The following image visually distinguishes compassion from the similar experiences of empathy, sympathy, and pity.Īt the bottom left, we have pity. It is helpful to consider the two distinct qualities of compassion: understanding what another is feeling, and the willingness to act to alleviate suffering for another. They all represent positive, altruistic traits, but they don’t refer to the exact same experience. The words “empathy” and “compassion,” as well as “sympathy,” are sometimes used interchangeably. Empathy and Compassion: What’s the Difference? It begins with understanding the difference between empathy and compassion. Instead of carrying that burden of empathy, you can learn to experience the uplifted experience of compassion. This is a massive shift in how leaders engage with their teams, a shift that greatly benefits all sides. So when we tell leaders that, actually, they don’t have to take the difficulties of the people they lead onto themselves, this is a huge burden lifted off their shoulders. But too much of it can be a problem, weighing you down. Of course, this kind of empathy is important for good leadership.

In short, they have been shouldering a big emotional burden. Guiding us expertly through the experiments, case studies and arguments on all sides, Paul Bloom ultimately shows that some of our worst decisions - in charity, child-raising, criminal justice, climate change and war - are motivated by this wolf in sheep's clothing.īrilliantly argued, urgent and humane, Against Empathy overturns widely held assumptions to reveal one of the most profound yet overlooked sources of human conflict.For close to two years, leaders have been thrust into the role of Counselor in Chief, helping teams recover from the grief and loss of the pandemic, buoying the declining mental health of their employees, being sensitive to people’s anxieties and often publicly sharing their own vulnerabilities along the way. Empathy therefore biases us in favour of individuals we know while numbing us to the plight of thousands. But while it inspires care and protection in personal relationships, it has the opposite effect in the wider world.Īs the latest research in psychology and neuroscience shows, we feel empathy most for those we find attractive and who seem similar to us and not at all for those who are different, distant or anonymous. We think of empathy - the ability to feel the suffering of others for ourselves - as the ultimate source of all good behaviour. In a divided world, empathy is not the solution, it is the problem.

Rational empathy