RE: Psychology Addict # 47 | Putting Ourselves in Other’s Shoes
Marvellous post! Yes, I think empathy is going to be the emotion that unpins most of the issues that I want to work on during the course of my life. As you identified in your post it’s a super important emotion for the fact-to-face interactions in day-to-day life, however you nicely outline what worries me most:
Upon finding that we are more likely to socially empathize with people that are ‘like us’ the researchers concluded that this is something that also explains a propensity we have to ‘dehumanize’ out-group members.
A while back I talked about the scoping effect and why raising money for malaria interventions that could help millions is so hard. This is a key point here.
The issue for psychology to work towards now, therefore, is how do we keep the good of empathy and lose the bad. Know your own cognitive biases, that’s my advice! With psychology I think it’s so important that we point it towards ourselves before pointing it towards others. I know I’ve done my job well when one of my students starts the year wanting to “psychoanalyses” others and ends the year “a wreck of a human being, unsure of everything they though they knew”, then at least they’ve got the best foundation to build from.
Hi Richard 😊,
Oh, I am so pleased to hear you enjoyed this post. I did think of your work at times, during the writing process. More specifically the post you wrote about the impact empathy and fear have on healthy policies.
And of course, last night just before I gathered my images for this piece I read your latest article (I am sorry I run out of time and didn't comment). But, the manner with which the public reacted to the suffering the Evans family underwent illustrates how empathy can sometimes get out of control (when it becomes a public matter, things get that much more complex!).
What you said here about 'knowing our cognitive biases' is an interesting one. As both our biases as 'individuals' and 'group members' need to be taken into account. But, like you said, and I believe in this very much, the work of the 'self' comes first.
The way you said you evaluate how much of a good job you do with your students, just made me smile! 😃
Ps: I will be reading your post World Malaria Day: If I look at the many I will never act. over the weekend. Thank you for pointing it out to me! You know I am big fa of your work.
Hey Abigail, excellent, yes our work often seems to align nicely. I feel we need a blanked “don’t worry about not reading post” agreement. There are only so many hours in the day. More and more lately I’m writing to get ideas straight in my head rather than so that others will read/comment on them, so never really expect anyone to read them. That post is based on this paper by Paul Slovic who I think you’ll like if you like Bloom.
Wonderful!! Thank you :*
Deal! 😆