the amount of empathy we have for ppl is anticorrelated with the size of their bank account
47
14
345
Conversation
Replying to
I imagine it's more like "the amount of empathy we have for people is correlated with how close their bank account balance is to our own". Wealthy people (in the global sense) don't seem to show much empathy for homeless people, the global poor, etc.
5
2
106
Replying to
Do they not? I felt like they did, but it's possible this is due to being exposed to stuff like twitter idk
This person may think if we cut more checks to food banks & homeless shelters we would solve those societal issues
Replying to
I think there's more sympathy than empathy with these groups, but not always even particularly high levels of sympathy (e.g. with homeless populations). I include myself in this: I don't think I'm very able to empathize with what it's like to be homeless in the US.
1
12
It is pretty much settled science that rich people experience less empathy, are more self-oriented, behave less ethically, even give away a smaller percentage of their income despite the marginal utility cost being much less. This links a bunch of studies
2
9