“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.” ~~ Article in Scientific American, What, Me Care? Young Are Less Empathetic
I stumbled across this article while researching another subject. It reminded me of a conversation I had with my Canadian friend, Le Canuck, who lives in Memphis. I was there for a weekend of golf. We played Saturday and Sunday, having a good time both days, but each day there were unnecessary behavioral faux pas from other golfers on the course.
I don’t always succeed, but I generally try to just shrug these off. Getting upset has a deleterious effect on my already sketchy golf game. I did comment to Le Canuck that I thought behavior in general and golf etiquette in particular was on the decline. I then went on to assign my opinion to the grumblings of an old man, not to say curmudgeon.
Le Canuck, who is around 15 years younger than myself, was not in agreement on the second part. He opined that he too thought what my mother would have called CFOP (Consideration for Other People) was on the decline. He went on to postulate that in at least part, technology was to blame. He saw folks spending more time with screens, interacting with their phones more than with flesh and blood humans. He felt it just decreased people’s regard for other people, that they were more self involved and not so focused on the outside world. Another issue being that people’s online time is generally in silos, they are interacting with liked minded individuals. Plus if you become tired of an online interaction, you can just push a button to make it go away. Not polite online, but beyond impolite when you do the equivalent in person. I found it an interesting point of view.
The study in the article linked to above was on college students, always an available pool of research subjects, but I suspect the results would be similar for other age groups. The article listed a couple of possible explanations. First was in an increase in social isolation. More of us are living alone, more of us are interacting less in person, all of which can lead to less empathy for others. Their theory is very similar to Le Canuck‘s theory of excessive screen time leading to less CFOP.
Their second possible cause – I found this one very interesting – is a sharp decline in readership of literature.
“…Americans have abandoned reading in droves. The number of adults who read literature for pleasure sank below 50 percent for the first time ever in the past 10 years, with the decrease occurring most sharply among college-age adults.”
One of the perks of reading good literature is that you get to peek into other people’s lives, often folks who are much different than yourself. Done right, this augments your pool of empathy, decreases the number of those you see as “others”, and hopefully gives you some insight into your own behavior and life.
The linked article is from 2011, I wonder what the researchers are finding in 2021 as the researchers felt the “American personality is shifting in an ominous direction.” It does not feel like we have become a more empathetic, a more tolerant nation is the last 10 years.
So it should not go.