Empathetic responses are operating at a purely subconscious level, right? We're not consciously deliberating over who gets our empathy. So it does require some higher level cognition kicking in. Even before the pandemic, people were living in giant cities more than ever in human history and alone. It was almost like people turned into obstacles instead of people. Those types of human connections are really not great soil for empathy to grow in.
For a long time, scientists believed our capacity for empathy remains more or less fixed throughout our lives. But research by Jamil Zaki, a psychology professor at Stanford, shows that empathy is actually a skill we can cultivate. Jamil explains that there are different types of empathy — three, to be exact! — and we can learn to be more discerning about when we apply them. Maya and Jamil also discuss the dangers of caring too much, and how we can show compassion for others while avoiding burnout.
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