Replace Selective Empathy with Diversity

What Is Selective Empathy? 

“Selective empathy is empathy restricted to particular groups — typically those you belong to or identify as similar to yourself.”

According to a 13-year study of American reactions to natural disasters in the 70s and 80s, the severity or deadliness of a disaster is not the primary factor driving people’s empathy; an earthquake that killed 1,000 people in Italy, at that time, garnered three times the coverage of an earthquake that killed 4,000 in Guatemala. The study, conducted by George Washington University professor William C. Adams found that news coverage was in direct relation to how much United States citizens cared about each country. Study researchers also found that the care U.S citizens felt was also based on how likely Americans were to visit a country, and how geographically close the country was to their own.

This shows humans are more likely to empathize with people with whom they share experiences, or in whom they see reflections of their own personalities.

a common theme runs through the persecuted minorities: their existence has been painted as not normal, and a threat to society. From Muslims being equated to terrorists, black people to criminals, ‘lower’ castes as impure, and queers as ungodly, when marginalized groups are painted as caricatures of human beings. This makes empathizing with their lived experience all the more difficult, paving the way for prejudice to fill the gaps.

If we can understand and share experiences of groups we formerly thought too different from us, then we’re expanding our minds to be healthier, more inclusive.

A great way to start is by exposing ourselves to diversity.

We do not have to allow the media to continue to polarize us and deepen the harm and violence.

We can educate ourselves, open our minds and start to develop the universal empathy needed to heal our communities, countries and the planet.

SOURCES

https://theswaddle.com/selective-empathy-why-we-are-able-to-empathize-with-some-never-all/

https://liveboldandbloom.com/11/personality-types/selective-empathy#:~:text=change%20selective%20empathy%3F-,What%20Is%20Selective%20Empathy%3F,still%20rampant%20in%20every%20country.

https://www.manoanow.org/kaleo/opinion/selective-empathy-its-relevance-in-the-modern-world/article_c4d1d9b0-e7a2-11e9-81be-a39ad2e9d674.html