1. Professor Paul Bloom from Yale University argues in his piece “Is Empathy Overrated?” that empathy is a narrow focused, biased, and ineffective way to share kindness with the world. Bloom emphasizes that, “Empathy is a spotlight with a narrow focus; [shining] brightly on those we love and [dimming] for those who are different or strange.” (Bloom). It is easy for us to feel for people who look like us, a principle which Bloom applies to empathy. Bloom asserts that humans apply empathy in a limited span, only able to “feel for” a few, if not a single, person at a time. He argues, using stories of the victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting, that “mass tragedies that are single events, rather than longer term, gain more focus due to the relatability of the victims to those who donate their time and money,” (Bloom). Empathy can be a way to help a community or person who has felt a major disservice, but Bloom emphasizes that, “Empathy [tends to distort] our moral judgements in pretty much the same way that prejudice does.” (Bloom). We tend to remember the one occurrence of bad, rather than a history of good, done by a person and connect it directly. “Due to the heavy weight placed on empathy in our society, we may find ourselves using it in our judgments of others and their credibility based on their history and connections.” (Bloom). For example, Bloom also discusses the failed presidential run of Governor Michael Dukakis, talking about how the single horrifying failure of his furlough program caused him to struggle to succeed in his run. Bloom closes his essay by stating that, “…self-control and intelligence [allow for ] a more diffuse compassion.” (Bloom). This compassion can be more easily spread without the potential for “negatives outweighing the positives”, an issue empathetic thinking can cause. I find myself agreeing to most of Bloom’s points, but he loses me a bit at the conclusion of his piece; Part of being human is feeling empathy, it isn’t something that can be replaced or altered for a more favorable outcome. While I agree that empathy is dangerous due to its biases and prejudicial potential, it is still important to celebrate the small wins and assistance people provide, as it makes us better as a human race.

2. I agree with the majority of Bloom’s main arguments upon first reading. His points on how empathy is a limited expression of compassion really resonated with me, especially his emphasis on prejudice and bias. I also agreed with his statements on how trying to empathize with too many makes it difficult to actually understand and help with the problem at hand. I do, however, find myself disagreeing with his final point that there are alternatives to empathy, yet does not pose these alternatives or give a vision of what these would look like. I think he misses a major point by not detailing what he means when he says there are alternatives, and from a surface level, it leaves me somewhat disagreeing with him.

3. My initial understanding of empathy was that it is a feeling that drives humans to do the right thing when posed a challenge or problem; I also realized I confuse empathy and sympathy very commonly in my head. Bloom changed my perception of empathy a bit in his piece by reminding me of how my privilege and bias can affect the way that I may express kindness to others. He asserted that people inherently help those who look like themselves, which leads to some getting more aid than others during tragedies.

4. A claim Bloom makes that evoked a strong response from me was, “It would be bad enough if empathy were simply silent when faced with problems involving large numbers, but actually it’s worse. It can sway us toward the one over the many.” Based on the context from the ending of this passage and the paragraph before, I support his view here. It is easier to think of one person and feel for them rather than to feel bad for an entire group. I find myself, when faced with major tragedies or bad news, to find one person as the center of it all. I focus on that person and connect their struggles to the struggles of everyone else, so maybe his view is missing the fact that some people may view major tragedies in this way.

MLA Citation

Bloom, Paul. “Is Empathy Overrated?” Ideas.ted.com, 24 Mar. 2017, https://ideas.ted.com/is-empathy-overrated/.