A University of Michigan study of 14,000 university students found empathy is in serious decline, especially over the past ten years, while narcissism has soared.
The research, led by Sara H. Konrath of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and published online in August in Personality and Social Psychology Review, found that college students’ self-reported empathy has declined since 1980, with an especially steep drop in the past 10 years. To make matters worse, during this same period students’ self-reported narcissism has reached new heights, according to research by Jean M. Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University.
An individual’s empathy can be assessed in many ways, but one of the most popular is simply asking people what they think of themselves. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index, a well-known questionnaire, taps empathy by asking whether responders agree to statements such as “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me” and “I try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before I make a decision.” People vary a great deal in how empathic they consider themselves. Moreover, research confirms that the people who say they are empathic actually demonstrate empathy in discernible ways, ranging from mimicking others’ postures to helping people in need (for example, offering to take notes for a sick fellow student).
Konrath cites the increase in social isolation, which has coincided with the drop in empathy. In the past 30 years Americans have become more likely to live alone and less likely to join groups—ranging from PTAs to political parties to casual sports teams. Several studies hint that this type of isolation can take a toll on people’s attitudes toward others. Steve Duck of the University of Iowa has found that socially isolated, as compared with integrated, individuals evaluate others less generously after interacting with them, and Kenneth J. Rotenberg of Keele University in England has shown that lonely people are more likely to take advantage of others’ trust to cheat them in laboratory games.
Whether it equates to narcissism or not I am not qualified to judge, but it is certainly true that people seem less engaged in the world around them, at least on sidewalks and public transit.
ReplyDeleteI try to remain grounded in the world around me at all times, lest my mind float away from me into nether nether land. On the bus I am observing other riders, looking at the ads above me, looking out the window to see what might have changed on the streets passing in front of me. I am in the minority here, people of all ages are increasingly absorbed in their little electronic worlds. They scroll through music lists, they look up things on their tiny little screens, they compose tweets, they read texts and emails, they play games. They hardly ever notice what is around them, particularly that their elbows are jabbing me in the ribs as they operate their little devices.
We have had portable music for a generation or more and I do not recall people being so wrapped up in it that they lost their sense of the present moment because of it. The little computer screens people carry are taking over their minds I think. I am more and more convinced than ever that I will probably never own such a gadget now. I don't think I'd be happy in a virtual world. The actual world seems so much more exciting somehow.
What you describe, Elliott, has also been identified by researchers as a major contributor to both the decline in empathy and the rise of narcissism.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting to observe teens walking along, oblivious to their surroundings, reading or sending text messages.
On the weekend I was stunned to see a young fellow riding a sport bike down the main drag with one hand on the throttle, head down, the other hand holding his cell phone - checking his e-mail no doubt.
I don't use a cell phone. When I'm out I'm on my time. Those who want to reach me can call me on my land line or send me an e-mail I'll get to when I'm home.
There's a great book by Dick Meyer (editor of NPR) called "Why We Hate Us" that I think is relevant to your post.
ReplyDeleteEssentially, Meyer argues that Americans recognise, at least on a subconscious level, that their cultural is vulgar, trashy, violent, shallow, and phony, and so many resort to a sort of "defensive living" where they disengage with society and retreat into bubbles. It certainly doesn't help that American culture (and much of the rest of Western culture, unfortunately) encourages people to live in bubbles: We live in suburbs that isolate us from both the city and the countryside, we get from Point A to Point B by locking ourselves inside the bubble of our automobiles, and when we're out and about we use gadgets like smartphones to lock ourselves into little electronic bubbles. Is it any wonder that such a culture breeds narcissism?
But what really gets me are conservatives who decry the trashy narcissism of our culture, yet fail to realise that this is merely the end result of a highly-competitive, highly-individualistic consumer-capitalist culture. If you want to get a job in America, you pretty much HAVE to be narcissist.
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