Empathic Self-Control

Abstract

People with a high degree of self-control typically enjoy greater well-being than those with a low degree of self-control. They also tend to have a high degree of empathy. Further, those with low self-control also tend to have low empathy. But what possible connection could there be between self-control and empathy, given that how one regulates oneself seems to have no bearing on how one views others? This chapter aims to argue for a very tight relation between self-control and empathy, namely, that empathy is in fact one type of self-control, a previously unexplored feature of interpersonal lives. In addition, once one sees that the type of empathy exercised is also exercised when casting oneself into the shoes of one’s future self, it becomes evident how intrapersonal empathy better enables other more familiar types of self-control.