This disconnect between our emotional responses to unusual events versus everyday violence may lead us to make wrong-headed suggestions for how to cope with gun violence, says Bloom. What’s wrong with empathy?Įmpathy is biased-we care more about certain people who are close to us, both proximally and emotionally, says Bloom-and it leads us to seek short-sighted rather than long-term solutions to problems.Ĭompare the public’s reaction to the Sandy Hook massacre, where many empathized with the parents of the dead children, to the public’s reaction to everyday murders in Chicago and other urban settings, which often pass with barely a nod. But the book falls short in its case against empathy. His book makes for an engaging, and somewhat enlightening, tour of the research in this area. Without empathy, Bloom insists, our decisions would be clearer, fairer, and ultimately more moral.From the GGSC to your bookshelf: 30 science-backed tools for well-being. He demonstrates how empathy distorts our judgment in every aspect of our lives, from philanthropy and charity to the justice system from medical care and education to parenting and marriage. We are at our best when we are smart enough not to rely on it, but to draw instead upon a more distanced compassion.īasing his argument on scientific findings, Bloom makes the case that some of the worst decisions made by individuals and nations - who to give money to, when to go to war, how to respond to climate change, and who to imprison - are too often motivated by honest, yet misplaced, emotions. It muddles our judgment and, ironically, often leads to cruelty. Far from helping us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to our narrow prejudices.

In “Against Empathy,” Bloom reveals empathy to be one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality in society. Nothing could be farther from the truth, argues Paul Bloom.

Many of the wisest policy-makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers agree that the only problem with empathy is that we don’t have enough of it. We often think of our capacity to experience the suffering of others as the ultimate source of goodness. Paul Bloom, the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology

Case against empathy