We can likely recognize that the acute emotional pain of empathizing with every sorrow and tragedy – a seemingly infinite collection of agonies – would mean inevitable implosion or collapse.
We would be rendered catatonic; we’re not built to bear such anguish. As some people’s stories demonstrate, the plight of one life can be burden enough on its own.
New research in Psychological Science uncovers a deterrent to our ability to relate to other people: our political ideologies. CONCLUSION: Our tendency to project our visceral feelings onto others does not extend to people who we consider to be…
Journalism schools teach you detachment, that empathy hinders objectivity.Even if we transmit compassion through our journalism, we can be as detached from the subject. Our aim is to seek to understand the other, not support or oppose. It also becomes …
Young Americans have more sympathy for suffering babies and dogs than they do for human adults, a new study suggests. Northeastern University researchers showed 256 college undergraduates fictitious news reports of brutally beaten human adults, ch…
This week on Hidden Brain we ask, what happens when you empathize with your enemy? Why does reaching out to another tribe make our tribe so angry? We talk to Avner Gvaryahu, a former paratrooper in the Israeli army, who angered his fellow Israelis for …
