{
    "href": "/post/2014/09/01/against-empathy/",
    "relId": "2014/09/01/against-empathy",
    "title": "Against Empathy",
    "author": "pmjones",
    "markup": "html",
    "tags": [
        {
            "href": "/tag/general/",
            "relId": "general",
            "title": "General",
            "author": null,
            "created": null,
            "updated": [],
            "markup": "markdown"
        }
    ],
    "created": "2014-09-01 18:56:09 UTC",
    "updated": [
        "2014-09-01 18:56:09 UTC"
    ],
    "html": "<blockquote>\n<p>I have argued elsewhere that certain features of empathy make it a poor guide to social policy. Empathy is biased; we are more prone to feel empathy for attractive people and for those who look like us or share our ethnic or national background. And empathy is narrow; it connects us to particular individuals, real or imagined, but is insensitive to numerical differences and statistical data. As Mother Teresa put it, \u00e2\u0080\u009cIf I look at the mass I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.\u00e2\u0080\u009d Laboratory studies find that we really do care more about the one than about the mass, so long as we have personal information about the one.</p>\n<p>In light of these features, our public decisions will be fairer and more moral once we put empathy aside.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>via <a href=\"http://www.bostonreview.net/forum/paul-bloom-against-empathy\">Against Empathy | Boston Review</a>.</p>\n"
}