Why didn’t the police show any empathy for Daniel Prude?
Jesus, too, encountered a naked man living with mental torment. He responded quite differently.
A wave of empathy research has emerged in recent years, much of it questioning the link between empathy and altruism. More than a few social scientists wonder if empathy does the good many of us think it does. Author Paul Bloom finds the emotion to be “parochial [and] narrow-minded.” Psychologist Jamil Zaki thinks we steer too much of our empathic imagination toward those who act or think like we do. Literature professor Alisha Gaines is concerned about the exploitative consequences of racial empathy. Columnist David Brooks calls empathy a “sideshow” that doesn’t really motivate us to take moral action.
I want to put in a good word for empathy. The capacity to make a deep connection with someone else’s feelings or frame of reference is one of the ways we heal a tattered world. Not only does it open the door to solidarity with another life, it enlarges our own in the process. To live without empathy is to live within the narrow confines of our own little worlds. It’s a decision to keep the experiences and situations of others distant from our own.
Psychologists may debate whether empathy is a hardwired personality trait or a skill we build over time. I simply want to know why it shouldn’t be a way of life for all of us. To participate in the emotions of another human being is one of the ways we express love.
