Teaching Empathy

Maia Szalavitz argues in a wonderful article in Time that we can and should activtely cultivate empathy in our children:

Increasingly, neuroscientists, psychologists and educators believe that bullying and other kinds of violence can indeed be reduced by encouraging empathy at an early age. Over the past decade, research in empathy — the ability to put ourselves in another person’s shoes — has suggested that it is key, if not the key, to all human social interaction and morality.

Without empathy, we would have no cohesive society, no trust and no reason not to murder, cheat, steal or lie. At best, we would act only out of self-interest; at worst, we would be a collection of sociopaths.

Although human nature has historically been seen as essentially selfish, recent science suggests that it is not. The capacity for empathy is believed to be innate in most humans, as well as some other species.

I think this last point is especially important.  Economics and political science often assume that individuals are inherently rational actors, and many go so far as to say that economic and political society are essentially founded on competition between self-interested parties.  This article points to an alternative way of thinking about this – rather than selfishness and competition, empathy and cooperation ought to form the cornerstone of a good society.  The human mind is endlessly flexible, with the potential for both cruel selfishness and expansive empathy.  Which tendency predominates depends on what we cultivate in childhood.

I also want to say that the article seems to be based on very good science.  I personally believe that some of the best psychology comes out of social psychology.  We’re all really just nodes in an enormous network of relationships with other people, and the best way to understand who we are is to study these relationships and how we interact with others more generally – hence, my penchant for social psychology.

–Aaron Bekemeyer