EVENTS

Building on our recent virtual event, Empathy as an Interpersonal Process, The Love Consortium is thrilled to continue this important conversation in person in May! Empathy: Approaches and Implications for a Divided World will take place in Barcelona, Spain to coincide with the 2026 APS Annual Convention. Although the general theme of the event highlights interpersonal divides, we welcome submissions that are broadly relevant to empathy as an interpersonal process. If you have new research on empathy, we'd love to hear about it.

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Across romantic couples, families, friendships, workplaces, and social encounters, empathy plays a central role in how people navigate misalignment, build understanding, and sustain connection. We are eager to learn about research on empathy from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives including work on close relationships and intergroup contexts. Our goal will be to curate that work into a program that reflects the richness of empathy research and inspires a rich scholarly discussion on the role that empathy can play in bringing people together. We encourage all researchers with relevant data and from any geography or career stage to submit their work for presentation.

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We are accepting submissions for three presentation formats: 

• Poster presentations

• Flash talks (5 minutes)

• Full talks (15-20 minutes)

You may select any of these format(s) for which you’d like your research to be considered.
 

Submit your research!

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Submissions will be evaluated through peer-review according to the following criteria:

• Scientific contribution: To what extent does the research advance the science of empathy?

• Methodological quality: How sound are the methods, analyses, and conclusions?

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After these criteria, we will consider the overall programmatic experience when determining which presentations should be given in which format. 

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Submissions are due by January 23, 2026 and decisions will be announced by February 13, 2026.

Thank you for considering a submission to our event. We look forward to learning more about your research! Please reach out via email (theloveconsortium@unc.edu) with any questions.