Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion
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Last annotated on March 3, 2017
Many people think of empathy as associated with a cluster of views that are liberal, left-wing,Read more at location 1544
these include being in favor of gay marriage, stricter gun control, increased access to abortion, more open borders, and government programs such as universal health care.Read more at location 1545
Perhaps more empathic people tend to adopt more liberal views than conservative views; or maybe being exposed to liberal ideas makes one more empathic, while exposure to conservative views makes one less.Read more at location 1550
those who want greater legal protection for sexual and ethnic minorities, who worry about the proliferation of guns, who favor legal access to abortion, who support diversity programs in universities, who support universal health care, and so on.Read more at location 1574
commonsense categories of liberal and conservative do a surprisingly good jobRead more at location 1577
this sort of crude assessment works just fine at predicting all sorts of specific views.Read more at location 1581
five issues: Stricter gun control laws in the United States Universal health care Raising income taxes for persons in the highest income-tax bracket Affirmative action for minorities Stricter carbon emission standards to reduce global warmingRead more at location 1582
some believe that a political continuum from left to right might be universalRead more at location 1589
political systems have “a party of order or stability and a party of progress or reform.”Read more at location 1591
“the two parties which divide the state, the party of conservatism and that of innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made,”Read more at location 1591
such “irreconcilable antagonism must have a correspondent depth of seat in the human condition.”Read more at location 1593
matters of reproduction, relations with out-groups, suitable punishment for in-group miscreants, and traditional/innovative lifestyles.”Read more at location 1595
correlation between political views and party membership is about 0.5 to 0.6.Read more at location 1600
The most important thing each of us can do is to try even harder to see the world through our neighbors’ eyes ….Read more at location 1610
To the extent that citizens identify with the distresses of others, they will prefer to assuage the distress that they witness.Read more at location 1614
Many liberals would sum this all up by saying that they are the caring ones, while conservatives are vindictive, cruel, punitive, and unfeeling. Liberals want to increase the minimum wage because they care about poor people; conservatives don’t. Liberals want stricter gun laws because they worry about the victims of gun violence; conservatives don’t. Liberals favor abortion rights because they care about women, while conservatives want to restrict women’s freedom.Read more at location 1623
Conservatives think of society as an authoritarian traditional family, and when it comes to abortion, “The very idea that a women can make such a decision—a decision over her own reproduction, over her own body, and over a man’s progeny—contradicts and represents a threat to the idea of a strict father morality.”Read more at location 1627
“If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”Read more at location 1632
the importance of nonempathic moral values, such as greater emphasis on tradition,Read more at location 1633
This is why, according to Haidt, conservatives care more than liberals do about respect for the national flag (as this is associated with loyalty),Read more at location 1642
Finally, there is research on the actual mind-sets of liberals and conservatives.Read more at location 1645
self-defined liberals are significantly more empathic than self-defined conservatives on both scales.Read more at location 1650
if males were as empathic as females, the gender gap in politics would almost entirely disappear.Read more at location 1654
But this connection between political ideology and empathy is not as strong as it might first appear.Read more at location 1656
Ronald Reagan—are remarkably good at presenting themselves as empathically connected to others.Read more at location 1659
Consider that many policies associated with liberalism are also endorsed by libertarians,Read more at location 1660
gay marriage, the legalization of some drugs, and the militarization of the police. If such policies are grounded in empathy, it is mysterious why the least empathic people on earth would also endorse them.Read more at location 1662
So liberals in favor of open borders may try to evoke empathy for the suffering of refugees, while their conservative counterparts will talk about Americans who might lose their jobs.Read more at location 1665
Political debates typically involve a disagreement not over whether we should empathize, but over who we should empathize with.Read more at location 1670
Smart politicians appreciate this symmetry. When Barack Obama was talking to the Denver Police Academy, he recounted that, while campaigning in Iowa, Michelle Obama told him this: “You know, if I was living out on a farm in Iowa, I’d probably want a gun, tooRead more at location 1672
an American citizen on a cell phone making a last call to his four young daughters shortly before he burns to death in the upper levels of the Trade Center in New York City on 9/11.”Read more at location 1683
conservatives worry about the offense caused by speech that belittles traditional values.Read more at location 1686
Even the most zealous defender of free speech believes in some restrictions:Read more at location 1691
It seems mighty cold-blooded to tell someone who has been really hurt that they should just suck it up.Read more at location 1695
(the world is better off in the long run if all ideas, even bad ones, get an airing),Read more at location 1697
In his confirmation hearing, Clarence Thomas suggested that his unique contribution as a justice would be that he “can walk in the shoes of the people who are affected by what the Court does,” while Samuel Alito, in his own hearing, noted that “When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender, and I do take that into account.”Read more at location 1707
Alito’s dissent in a free speech case involving protesting at military funeralsRead more at location 1711
certain perspectives associated with liberal philosophies aren’t that empathic at all.Read more at location 1716
