Draft:Concern (emotion)

Concern is a psychological and emotional state with respect to a subject that indicates both interest and potentially worry about that subject.

Concerns may be defined as "the feelings, preoccupation, thought and consideration given to a particular issue or task".

"An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about a demand as it is perceived is concern. To be concerned means to be in a mentally aroused state about something".

Philosopher Jesse Prinz has characterized concern as an alternative to empathy:

"Concern is a cousin of empathy. It is a fellow‐feeling that arises when we consider another's plight. In the empirical literature, concern is usually measured differently than empathy. Empathy, as defined here, is an emotion we share with another. Concern is a negative sentiment caused by the recognition that someone is in need. It does not necessarily correspond to what anyone else is feeling."

Prinz uses the example of a person observing a drug addict, noting that a person who felt empathy for a drug addict should want the addict to have their addiction satisfied, while the person who felt concern would be more inclined to "worry about the addict's well‐being". Scholars generally agree that "empathic concern is an other-oriented emotional response".

In the context of clinical empathy, the concept of "detached concern" was developed by sociologists Renée Fox and Howard Lief in 1963, as a means of providing objective, detached medical care while maintaining enough concern for the patient to offer emotional understanding.

Philosopher Shaun Nichols has proposed the existence of an internal psychological "concern mechanism". Alvin Goldman notes that in Nichols' model, "psychopaths may possess and deploy perspective taking for high-level mindreading, but this doesn't imply activation of the concern mechanism".