would be surprising if this same medial prefrontal region was involved in allowing the beliefs of others to influence our own. But this is exactly what we have seen in several studies. The more active the medial prefrontal region is when someone is trying to persuade you of something (e.g. to wear sunscreen everyday) the more likely you'll be to change your tune and start using sunscreen regularly. Rather than being a hermetically sealed vault that separates us from others, our research suggests that the self is more of a Trojan horse, letting in the beliefs of others, under the cover of darkness and without us realizing it. This socially-influenced self helps to ensure that we'll have the same kind of beliefs and values as those of the people around us and this is a great catalyst for social harmony.

What does this research tell us about how we should be raising our children, and what does it mean for education?
I think the most important thing is to educate our children about what we are learning about the true role of our social nature in our happiness and success in life. Intellectually, I know all about these things, but if we don't learn them as children, I'm not sure they ever really get into our guts and guide our intuitive decision-making. I think kids would love learning about how the social world works and how their brain makes that possible.

The research on the social brain also leads to direct policy implications for education. The data are clear that children learn better when they learn in order to teach someone else than when they learn in order to take a test. Learning to teach someone else is prosocial and relies on the social networks of the brain. We had no idea these networks could promote memory but now we do. We ought to be doing much more peer learning, particularly age-staggered learning. My ideal situation would be a 14 year who has trouble in the classroom being assigned to teach a 12 year old. The teacher then becomes a coach helping to teach the 12 year old and the 14 year old will reap the benefits of prosocial learning.

Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and regular contributor to NewYorker.com. Gareth is also the series editor of Best American Infographics, and can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.

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Scientist Matthew Lieberman uncovers the neuroscience of human connections-and the broad implications for how we live our lives

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Can killers connect to their victims pain?

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Can killers connect to their victims pain?

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Motivations involved in serial killings are fears of rejection, power, and perfection. Serial killers tend to be insecure, and irrationally scared of rejection. He will try to avoid developing a painful relationship with his object of desire and is terrified of being abandoned, humiliated, or exposed. Many killers often have sex - the ultimate form of intimacy - with their victims, and often with the corpse. That way, the possibility of rejection is null. Serial killers also enjoy prolonging the suffering of their victims as it gives them a sense of power over the victim. They get to decide whether, and how, the victim will live or die.

They have a belief that "the power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill you are always subject to those who can" (Card). Killing is usually the only way they can achieve those feelings of empowerment. Fears of rejection and power are major themes of most serial killings, but perfection plays a role in some cases. Some killers seek to "improve" something. They often see a category of people, such as women or prostitutes, as "unclean", and see their removal of those beings as improving the world. Or, they think that killing the victim, usually in some sort of a ritualistic manner, redeems the victim their wrongdoings. In that case, the killer is a special being and the victim is "chosen" and should be grateful. They often find the victim's ingratitude infuriating, though unfortunately foreseeable (Lester).

Serial killers must continuously kill simply because they are addicted to the feelings they get when they do. They also rationalize every aspect and detail of their behavior so there is no reason in their head as to why they should stop. They know what they're doing, the consequences of their actions, and how to avoid getting caught. Most serial killers, and psychopaths in general, are "consummate chameleons" who are able to hide their rage and true intentions behind a charismatic, civilized façade called the "mask of sanity" (Newton). Psychopaths are amoral and though they knowing the difference between right and wrong, they do not care and lack feelings of remorse or guilt. They tend to objectify other people and treat them as if they were objects. They don't know how to have sympathy for others because of their psychopathic nature, but they do know how to simulate it by observing others.

Most serial killers are highly charming and persuasive, but it is only a manipulative act designed to lure victims into a trap. Their killings are material symptoms of the combination of their lifelong habits and personal motivations and fears. Though those factors are not excuses for hurting others, they are interesting explanations and provide fascinating insight on the killers' minds.

article By Blakie

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What Motivates Serial Killers To Kill | Twisted Minds - a website about serial killers

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Motivations involved in serial killings are fears of rejection, power, and perfection. Serial killers tend to be insecure, and irrationally scared of rejection. He will try to avoid developing a painful relationship with his object of desire and is terrified of being abandoned, humiliated, or exposed.

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Early in our parenting career, a friend said to my wife, Martha, "It must be nice to be married to a pediatrician since he knows all about babies." Martha astutely responded, "Actually, he mainly knows how to take care of sick babies."

She was right: I had been well-trained in treating physical illnesses but had little experience in promoting emotional wellness. So I turned my office into sort of an experimental laboratory, watching those parents who seemed to enjoy their babies most and, admittedly, whose children I enjoyed most. After 10 years of observations, I came up with the concept of attachment parenting (AP), a high-touch, high-response style of parenting that I believe brings out the best in both you and your baby. Think of it this way: If you and your newborn were on a secluded island -- without the guidance of baby books, pediatricians or your mother-in-law -- and you had only your basic maternal instincts to guide you, I think AP is what you would instinctively do.

Attachment parenting is actually a simple concept: By developing a loving, connected relationship based on learning to read and respond to your baby's needs -- I call it getting behind the eyes of your baby -- you can raise a child who is confident and caring, and who has a solid foundation for becoming an assured, empathetic adult. To help parents learn to heed their natural instincts and incorporate AP into their everyday lives, I've developed seven attachment tools, which I call the Baby B's.

1. The first few weeks of your baby's life help set the stage for your relationship. I recommend that parents spend as much time in skin-to-skin and eye-to-eye contact as possible -- what I call birth bonding -- after all, cuddling with your brand-new baby is one of the richest rewards of parenthood. If medical complications disrupt this attachment time, don't despair. Birth bonding isn't like Super Glue; it's the start of a lifelong process. As the most valuable member of your baby's medical team, you can still find ways to connect with your newborn through your touch, your voice and your milk.

2. Breastfeed as often and as long as possible. Besides providing your baby with nature's perfect milk, it's an exercise in baby reading. The intimate contact promotes bonding by teaching you to read your baby's facial expressions and sense her body language, while the very act of nursing teaches baby that you are a source of care and comfort she can trust. If a medical or lifestyle complication prevents you from breastfeeding, you can make bottle-feeding a time of high touch and high communication too. Bottle-feeding also gives dad a chance to bond with baby in a caring, giving way. Whatever the method, think of feeding time as an opportunity for connecting and communicating in addition to delivering nourishment.

3. When new parents come into our office for their newborn's first checkup, we give them a crash-course in baby-wearing. I like to demonstrate the technique with dads. It's a treat for new moms to watch me drape the baby sling over dad, position baby comfortably inside and watch the pair stroll around the office. In addition to enjoying a physical connection with either parent, a baby can learn a lot in the arms of a busy caregiver: Getting a mom's-eye view helps baby tune into his environment and the people around him. It's also another way to involve dad in attachment parenting. In fact, I've had new moms in my practice tell me that once their mates get the hang of baby-wearing, they're hooked.

4. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies sleep in the same room as mother, on separate sleeping surfaces, to reap the benefits of nighttime attachment. When bedding close to baby, try a co-sleeper, a bedside bassinet that attaches safely to your bed, to keep baby within arm's reach and in a safe sleep environment.

5. A baby's cry is her way of communicating with you. Listen to it and believe in the value of her "language." Babies cry to communicate, not to manipulate, so learning how to decipher your baby's cries and respond appropriately -- whether with a feeding, a diaper change or a simple, comforting touch -- teaches her to trust you to understand her needs and take care of them. As that bond grows and you become accomplished at anticipating her needs before she becomes upset, you may even find that she cries less.

6. I'm sure you've heard well-meaning friends and relatives deluge you with their personal how-to's: "Get her on a schedule." "Let him cry it out so he learns not to manipulate you." "You're spoiling her by carrying her so much." Beware of this baby-training.

Certainly, you should modify attachment parenting to help your baby fit into your family and your lifestyle. After all, being child-focused is not the same thing as being indulgent. (In fact, I've based AP on the idea that being responsive to baby ultimately helps him develop the tools and confidence to become an independent, self-assured, caring person.) But when carried to an extreme, babytraining is a lose-lose situation. By following someone else's preconceived formula for interacting with your baby, you lose trust in your ability to read and respond to his cues, while he loses trust that you believe and value those cues.

7. When our son Matthew was a baby (and occasionally a high-needs one at that), my wife would sometimes lament that he needed her so much she didn't even have time to take a shower. Sound familiar? I would remind her that what a baby needs most is a happy, rested mother. Remember: The right dose of the right medicine is healing, but an overdose can sometimes hurt. The same is true of attachment parenting. This is why I think balance and boundaries are so important. In your zeal to give so much to your baby, it's easy to neglect your own needs and those of your marriage. Early on in the AP process I ask new parents, "Is this working for you? Is your baby thriving? Are you thriving? If not, let's modify things."

As you use and adapt these tools to enhance your family life, you should come to experience mutual giving. Though attachment parenting may initially seem like one big give-a-thon, it's really about parents and babies giving to each other. The more responsive you are to your baby, the more responsive baby will be to you. Before you know it, the principles of AP will become second nature for all of you, and you'll be well on your way to creating a happy, close-knit family.

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Early in our parenting career, a friend said to my wife, Martha, "It must be nice to be married to a pediatrician since he knows all about babies." Martha astutely responded, "Actually, he mainly knows how to take care of sick babies."

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How babies feel when they start connecting, do they know?

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How babies feel when they start connecting, do they know?

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Bonding refers to the special attachment that forms between a mother and father and their new baby. That bond is what sends parents rushing into their newborn's room in the middle of the night at the slightest whimper. It's also what makes parents want to instinctively care for and nurture their child.

Sometimes, the bond is immediate -- parents fall in love the instant they set eyes on their little "bundle of joy." Other times, bonding with the baby takes longer. Studies have found that about 20% of new moms and dads feel no real emotional attachment to their newborn in the hours after delivery. Sometimes, it takes weeks or even months to feel that attachment. If you haven't begun bonding with your baby, don't feel anxious or guilty -- it should come with time.

Why Do Parents Bond With Their Baby?

Bonding is an important human instinct that gives babies a sense of security and self-esteem. Bonding also helps parents feel connected to their newest family member. It begins to happen even before the baby is born -- when you feel the first little flutters in your belly or see your baby kick on the ultrasound screen. Your baby also starts getting to know you in the womb through the sound of your voice.

How Does Parent-Baby Bonding Happen?

Bonding happens in many ways. When you look at your newborn, touch her skin, feed her, and care for her, you're bonding. Rocking your baby to sleep or stroking her back can establish your new relationship and make her feel more comfortable. When you gaze at your newborn, she will look back at you. In mothers who are breastfeeding, baby's cries will stimulate the let-down of milk.

Why Am I Not Bonding With My Baby?

Although bonding can be immediate for some people, others stare at the tiny, bawling creature they have just brought home from the hospital and wonder, "Who is this person?" Don't feel guilty if you aren't bonding with your baby right from the start. Remember that the process sometimes takes time. As you care for your new baby, you may find that your attachment grows. It may not be until the first time your baby shoots you a toothless grin that you suddenly realize you have bonded.

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Bonding can be especially difficult if you had a C-section or couldn't see your baby right after the birth. It can also be difficult if your baby was premature and had to spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), or if you adopted the child. It may take longer to bond in these instances, but it eventually should happen.

Some mothers develop postpartum depression, which prevents them from completely bonding with their baby. The pain and exhaustion from childbirth -- especially from a difficult delivery -- can also get in the way of the bonding process.

Sometimes, a mother's or father's situation can affect her or his relationship with the new baby. Any of the following can interfere with your efforts at bonding:

A childhood that lacked a positive parental role model

A history of depression or mental illness

A past pregnancy loss or loss of a child

Lack of a social network

Life stresses such as a difficult job, unemployment, or other financial troubles

Marital problems or abuse

Are There Tips for Bonding With My Baby?

Here are some suggestions that will make it easier to bond with your baby:

Ask to room-in with your baby at the hospital. Sleeping in the same room will give you more time to get to know one another.

If your baby is premature, ask the hospital staff if you can touch and hold him. Just talking to your baby can help the two of you bond. Visit the NICU often to see your baby.

Once you get home, spend as much time as possible with your baby by wearing her in a sling or carrier, rocking her on your lap, or singing her a song. Your voice and touch can be very comforting.

Try giving your baby a gentle massage. Research has found that massage can not only improve the relationship between parent and baby, but it also can relieve stress in premature infants and ease postpartum depression in the mother. To learn how to massage your baby the right way, get a video, read a book, or take a class at a local hospital.

Try making skin-to-skin contact with your newborn. This practice, called "kangaroo care," is often used in premature babies, but studies are finding that it's also calming to babies born full-term. It not only helps with bonding, but it also can improve your baby's ability to breastfeed.

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Dads sometimes have more difficulty bonding with their new baby, especially because they miss out on the direct contact of breastfeeding. Here are some ways to enhance the father-baby bonding experience:

Try to begin bonding with your baby before he is born. Put your hand on your partner's belly to feel the baby kick, go with her to the doctor for prenatal visits, and start thinking about the kind of father you want to be.

Be in the delivery room during the baby's birth and take part in the delivery as much as possible.

Help out with the baby's care: take over a few late-night feedings, give the baby a bath, change diapers, or sing the baby to sleep.

Walk with the baby in a carrier close to your body.

If a few months have passed and you're worried that you still haven't bonded with your baby, talk to your pediatrician. He or she can determine whether a psychological or health issue may be the cause of the problem.

Sources

SOURCES:

Hernandez-Reif, M, Diego, M, and Field T Infant Behavior and Development, 2007.

O'Higgins, M., St. James Roberts, I., Glover, V. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2008.

Lee, H. Taehan Kanho Hakhoe Chi, 2006.

Ferber, S and Makhoul, I. Pediatrics, 2004.

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Bonding refers to the special attachment that forms between a mother and father and their new baby. That bond is what sends parents rushing into their newborn's room in the middle of the night at the slightest whimper. It's also what makes parents want to instinctively care for and nurture their child.

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What is the human-animal connection?

The connection between humans and animals is one of the most fundamental bonds that human beings experience. As the cave paintings in Lasceaux, France illustrate, humankind has interacted closely with the animal kingdom for tens of thousands of years. That powerful and mutually beneficial bond continues today, with people and animals connecting in ways that are essential to the health and well-being of both.

One aspect of this bond is keeping the world's population well-nourished and healthy through a wholesome and sustainable supply of beef, pork, poultry, dairy products and eggs. Another aspect is the bond between humans and companion and working animals. From household pets to horses that herd livestock to therapy dogs that provide comfort to victims of disaster and illness, the lives of both humans and animals are made better by our mutual bond.

Emotional Benefits

To put it simply, pets are good for people. Pets give people a loving companion to care for. They encourage touch, conversation and often laughter. They cause us to exercise and offer an antidote for loneliness. They teach children responsibility. By caring for pets, pet owners benefit, too.

Yet a growing body of research into the human-animal connection shows that the benefits are not just emotional. For example, pets can boost infant immunity to infections, help with mental health disorders by affecting brain chemistry, and lower blood pressure.

Healthy animals, healthy humans - it's a powerful two-way bond.

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The connection between humans and animals is one of the most fundamental bonds that human beings experience. As the cave paintings in Lasceaux, France illustrate, humankind has interacted closely with the animal kingdom for tens of thousands of years.

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How can people who haven´t been around people connect?

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How can people who haven´t been around people connect?

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Baby steps are generally a safe way to approach things. First, get used to being social again. Put yourself out there where people are, interact pleasantly and superficially for a while until you feel comfortable, then start paying attention for opportunities to connect on a personal level.

It may take time, and those first few attempts at connection may not click, so be patient.

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What are ways to connect with people when you haven't been social for quite a while?

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Answer (1 of 2): Every group activity were socializing is not the goal. So hiking with a group, or building something, painting, singing, etc. But just meeting 6 persons for a year isnt perhaps very wise. So you need to meet a lot of people. Were a lot of interaction is recuired.

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Can people not have a sense of connection to anything?

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Can people not have a sense of connection to anything?

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26 PSYCHOLOGY FACTS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT PEOPLE

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How can having connections help us in the real world?

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How can having connections help us in the real world?

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Making real world connections is one way to facilitate learning that is meaningful to students and prepares them for their professional lives outside of school. When teachers move beyond textbook or curricular examples and connect content learned in the classroom to real-life people, places and eve...

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You think you're being all clever and original with your brand storytelling. In fact, you're not. From Shakespeare to Spielberg to Soderbergh, there are really only seven different types of stories, an Advertising Week panel hosted by TBWA suggested on Wednesday. The challenge becomes finding which one best suits your brand, and then telling it skillfully, believably and-if you're going to invite consumers to join in the story-extremely carefully.

TBWA's global creative president, Rob Schwartz, led the discussion, which was based around author Christopher Booker's contention, in his book Seven Basic Plots, that seven archetypal themes recur in every kind of storytelling. Booker looked at why humans are psychologically programmed to imagine stories this way. Schwartz and his two panelists, Droga5 executive creative director Ted Royer and novelist (and former agency creative) Kathy Hepinstall, focused on how the theory applies to brands-and how creatives can make use of it in developing persuasive stories for them.

Below are the seven basic plots-with examples from art and advertising of stories that fit each one.

1. Overcoming the Monster. This type of story goes back through Beowulf to David and Goliath and surely a lot further than that. It's the classic underdog story. Ad examples include Apple's attack on Big Brother in "1984" and American Express's attempt to dent the dominance of Black Friday with Small Business Saturday.

2. Rebirth. A story of renewal. It's a Wonderful Life is a prime example from the movies. Brands telling stories of renewal include Gatorade, whose "Replay" campaign gave aging members of high-school sports teams a chance to recapture their youth through rematches against old foes; and Prudential, which is presenting retirement as the beginning of a new chapter, not the end of an old one.

3. Quest. A mission from point A to point B. The Lord of the Rings is the classic example. IBM and Lexus are among the marketers who are on self-professed quests-making a smarter planet and relentlessly pursuing perfection, respectively.

4. Journey and Return. A story about transformation through travel and homecoming. The Wizard of Oz and Where the Wild Things Are are both journey-and-return stories. Corona is one of the brands that also encourages a trip, urging you to "Find your beach" and return refreshed. And Expedia has built its whole new campaign around the idea of changing one's perception through journey and return.

5. Rags to Riches. In literature: Charles Dickens and Cinderella. In the movies: Trading Places. In ads: Chrysler, which is rising from the ashes of Detroit; and Johnny Walker, whose entire brand history is about a simple Scottish farmboy's rise to global prominence.

6. Tragedy. From the Greeks through Shakespeare, these are stories of the dark side of humanity and the futile nature of human experience. Advertising has little use for such stories, except in PSA work, where shock tactics and depressing tales can get people to care about an issue.

7. Comedy. The flipside of tragedy, and the last of the great storytelling tropes, it's perhaps the hardest to do well but is hugely popular in both popular art and advertising-with Old Spice and Geico among the brand leaders in the space.

Schwartz suggested the seven plots can provide a blueprint for figuring out what a brand story should be when there isn't one, or isn't a strong one. During the panel, both Royer and Hepinstall talked about the importance of generating potent stories that ring true, and can't be hijacked or exposed as fraudulent.

"Ads most often are 'The husband's dumb, the wife fixes it, now he's better,' " said Royer. "They're these simple little stories that, I think, a lot of people react against. But if we do it right, we can tell some really beautiful stories. One of my favorite ads of all time was the Halo ad with the metal figurines. They beautifully portrayed what the game was about ... I thought it was captivating and wonderful and amazing."

At the core of every brand, Royer added, is a good story waiting to happen.

"Brands are stories," he said. "They want to embody a story. When we start working with a client, we don't want to take a brief. We don't want to just say, 'What's your problem?' We want to go right back to, 'Why was your company started? What's your mission?' We talk about mission all the time, and it's just another way of saying, 'What kind of story are you on? What kind of story do you want to tell?' ... Part of our job as an agency is to reignite that and really figure out what that story is."

A new wrinkle in the digital age is the hijacking of brand stories. "The hilarious thing to me is when a story is now taken over by the people," Hepinstall said. "It used to be a one-way thing, where the company would say, 'We're this,' and invite no feedback. Now, in the age of social media, that's impossible." She pointed to Shell's recent crowdsourced posters and the Walmart/Pitbull incident as evidence of disasters that can happen when brands lose control of their stories.

Royer discussed Droga5's "Day One" work for Prudential, which doesn't encompass merely the brand story but also the individual stories of many of the 10,000 people who retire every day-who harbor fears that Prudential would like to turn into optimism.

"It is a very dry category, and also absolutely terrifying. And you don't want either one of those," he said. "There's got to be a way, we thought, to find a middle ground where you can have an open conversation about what that period of your life is, what it can be, what you think it is now, and the potential of it. That's why we named it Day One. It is a label, but it's a fixed point that everyone owns. Everyone in this room has a Day One. And if you see it as a point moving forward, as a point where there can be optimism, there can be renewal, there can be bigger themes at work than just fear and confusion, then I think that gives Prudential a brand mission beyond just the products it sells."

So much retirement advertising has been rags-to-riches stories, he added, with lots of golfing and yachts in the imagery. Switching to a rebirth story gives the brand a more relatable platform, particularly in harder times.

The panelists also discussed the phenomenon of product utility as story-in particular, the Nike FuelBand. That product, developed by R/GA, embodies the Nike brand mission, which at its core is a quest story-the quest for the perfect body.

The seven basic plots might give creatives inspiration when it comes to crafting brand stories. But Hepinstall said it sometimes can help to focus outward, away from the brand, toward consumers-and figure out their experiences and their stories.

A "genius burst of energy about the customer's story," can ignite a campaign, she said. "The most perfect example is 'What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.' I thought that was such a genius reframing of the customer experience."

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7 Types of Stories: Which One Is Your Brand Telling?

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You think you're being all clever and original with your brand storytelling. In fact, you're not. From Shakespeare to Spielberg to Soderbergh, there are really only seven different types of stories, an Advertising Week panel hosted by TBWA suggested on Wednesday.

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Can we get to know a person by their story´s?

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Can we get to know a person by their story´s?

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The first conversation we have with somebody can be awkward. We don't know them, so the first thing we do is make connections, how do you know so and so if we are at a party or a wedding is a routine question. If we are both married with kids, we might ask about that, too. We just find common ground, essentially asking the question What do we have in common so I can understand you through the lens of my own experience? Or, perhaps more crudely How are you like me, and so how are you human? From there we tend to ask what they do, where they work. That's not a bad question, because work often encompasses our passions and even our education, but it also rings of you are your work.

We are much more than our work and even our family. These formulaic questions evolved from the need to make conversation more than the desire to get know somebody. What results is we begin to think that people are fairly boring. But it's not the case.

After writing Million Miles, I realized every person has a story. And I started asking different questions when I met strangers. And I was amazed at the result. Recently, on a trip to Los Angeles, I got to hear two amazing stories of the first two people I interacted with, the driver of the car that picked me up and the lady who put makeup on me (I know, strange but it happened) before an interview. And I was shocked. It made me wonder if nearly everybody around me had an amazing story, and I was simply asking them where they worked. I'll share bits of the stories in a moment.

A story is a character that wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. So next time you meet somebody, delve into their story, not their job or the weather they experience where they live. To find out a persons story, you have to find out what they want or have wanted in life, what conflict they endured in getting what they wanted, and what great moments of celebration they have experienced. Questions like this:
A CHARACTER THAT WANTS SOMETHING:
1. Why did you come to America?

2. What drives you?

3. What do you hope for for yourself and your family?
AND OVERCOMES CONFLICT:
1. That couldn't have been an easy transition to America. What was the most shocking thing you endured?

2. Was that a lonely journey?

3. Did you ever think it wasn't going to happen for you?
TO GET IT:
1. When did you realize you were happier than the average man?

2. If there could be a moment in the future when you'll realize that you made it, what would that moment look like?

3. When the credits roll, what do you think is most important in life?

If you ask these questions, I promise, you will be entertained for the next hour. Not only will you hear stories, but you will watch as a person truly reflects on their life, and you'll learn a great deal about what most people find important. You'll be amazed that most people don't really care about money or prestige, they care about love, about weddings and funerals, about children, about dignity and integrity.

So the driver of the car that picked me up had come to America from Poland. He'd married and lived in Chicago where he had a son, but then got divorced. He'd been part of a small, polish community and had to move to Los Angeles in order to give his ex-wife space. They simply couldn't share that many friends. He'd remarried a woman twenty years younger, and he loved her. His son was in college in Los Angeles. He'd been friends with the Polish President who recently died in a plane crash. He choked up as he told the story. He talked about grieving for his leader while nobody in Los Angeles understood his loss. He hoped to stay married and be a good man to his new wife. He wanted his son to respect him.

The woman who did my makeup? She had come to Los Angels to be a model and that worked out for a while, but as she got older there was less work (she was in her fifties and strikingly beautiful.) She had come to California from Mississippi. She missed the south, the meals, the family. Her Uncle was named Uncle Medgar, and she remembered him fondly, how he would joke with her and her siblings. He was assassinated by the Klu Klux Klan, an event that motivated national protest. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full honors. He was Medgar Evers.

I also met a man who worked at a 7-11. He had come to America from Iran, escaped to Greece and came to our country with a fake passport. While in Iran, he was trained in elementary school to assemble and disassemble a rifle. He watched religious fundamentalist kill one of his teachers. When he came to America, still in elementary school, he lived in fear that his teachers would find out he was not Greek, take him out back and shoot him. He was happy to be in America now.

So next time you are at a wedding or a party, don't settle for answers like I work for Microsoft. Everybody has a story. Everybody is a story.

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Want to Get to Know Somebody? Understand Their Story

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The first conversation we have with somebody can be awkward. We don't know them, so the first thing we do is make connections, how do you know so and so if we are at a party or a wedding is a routine question. If we are both married with kids, we might ask about that, too.

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1) When you run into someone you haven't seen in a long time and before you part they say, "Let's do brunch!" or "Let's get drinks sometime," that person is probably fake. Instead of automatically agreeing you should really just say, "Hmm. I don't think so." Because practically no one who says "let's do brunch" or "let's get drinks" means it.

2) They'll be friends with you, party with you and drink with you on the weekends. But when you need help with something boring and chore-like, such as moving into your elevator-less fourth floor apartment in the middle of August, they're nowhere to be found. Watch.

3) If someone suddenly and magically disappears into thin air right when you need them most, that betch is fake. Don't even bother sending them an email or a text message in all caps - those things carry no weight whatsoever, because fake people love to ignore situations where feelings get involved.

4) When you take a leap of faith and tell a person how you really feel and they tell you they feel the same way but actually they don't seem like it and nothing changes.

5) If a person claims to never get mad or upset about things then they're fake. Why? Because fake people have zero emotions. Real people get mad and upset and feel passion or get pissed off, and nobody is 100% happy and smiling all the time.

6) If a person is perpetually unavailable, or you constantly feel like they're ignoring you, you're probably right and that person is fake. You're all, "Trollop I KNOW you got my text because iMessage says that shit was "Delivered." Probably the most hurtful thing about unavailable, fake people, something we should all keep in mind, is that they ARE available, just not to us.

7) If a person talks about you behind your back. Of course, if you're talking to them face-to-face it's hard to know that they're talking about you specifically. But if they spend a lot of time gossiping to you about other people, it's not a coincidence.

8) If a person is hot and cold towards you for any reason. Friends are there for you no matter what, not depending on the context and what you're doing or whether they're bored that day and look to you to keep entertained.

9) If a person NEVER invites you to hang out, or either they always come up with fabulous excuses about why they can't hang out. If they make plans with you and conveniently cancel at the last minute that person is fake, and they are probably with the person they always make themselves available for.

10) Fake people try to please everyone and work hard to be all things to all people. But if you're busy trying to please everyone, doesn't that mean you're being fake to somebody? Thankfully we have a name for that - leading people on.

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1) When you run into someone you haven't seen in a long time and before you part they say, "Let's do brunch!" or "Let's get drinks sometime," that person is probably fake. Instead of automatically agreeing you should really just say, "Hmm. I don't think so."

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Brands tell stories. But how many different stories actually are there? Are there really only so many ways to construct a narrative? And if so, how many?

This is the question answered by Christopher Booker in his book 'The Seven Basic Plots - Why We Tell Stories'. Booker's theory is that all stories, whether it's Cinderella or Lord of the Rings can essentially be boiled down to seven basic elements:

1. Overcoming the monster

2. Rags to Riches

4. Voyage and Return

Some stories are simple. 'The Queen's Knickers' for example (see left sidebar) is a story about a quest (with a sprinkling of comedy). But plots can overlap, says Booker, and more complex stories can often incorporate multiple elements. Lord of the Rings, for example, probably includes all seven.

For fans of the minimalist, some argue that all stories stem from a very few basic plots or that they all essentially stem from conflict. Foster-Harris ( The Basic Patterns of Plot) posited three basic plots: 'Happy ending', 'unhappy ending' and what they called 'The Literary plot', one that hinges on fate rather than decision and may start with the critical event, and then unwind in an inevitable, often tragic way.

Seven is also a number that the Internet Public Library has come up with. Following the conflict theory, they are:

1. [wo]man vs. nature

2. [wo]man vs. man

3. [wo]man vs. the environment

4. [wo]man vs. machines/technology

5. [wo]man vs. the supernatural

6. [wo]man vs. self

7. [wo]man vs. god/religion

According to Ronald Tobias, 20seems about right. ('Twenty basic plots and how to build them'). In fairness, he doesn't suggest that these are the only twenty, but his list is somewhat generic nonetheless: quest, adventure, pursuit, rescue, escape, revenge, riddle, rivalry, underdog, temptation, metamorphosis, transformation, maturation, love, forbidden love, sacrifice, discovery, wretched excess, ascension, and decision.

And there's even one theory which has 36 as it's number (George Polti, The Thrity Six Drammatic Situations). I'm not going to list all 36 here, but it seems inevitable that with so many potential story types, the degree of overlap perhaps lessens the meaning of differentiating them in the first place. An 'Ask Yahoo' question I saw touches on this subject:

'"Rocky" is a story of the "underdog," who goes through a "transformation" and falls in "love" while on a "quest." We're not sure, but we think "Dude, Where's My Car?" touches on at least 16.'

So are there really a limited number of stories? My preference is for the economy of Booker's list, but I can't help feeling that this is trying to classify the unclassifiable. If all life can be captured in seven basic stories, where's the magic in that?

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Brands tell stories. But how many different stories actually are there? Are there really only so many ways to construct a narrative? And if so, how many? This is the question answered by Christopher Booker in his book 'The Seven...

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Is there a specific way to identify a story?

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Is there a specific way to identify a story?

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SparkNotes: The Lottery: Foreshadowing and Suspense

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A summary of Foreshadowing and Suspense in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Lottery and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.

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Can a person who has no empathy have a story?

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Can a person who has no empathy have a story?

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Popular culture has led us to believe that if the people around us don't show an expected degree of empathy, there's something wrong with them.

Some are labeled as narcissists, others as sociopaths, but are they really? Granted, there are a shed load of those types out there, but an apparent lack of empathy in someone isn't necessarily grounds for assuming they fall into either of those categories.

When we're suffering and we turn to someone for support, our expectation is that they will empathize with us and comfort us. That's a soul-deep yearning that we have when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable with others.

So, when we display our soft underbelly and admit that we need support, and the one we've opened up to turns away from us, it hurts like hell.

We might feel shock, betrayal, and other negative emotions because our friend has basically done the polar opposite of what we need from them, and our assumption is that they're cold. They're cruel. They're sociopathic or flagrant narcissists and utterly unable to feel properly, because if they did, they'd understand our needs in that moment and bend over backwards to grant us their support.

There could be many different reasons why a person doesn't show empathy or compassion in the way that you expect them to, at a time when you want them to do so, and the reasons listed below are just a few of them.

They're Overwhelmed, And Can't Take It

The vast majority of us refrain from splaying all of our personal issues across our social media pages, and as such we really never know what another person might be going through at any given moment.

Some folks manage to maintain a strong façade while dealing with an incredible amount of pain - both physical AND emotional, but although they seem stoic and positive, in reality they're barely holding their sh*t together. All they need is one small trigger to make them collapse into a puddle of hysterical tears.

As an example, one of your female coworkers (let's call her Jenna) may be dealing with yet another failed fertility treatment, and she's now facing the very stark reality that she's unlikely to ever bear a child of her own.

She hasn't discussed this with anyone at work because she's a very private person, but she's emotionally devastated and just barely holding onto the professional, perky mask she's donned.

At lunchtime, in the office canteen, another coworker brings up a topic about a friend who's sad because she's just had a miscarriage, and Jenna walks out of the room without a word. Everyone starts whispering, offended by her behavior and calling her heartless with the compassion level of a dead horse, meanwhile she's locked herself in her car so she can sob her guts out in relative privacy.

It's hard not to assume and judge others for their behavior, but since we'll never be able to reach into another's mind or heart and really know what they're feeling, it's often a good idea to give them the benefit of the doubt.

And in a similar vein...

They're Suffering Compassion Fatigue

Did you know that today, the average person will be exposed to more news and information than someone in the Victorian era would have read or heard about in a year?

It's small wonder why so many people are plagued with anxiety and panic when day after day, their social media feeds are flooded with all manner of injustices, horror stories, and despair.

For some people, the constant onslaught of all of this negativity can cause them to develop compassion fatigue. It's a trait that sometimes develops in nurses. After a certain amount of prolonged exposure to situations or information that is emotionally damaging, the mind just... sort of shuts down the empathy centre as a means of self-preservation.

The person goes into autopilot; able to function and do their job professionally, but without emotional involvement. Often, it's either that, or a total nervous breakdown because of all the horrific, emotionally jarring crap they're contending with.

People who work in really high-stress environments (like trauma ward nurses or field medics in war zones) also process emotion on different levels, and have different priorities when it comes to what they consider to be severe.

It's difficult to empathize with someone who's moaning and wailing about their sprained ankle when you've had to amputate someone's limb because they were hit by bomb shrapnel, ye know?

To the person dealing with the sprain, that might be the worst pain they've ever experienced and they're looking for a bit of comfort and reassurance from someone they care about. To the field medic, it's a question of "I can't even. Come talk to me when you're bleeding out of your eyes."

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They're Dealing with Personal Trauma or PTSD

For some people, a lack of empathy might stem from a traumatic experience in their past.

People who, as children, had to deal with circumstances in which they were abused, or dealt with a high-stress, traumatic environment, have often had to shut down their reactive emotions in order to carry on.

As such, there's sort of a dampened effect when it comes to their emotions; their coping mechanism was to reduce their reaction to emotional stimuli, so they seem to have a much higher threshold for witnessing pain and suffering.

They may appear cold or unfeeling, but those reactions (or lack thereof) stemmed from the need to protect themselves when they were dealing with incredibly traumatic situations in their past.

This is another nod towards the fact that we rarely ever know other people as well as we think we do, and it may take folks years to open up to us about the crap they've lived through, if they ever talk about it to us at all.

It's very easy to condemn another for their apparent coldness, when it's possible that they don't have much control over that reaction at all.

Best not to judge.

They have an Inability to Relate to The Other

There's another solid reason as to why people may seem to lack compassion, and that is that many can only really understand and empathize with things they have experienced personally.

As an example, someone who has never experienced food poisoning might make fun of those who have suffered from it, until they've had it themselves and are floored by the misery and pain.

NOW, once they've felt it firsthand, they're able to empathize with other people going through that: "I feel you, man... I had a dodgy curry and it broke me for a week."

These are the types of people who, when faced with stories or images of people suffering in distant lands, can't truly relate to what they're going through and, as such, don't have a strong emotional response in turn.

Bad things are happening in a nebulous "far away, out there somewhere," but the goings-on are so far removed from "here" that they seem surreal... almost like watching a film or TV show full of actors rather than real people.

This is the "othering" that we have to be careful about; we should remember that just because someone lives far away, doesn't mean they don't feel the same things we do. They're just like us.

As a side note, people who have difficulty empathizing with others far away are not the same as those who can look at emaciated children or hungry refugees and just say something to the effect of "not my tribe, not my problem."

Those are assholes.

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Why A Lack Of Empathy Isn't Only Found In Narcissists And Sociopaths

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Popular culture has led us to believe that if the people around us don't show an expected degree of empathy, there's something wrong with them. Some are labeled as narcissists, others as sociopaths, but are they really?

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Psycopaths are estimated to make up 1 percent of the population and up to 25 percent of male offenders in federal correctional settings.

Credit: © Flynt | Dreamstime.com

NEW YORK - Psychopaths are known to be wily and manipulative, but even so, they unconsciously betray themselves, according to scientists who have looked for patterns in convicted murderers' speech as they described their crimes.

The researchers interviewed 52 convicted murderers, 14 of them ranked as psychopaths according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, a 20-item assessment, and asked them to describe their crimes in detail. Using computer programs to analyze what the men said, the researchers found that those with psychopathic scores showed a lack of emotion, spoke in terms of cause-and-effect when describing their crimes, and focused their attention on basic needs, such as food, drink and money. [ 10 Contested Death Penalty Cases]

While we all have conscious control over some words we use, particularly nouns and verbs, this is not the case for the majority of the words we use, including little, functional words like "to" and "the" or the tense we use for our verbs, according to Jeffrey Hancock, the lead researcher and an associate professor in communications at Cornell University, who discussed the work on Monday (Oct. 17) in Midtown Manhattan at Cornell's ILR Conference Center.

"The beautiful thing about them is they are unconsciously produced," Hancock said.

These unconscious actions can reveal the psychological dynamics in a speaker's mind even though he or she is unaware of it, Hancock said.

What it means to be a psychopath

Psychopaths make up about 1 percent of the general population and as much as 25 percent of male offenders in federal correctional settings, according to the researchers. Psychopaths are typically profoundly selfish and lack emotion. "In lay terms, psychopaths seem to have little or no 'conscience,'" write the researchers in a study published online in the journal Legal and Criminological Psychology.

Psychopaths are also known for being cunning and manipulative, and they make for perilous interview subjects, according to Michael Woodworth, one of the authors and a psychologist who studies psychopathy at the University of British Columbia, who joined the discussion by phone. [ Criminal Minds Are Different From Yours]

"It is unbelievable," Woodworth said. "You can spend two or three hours and come out feeling like you are hypnotized."

While there are reasons to suspect that psychopaths' speech patterns might have distinctive characteristics, there has been little study of it, the team writes.

How words give them away

To examine the emotional content of the murderers' speech, Hancock and his colleagues looked at a number of factors, including how frequently they described their crimes using the past tense. The use of the past tense can be an indicator of psychological detachment, and the researchers found that the psychopaths used it more than the present tense when compared with the nonpsychopaths. They also found more dysfluencies - the "uhs" and "ums" that interrupt speech - among psychopaths. Nearly universal in speech, dysfluencies indicate that the speaker needs some time to think about what they are saying.

With regard to psychopaths, "We think the 'uhs' and 'ums' are about putting the mask of sanity on," Hancock told LiveScience.

Psychopaths appear to view the world and others instrumentally, as theirs for the taking, the team, which also included Stephen Porter from the University of British Columbia, wrote.

As they expected, the psychopaths' language contained more words known as subordinating conjunctions. These words, including "because" and "so that," are associated with cause-and-effect statements.

"This pattern suggested that psychopaths were more likely to view the crime as the logical outcome of a plan (something that 'had' to be done to achieve a goal)," the authors write.

And finally, while most of us respond to higher-level needs, such as family, religion or spirituality, and self-esteem, psychopaths remain occupied with those needs associated with a more basic existence.

Their analysis revealed that psychopaths used about twice as many words related to basic physiological needs and self-preservation, including eating, drinking and monetary resources than the nonpsychopaths, they write.

By comparison, the nonpsychopathic murderers talked more about spirituality and religion and family, reflecting what nonpsychopathic people would think about when they just committed a murder, Hancock said.

The researchers are interested in analyzing what people write on Facebook or in other social media, since our unconscious mind also holds sway over what we write. By analyzing stories written by students from Cornell and the University of British Columbia, and looking at how the text people generate using social media relates to scores on the Self-Report Psychopathy scale. Unlike the checklist, which is based on an extensive review of the case file and an interview, the self report is completed by the person in question.

This sort of tool could be very useful for law enforcement investigations, such as in the case of the Long Island serial killer, who is being sought for the murders of at least four prostitutes and possibly others, since this killer used the online classified site Craigslist to contact victims, according to Hancock.

Text analysis software could be used to conduct a "first pass," focusing the work for human investigators, he said. "A lot of time analysts tell you they feel they are drinking from a fire hose."

Knowing a suspect is a psychopath can affect how law enforcement conducts investigations and interrogations, Hancock said.

You can follow LiveScience writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on .

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How to Spot Psychopaths: Speech Patterns Give Them Away

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NEW YORK - Psychopaths are known to be wily and manipulative, but even so, they unconsciously betray themselves, according to scientists who have looked for patterns in convicted murderers' speech as they described their crimes. The researchers interviewed 52 convicted murderers, 14 of them ranked as psychopaths according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, a 20-item assessment, and asked them to describe their crimes in detail.

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People choose to write about their lives for a variety of reasons, including a desire to leave a memoir for their children and future generations, to create a record for themselves so they can be reminded of their youthful adventures when...