Empathy is more than emotion—it’s informed imagination.
It means stepping into someone else’s world, aligning with their thoughts, feelings, and attitudes—not just through sympathy, but through perspective-taking grounded in truth.
True empathy demands more than good intentions. It requires context. Without understanding a person’s history, reality, and cultural framework, we risk projecting our own assumptions. We imagine what we would do in their situation, which is often more self-centric than empathetic.
Cultural intelligence changes that. It equips us to move beyond guesswork—to draw from a deep well of cultural awareness, emotional sensitivity, and behavioral insight. It helps us ask not just How would I feel? but a much better question:
How would they feel—and how would I react if I had lived in their world?