For a more empathic world, we need to choose empathy
Most of us think about empathy as an automatic response, like a parachute that deploys when we see someone in distress. Or we think of it as a skill, something we can hone by practicing perspective taking or deep listening.
But a new study suggests a missing piece of the empathy
puzzle: motivation. Even when we have the ability to feel others’ pain or
understand their perspective, we’re more likely to exercise it when we have a
strong desire to do so.
This finding is especially relevant today amid all the social and
political divides in the U.S. In addition to teaching people skills to bridge
differences, this research suggests we also need to boost their motivation to
empathize in the first place—and it points to a few ways to do so.
Harvard University social psychologist Erika Weisz and her team
instructed college freshmen to write letters to struggling high school students
about how empathy was in the high-schoolers’ best interest—that it would help
them connect with others, for instance. This activity was designed to boost the
letter-writers’ own motivation
to empathize, Weisz explains. “When we ask a participant to endorse a statement
to another person, they tend to endorse those beliefs themselves.”
After they wrote the letters, the students seemed to get better at
reading other people’s emotions. Up to two months later, they showed higher
accuracy when asked to describe what people in a video were feeling, compared
to a control group who wrote letters unrelated to empathy. Some also reported
making more close friends at college, possibly due to their empathic savvy.
Along the same lines, a University of Toronto study this year reiterated
the finding that our empathy depends on our motivation and explored other
ways to boost our identification with people.
Results like these suggest that we can encourage empathy by
focusing on the rewards it offers. “A lot of people think of empathy
as a static trait,” Weisz says. “Targeting motivations imparts lasting
changes.”
Witnessing gratitude and kindness
helps bond people together
Gratitude is a premier emotion for bonding two people together. It
creates a warm feeling of trust, encouraging more closeness and care.
But a study published this year in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests
that these effects extend beyond the people involved in an exchange of
thanks—all the way to people who only observe expressions
of gratitude.
In the study, Sara Algoe and her colleagues ran a series of
experiments. Sometimes, participants saw written notes of thanks for a kindness
done; other times, they watched a video of someone voicing how grateful they
were for another person’s kindness and fine qualities.
In both cases, when people observed these expressions of gratitude, they were drawn to befriend the grateful person and the recipient of the gratitude, and they wanted to help them out, too. This suggests that gratitude can encourage ripple effects of positive social connection within communities.
“A whole group of people could be inspired to be kinder to one
another,” says Algoe, “and through this interwoven kindness, the group itself
could become a higher-functioning group.”
And witnessing kindness can have a similar effect, according to another
study published this year in Psychological Bulletin.
In the study, Haesung Jung and her colleagues analyzed decades of
experimental studies. The researchers found that being a bystander to
kindness—whether we read about it or see it happen in front of us—makes us act
kindly ourselves, even toward people not involved in the act of kindness.
“People resonate when they watch someone do something good,” says
Jung. “The message that these prosocial behaviors are quite contagious is a
really important message that people should know.”
Both studies suggest we should all try expressing more gratitude
and being kinder to one another. Doing so has more far-reaching effects than we
may have realized, helping to spread goodness and build greater social cohesion
in our communities.
To get people to follow COVID
guidelines, appeal to their care for others
The world is facing
another surge in COVID-19 cases and related deaths. To effectively stop it
requires more people to adhere to public health guidelines, including
wearing masks and keeping physically distant—at least until a vaccine is widely
available.
But how do we get people to comply with these measures? While it
might seem that people would be most motivated to protect their own health,
research suggests that isn’t necessarily the case. Instead, messages that
appeal to our concern for others may be more effective.
In one study published this year, Harvard researcher
Jillian Jordan and her colleagues compared how a large group of Americans
responded to different public health announcements during the early months of
the pandemic. She found that messages focusing on the need to protect others
were more likely to inspire compliance with health measures than those focused
on the need to protect oneself—a finding that resonates with prior studies.
“While people do care a great deal about themselves and are
self-interested, people also care a lot about other people, and those social
motivations are a big part of our behavior,” says Jordan.
Indeed, a study conducted in Sweden concluded that
people who were more “prosocial” (kind and helpful, measured two years before
the pandemic hit) were more likely than less prosocial people to follow
distancing guidelines, stay home if sick, and buy face masks during early 2020.
Many other social factors drive us to follow health safety
guidelines, too—including the compliance of those around you (social norms) and
your social identity (especially your political identity—in the United States,
at least). But our instinct for altruism is strong, if it’s tapped.
That’s especially true when the outcome of our actions is uncertain
but could hurt other people’s well-being.
That’s why many scientists are recommending that leaders
always mention the importance of protecting others whenever they ask people to
wear a mask, keep their distance from others, or take other precautions to
prevent the spread of COVID. Doing so could encourage more people to take those
steps—and help end the pandemic sooner for everyone.
Source: https://bit.ly/3rdBPzW
About Authors
Kira M. Newman is the managing editor of Greater Good. Her work has been published in outlets including the Washington Post, Mindful magazine, Social Media Monthly, and Tech.co, and she is the co-editor of The Gratitude Project.
Jill Suttie, Psy.D., is Greater Good’s former book review editor and now serves as a staff writer
and contributing editor for the magazine. She received her doctorate of
psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1998 and was a psychologist
in private practice before coming to Greater Good.
Jeremy Adam Smith edits the GGSC’s online magazine, Greater Good. He is also the author or coeditor of five books, including The Daddy Shift, Are We Born Racist?, and (most recently) The Gratitude Project: How the
Science of Thankfulness Can Rewire Our Brains for Resilience, Optimism, and the
Greater Good. Before joining the GGSC, Jeremy was a John S. Knight
Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.
Emiliana
R. Simon-Thomas, Ph.D., is the science director of the Greater Good Science Center,
where she oversees the GGSC’s fellowship program and serves co-instructor of
its Science of Happiness online course.
Elizabeth Svoboda is a writer in San Jose, CA, and a regular contributor
to Greater Good. She is the author of What Makes a Hero?: The Surprising Science of
Selflessness. Her newest book, for kids, is The Life Heroic.
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