Empathy Flexibility in empathic Responsiveness

What is empathy? The term empathy is used in many wide range from feelings of concern for other people to knowing what the other person thinks or  feels. To be honest I found most of Decety's workshop quite interesting. But what caught my attention the most was when participants felt pain for the individuals who had contracted AIDS as a result of blood transfusion as compared to the others who contracted AIDS through sharing needles. This study was done through fMRI to show attitudes towards other people. Another fMRI study is shown declaration for modulation of empathic neural responses by racial groups. This was also so intriguing to me because when participants were to view faces of racial out-group their ACC to perception  in pain decreased compared to racial in-group members. Also their pain increase when they saw a loved one in pain rather than a stranger.I believe empathy is important because it helps us understand each other better.