Reisel’s research – both with criminals in detention centers and rats in the lab – leads him to suggest that at the root of morality is empathy, the capacity to imagine and identify with the feelings and motivations of another.
And at the root of empathy is the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped part of the brain that stores and processes our emotional memories and is therefore deeply connected with emotional learning. Persons normally classified as socio-pathic typically have a deficient amygdala. But it turns out that the amygdala is one of the few parts of the brain that can generate new cells and grow throughout one’s life. Which means that empathy training is not only possible, but works.
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Which means that empathy training
is not only possible, but works.
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