{ "model": { "rank": 3919, "code": "thing-q182263", "model_id": "vr.tr.empathy", "name": "empathy", "purpose": "Let an agent explain empathy, relay research on its forms, development and neuroscience from psychology sources with findings attributed, describe the named topics including autistic perspectives and polemical uses, note compassion fatigue support for carers, and distinguish empathy from sympathy, compassion, emotional contagion and theory of mind.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q182263/", "tier": 2, "score": 80, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Suicidal empathy", "Empathy in autistic people", "Pain empathy" ], "aliasCount": 3, "merged": 3, "knownIn": 80, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q182263", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q182263", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T21:11:33Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q182263", "registryId": "vr.tr.empathy", "name": "empathy", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q182263/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.empathy", "name": "empathy", "purpose": "Let an agent explain empathy, relay research on its forms, development and neuroscience from psychology sources with findings attributed, describe the named topics including autistic perspectives and polemical uses, note compassion fatigue support for carers, and distinguish empathy from sympathy, compassion, emotional contagion and theory of mind.", "definition": "The capacity to understand or share the feelings and perspectives of others, often divided into cognitive empathy, understanding another s mental state, and affective empathy, sharing their emotional state, studied in psychology and neuroscience including research on pain empathy, which activates overlapping brain networks; the registry aliases include empathy in autistic people, where the double empathy problem proposed by Damian Milton describes mutual misunderstanding between autistic and non-autistic people rather than a one-sided deficit, and suicidal empathy, a polemical term used by some commentators to criticise what they see as self-destructive compassion, which is not a scientific construct. The model presents debates neutrally.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding and connecting with others.", "affordances": [ "explain forms and research", "relay autistic perspectives with attribution", "describe named topics neutrally", "distinguish related concepts" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Cognitive and affective forms", "Measured in many ways", "Varies across people and contexts", "Contested popular uses" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; seen in attentive listening, mirrored expressions and supportive responses.", "visual_identification": [ "Understanding or sharing others feelings", "Suicidal empathy, empathy in autistic people, pain empathy", "Sympathy is feeling for someone; compassion adds motivation to help; emotional contagion is automatic; theory of mind is attributing mental states" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "double empathy problem", "typical_range": "2012", "unit": "year", "note": "Damian Milton" }, { "quantity": "Interpersonal Reactivity Index", "typical_range": "1980", "unit": "year", "note": "Mark Davis, common measure" }, { "quantity": "registry parent", "typical_range": "social skill", "unit": "note", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "cognitive empathy", "affective empathy", "empathic concern", "pain empathy", "cross-neurotype empathy" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "social skill", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "theory of mind", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "sympathy", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "double empathy problem", "why": "" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "No regulation; professional ethics codes emphasise empathic care" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Stereotyping autistic people as lacking empathy", "Presenting polemical terms as science", "Ignoring compassion fatigue in carers" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What empathy is.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is empathy, and how does it differ from sympathy, compassion, emotional contagion and theory of mind?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is someone exhausted from caring for others or struggling emotionally, in which case support services can help?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "topics", "name": "Topics", "description": "Named topics.", "findings": [ { "id": "topics-finding", "name": "Topics", "description": "Topics.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are pain empathy, empathy in autistic people and the term suicidal empathy, described neutrally?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific topic?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "science", "name": "Science", "description": "Research.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "forms", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms of empathy.", "findings": [ { "id": "forms-finding", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do researchers distinguish cognitive and affective empathy?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "brain", "name": "Brain", "description": "Neuroscience.", "findings": [ { "id": "brain-finding", "name": "Brain", "description": "Brain.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do brain imaging studies of pain empathy show, with limits noted?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "autism", "name": "Autism", "description": "Autistic perspectives.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "double", "name": "Double empathy", "description": "Double empathy problem.", "findings": [ { "id": "double-finding", "name": "Double empathy", "description": "Double empathy.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the double empathy problem, and what research supports or questions it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits double empathy problem?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "myths", "name": "Myths", "description": "Stereotypes.", "findings": [ { "id": "myths-finding", "name": "Myths", "description": "Myths.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do autistic advocates challenge the stereotype that autistic people lack empathy?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation respectful and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Debates and care.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "critiques", "name": "Critiques", "description": "Critiques of empathy.", "findings": [ { "id": "critiques-finding", "name": "Critiques", "description": "Critiques.", "questions": [ { "text": "What arguments do authors such as Paul Bloom make about the limits of empathy, and how are polemical uses criticised?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits Against Empathy?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "fatigue", "name": "Fatigue", "description": "Compassion fatigue.", "findings": [ { "id": "fatigue-finding", "name": "Fatigue", "description": "Fatigue.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is compassion fatigue among carers and health workers?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits compassion fatigue?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should the double empathy problem be a separate entry?", "How should psychology sources be linked?", "How should polemical terms such as suicidal empathy be recorded?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a empathy, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain empathy, relay research on its forms, development and neuroscience from psychology sources with findings attributed, describe the named topics including autistic perspectives and polemical uses, note compassion fatigue support for carers, and distinguish empathy from sympathy, compassion, emotional contagion and theory of mind.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Suicidal empathy, Empathy in autistic people, Pain empathy.", "3 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 80 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a empathy, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Suicidal empathy", "Empathy in autistic people", "Pain empathy" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 80 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 3 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one empathy from another, and a empathy from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a empathy sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a empathy from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a empathy passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a empathy between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a empathy, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a empathy is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a empathy says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a empathy contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a empathy and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What empathy studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does empathy take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does empathy establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where empathy is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark empathy as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place empathy, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a empathy came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a empathy and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a empathy is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a empathy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a empathy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a empathy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }