Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand how others perceive the world, including their emotional reactions, without necessarily sharing those feelings. It's also referred to as "perspective taking".It is different from emotional empathy, which involves feeling the emotions of others and sympathizing with them.Cognitive empathy is valuable because it can improve predictive power by helping anticipate how someone will act under various circumstances.A lack of cognitive empathy is a source of many problems, including: marital conflict, misinterpretations between nations leading to war, political polarization, poor user interface design, and ineffective communication.Cognitive empathy is "simple but not easy" because although we are built to exercise it, there are also obstacles in the brain that impede its use.These obstacles exist because, in certain situations, shutting down cognitive empathy could have helped our ancestors survive and pass on their genes.However, in today's world, these natural limitations of cognitive empathy can be a problem.Cognitive empathy can be a superpower that allows cooperation, but it also can be a kryptonite.The author believes that cognitive empathy is at the root of morality and the ability to make and settle disputes based on moral rules.Improving cognitive empathy skills could lead to radical changes in how we think about many things, from international relations to personal relationships.The author suggests that the survival and flourishing of humankind may depend on more people upgrading their cognitive empathy skills.Improving cognitive empathy skills may help save people from delusion, hostility and moral blindness.Cognitive empathy is considered a path to enlightenment because it allows people to see the world more clearly.To practice cognitive empathy, you must temporarily suspend moral judgment in order to try to see the world from the other person's perspective.A common obstacle to cognitive empathy is the intuition that understanding why someone did something means absolving them of moral responsibility.Understanding political pressures on leaders may be a benefit of cognitive empathy.The author suggests that the American media is not doing a good job of illuminating Putin's perspective.Cognitive empathy is needed to help navigate the Ukraine crisis, to help avoid a new cold war, and address major global issues.

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