Against Empathy

Most of us assume that feeling another person's pain is the root of moral behavior, and many thoughtful leaders, researchers and thinkers have said the world simply needs more of it. Yale psychologist Paul Bloom disagrees. He contends that empathy is a major driver of unfairness and wrongdoing, and that it is a fickle, unreliable feeling that favors people who already resemble us and bends to our biases. Because it clouds judgment, he argues, it can push well-meaning people toward cruel outcomes.

Drawing on recent research in psychology, Bloom examines how empathy shapes decisions that matter enormously: which causes to fund, whether to wage war, how to tackle climate change, and who should be punished. He shows how the same emotional pull distorts ordinary life as well, from charity and medical care to schooling, parenting and marriage. In his view, a more deliberate form of compassion, one that stands at a distance from the feeling itself, produces clearer and fairer choices.

The book makes its case as a challenge to a widely held view of kindness. Its central claim is that restraining our reliance on empathy, rather than cultivating more of it, is often the more moral course in both public policy and private life.