The morality of feeling equal empathy for strangers and family alike
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The morality of feeling equal empathy for strangers and family alike
Brendan Gaesser, University at Albany, State University of New York and Zoë Fowler, University at Albany, State University of New York
The year 2020 has been no stranger to suffering. In the midst of a global pandemic, widespread financial hardship and violence arising from systemic racism, empathy for others’ suffering has been pushed to the front and center in U.S. society.
As society grapples to find its moral compass in a time of such hardship and strife, a critical question emerges: Whose suffering should one care about?
When you ponder who is worth feeling empathy for, friends, family members and children might come to mind. But what about strangers, or people not connected to you through nationality, social status or race?
As cognitive scientists, we wanted to understand what moral beliefs people hold about empathy and how these beliefs may shift depending on whom someone is feeling empathy for.
Empathy as ...
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