“The education system forces people to unlearn the empathy they were born with. It’s a system based on always seeming strong, contributing to the economy, and being number one. Being number one is the rule of game, and how we relate to others is fundamentally dismissed.” –Bernard Amadei, Ashoka Fellow and founder of Engineers Without Borders USA…
Empathy can help reduce the damaging effects of repeated stress in human children…
Here are just a few cognitive benefits associated with empathy:
- Fosters insight into different perspectives and promotes genuine open-mindedness
- Discourages hasty and superficial problem examination
- Facilitates construction of more fully elaborated and frequently novel problem models
- Discourages belief rigidity
- Encourages cognitive and personal flexibility
- Practices persistent probing, engaged examination of an issue in alternation with flexibility (Gallo)
