Empathy responses to others in pain peak in young adulthood according to a new study led by the University of Kent’s School of Psychology.

Psychologists have discovered that young adults are especially sensitive to social pain, such as situations of embarrassment, grief and sadness, and empathise more strongly with others experiencing social pain than adolescents or older adults do.

In a new article, the former director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice programs, proposes a framework to situate both the role of rigorous evaluation and its results in a more robust understanding of the effectiveness of social programs. According to her new framework, the more deliberate the implementation of a social program, the more likely it will yield its intended impact.