Empathy Can Cloud Judgment

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Frustration with others can stem from an overabundance of empathy, which may lead to poor moral decision-making and regrets over past mistakes. This perspective highlights that empathy, while valuable, can often result in uninteresting conversations and superficial engagement, particularly in contexts like podcasting where deeper, substantive responses are desired. The recognition that emotional responses can shape rationalizations prompts a critical examination of empathy as a moral guide, suggesting a need to balance empathic feelings with rational thought to avoid detrimental outcomes.

Paul Bloom is a renowned psychologist and writer specializing in moral psychology, particularly how moral thoughts and actions develop in children. But his interests and books explore a wide range of topics, including the science of pleasure, the morality of empathy, dehumanization, immoral vs moral punishments, and our feelings about animals and robots. Bloom is a professor at the University of Toronto and previously taught at Yale for over 20 years.

Together Paul and Tyler explore whether psychologists understand day-to-day human behavior any better than normal folk, how babies can tell if you’re a jerk, at what age children have the capacity to believe in God, why the trend in religion is toward monotheism, the morality of getting paid to strangle cats, whether disgust should be built into LLMs, the possibilities of AI therapists, the best test for a theory of mind, why people overestimate Paul’s (and Tyler’s) intelligence, why flattery is undersupplied, why we should train flattery and tax empathy, Carl Jung, Big Five personality theory, Principles of Psychology by William James, the social psychology of the Hebrew Bible, his most successful unusual work habit, what he’ll work on next, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded May 13th, 2024.

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