The Decline of Empathy and What to do About It

For the past few days I’ve been reflecting on empathy and its relevance to the work we do as service providers. Empathy is what lets us relate to our clients. It helps us know what questions to ask, and how to plumb the depth of an experience so we can more easily help our clients make the changes they seek.

Without empathy our work would be experienced as cold or heartless.

But empathy isn’t something only service providers employ. We need empathy to feel connected to other people, like family, friends and complete strangers. It helps us have patience and understanding so we can more easily communicate and solve problems.

A lack of empathy causes us to become judgmental and agitated when things don’t go our way. We feel disconnected and isolated emotionally, and stop caring about the needs of those around us.

So the other day when I heard about our culture’s diminishing connection to empathy, I became a bit concerned. According to this study, college aged people in 2009 were 40% less likely to experience empathy than their 1979 counterparts.

That means that younger adults in 2009 are far less likely to relate to their friends, family and community than young adults from 30 years ago. It also means that people are less likely to feel heard, seen and respected.

I was a bit disturbed by this news, but then yesterday I became even more concerned when I stumbled upon a video that discusses the history of empathy and its importance in our future evolution.

The Empathic Civilization

The Empathic Civilization is a 10-minute, engaging video about how integral empathy is to our sense of community and connectedness. The lecturer, Jeremy Rifkin, hypothesizes that the health of our planet may be dependent on how well we can create global empathy.

Uh oh.

I highly recommend you watch this video. I watched it twice. The British Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) illustrated Rifkin’s lecture and the graphic element alone is worth the 10-minute viewing. But the information about empathy is also fascinating, especially as it pertains to the work we do as service providers.

It may be up to today’s spiritual leaders (I use the term loosely) to find a way to help people connect with empathy.

I don’t know what that would look like, but it seems important to point out that just because people are 40% less likely to feel empathetic doesn’t mean we have 40% less need to be loved, heard, seen and related to. Indeed, I think the less empathy we experience in this world the more likely we are to need it.

Your role as a service provider is so important. You may be the only person in someone’s life who is empathetic to their situation. You may be the only person who can see, hear, and value your clients’ struggles and accomplishments.

It’s important that you make yourself available. Get the word out about what you do. Have a website, give talks, offer free classes, do whatever you can to connect with people so they can find you and your work. It’s just one way we can help create more understanding in this world.

Don’t underestimate the significance of what you have to offer. If Rifkin is right, your work may help save the planet.