Empathy is one of those great qualities we all claim to know and have, yet when it’s really needed, is nowhere to be found. Your friend has been dumped by her less than perfect partner, and you find yourself saying: ‘I always knew he was bad. Why didn’t you listen to me before’, instead of empathising with her loss.

Your child fails a test and you scold them for not studying instead of validating their feelings.

Empathy is a hard thing to understand and even harder to do. Perhaps we all need a basic lesson on this essential human trait.

Here Mark Ruffalo teaches a Muppet about this very important quality.