Paul Bloom
"What role does the experience of feeling what you think others are feeling – often known as ‘empathy’ – have in moral deliberation and moral action? Empathy has many fans and there is abundant evidence that it can motivate prosocial behavior. However, empathy is narrow in its focus, rendering it innumerate and subject to bias. It can motivate cruelty and aggression and lead to burnout and exhaustion. Compassion is distinct from empathy in its neural instantiation and its behavioral consequences and is a better prod to moral action, particularly in the modern world we live in."
Forget Customer Empathy — Do This Instead
February 07, 2017
Pascal
Customer service reps are often taught to be empathic, to put themselves in the customer's shoes. But research suggests empathy isn't the skill you're looking for.
"The number bug
A research by Paul Slovic shows a very particular 'empathy bug'. Its participants were shown various pictures of children in need, after which they were asked how much they would donate to help.
The first picture showed a little girl. The second picture showed the same girl, but with her little brother. Following pictures showed ever larger groups of people in need.
Remarkably, the average donation value dropped steeply as more people were shown. As Harris notes, "this is clearly a bug, not a feature". It seems we can only properly empathize with individuals, not groups — and definitely not with statistics.
This is a problem for customer service interactions with groups, versus those with individuals. Service reps will be better able to empathize with the individuals.'