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The Empathy Instinct: How to Create a More Civil Society
'If we hope to meet the moral test of our times, then I think we're going to have to talk more about the "empathy deficit". The ability to put ourselves in somebody else's shoes, to see the world through somebody else's eyes . . .' Barack Obama
Empathy is the power of understanding others, imaginatively entering into their feelings. It is a fundamental human attribute, without which mutually co-operative societies cannot function. In a revolutionary development, we now know who has it, who lacks it and why. Via the MRI scanner we are mapping the human brain. This is a new frontier that reveals a host of beneficial ideas for childcare, teens challenged by the internet, the justice system, decent healthcare, tackling racism and resolving conflicts.
In this wide-ranging and accessible book full of entertaining stories that are underlined by the latest scientific research, Peter Bazalgette also mounts a passionate defence of arts and popular culture as a means of bridging the empathy gap.
As the world's population expands, consuming the planet's finite resources, as people haunted by poverty and war are on the move and as digital communications infinitely complicate our social interactions, we find our patience and our sympathy constantly challenged. Here is the antidote.
Culminating in a passionate manifesto on empathy, The Empathy Instinct is what makes us human and what can make us better humans.
Empathy is the power of understanding others, imaginatively entering into their feelings. It is a fundamental human attribute, without which mutually co-operative societies cannot function. In a revolutionary development, we now know who has it, who lacks it and why. Via the MRI scanner we are mapping the human brain. This is a new frontier that reveals a host of beneficial ideas for childcare, teens challenged by the internet, the justice system, decent healthcare, tackling racism and resolving conflicts.
In this wide-ranging and accessible book full of entertaining stories that are underlined by the latest scientific research, Peter Bazalgette also mounts a passionate defence of arts and popular culture as a means of bridging the empathy gap.
As the world's population expands, consuming the planet's finite resources, as people haunted by poverty and war are on the move and as digital communications infinitely complicate our social interactions, we find our patience and our sympathy constantly challenged. Here is the antidote.
Culminating in a passionate manifesto on empathy, The Empathy Instinct is what makes us human and what can make us better humans.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 26, 2017
26 people are currently reading
372 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 25, 2018
A fascinating and thought provoking study of empathy based on the latest neuroscientific research. At a time when we really need to develop a more civil and understanding society, this book offers challenges to everyone, but particularly parents, carers, teachers and those working in the NHS and the judiciary, to consider how today’s society is eroding our powers of empathy and what we can do to counteract this. A very challenging, yet hopeful read.
January 24, 2025
Highly relevant & a good, informative read
April 9, 2017
The message is important but the delivery isn't great. Ideas aren't fully explored and feels superficial
July 5, 2017
A great whistle stop tour of current publications and research. Would've liked more critical discussion, but a relatively easy read
May 26, 2018
This was well researched, largely well-argued and an easy read, but fell into the Liberal trap of celebrating diversity and the difference between individuals, before choosing a trait that makes us 'more human' - which in this case was outright hypocritical given the earlier criticism of dehumanisation.
I did find it interesting, if a bit repetitive by the end, and it did a good job of bring lots of ifferent research findings into one coherent book. While not exactly neutral, it was balanced, acknowledging that if doctors were hugely empathetic they would be unable to do their job, yet still arguing for more empathetic care in general. But this was not limited to doctors, and Bazalgette argued that with more automation we are going to need different jobs, ones where the human touch and compassion is needed, such as in care. He goes quite far, arguing that Emotional Intelligence or EQ should be measured and factored into job applications, and job descriptions changed accordingly. What jobs those with a lower EQ are meant to do is unclear once the robots take over.
The structure was a little frustrating too, with lots of mini-features within the chapters breaking up the text, and not just sparingly, and I think better editing could have led to a lot of these being included in the main text without too many problems. Although he covers the philosophical and historical aspects of empathy, the latter half of the book felt a little repetitive as there were more and more examples of how empathy can include society, but without revealing much more new information as it was padded out.
Bazalgette is also guilty of falling someway short of academic rigour, citing studies with clear results and including anecdotes at other times because it suits his argument, and caveats in the manner of 'this is subjective, but it does agree with my point' are not enough. And after all the talk of prejudice against people who don't cause harm to anyone else, this doesn't stop him making a disparaging comment about the loner at the bar.
I did learn something from this but I'm still not a full convert, and empathy has become a bit of a Liberal buzzword recently which means I have to be won over to a larger extent. Given the sections within the chapter and the sense that it was slightly too long, I definitely think it could have benefited from a better editor.
I did find it interesting, if a bit repetitive by the end, and it did a good job of bring lots of ifferent research findings into one coherent book. While not exactly neutral, it was balanced, acknowledging that if doctors were hugely empathetic they would be unable to do their job, yet still arguing for more empathetic care in general. But this was not limited to doctors, and Bazalgette argued that with more automation we are going to need different jobs, ones where the human touch and compassion is needed, such as in care. He goes quite far, arguing that Emotional Intelligence or EQ should be measured and factored into job applications, and job descriptions changed accordingly. What jobs those with a lower EQ are meant to do is unclear once the robots take over.
The structure was a little frustrating too, with lots of mini-features within the chapters breaking up the text, and not just sparingly, and I think better editing could have led to a lot of these being included in the main text without too many problems. Although he covers the philosophical and historical aspects of empathy, the latter half of the book felt a little repetitive as there were more and more examples of how empathy can include society, but without revealing much more new information as it was padded out.
Bazalgette is also guilty of falling someway short of academic rigour, citing studies with clear results and including anecdotes at other times because it suits his argument, and caveats in the manner of 'this is subjective, but it does agree with my point' are not enough. And after all the talk of prejudice against people who don't cause harm to anyone else, this doesn't stop him making a disparaging comment about the loner at the bar.
I did learn something from this but I'm still not a full convert, and empathy has become a bit of a Liberal buzzword recently which means I have to be won over to a larger extent. Given the sections within the chapter and the sense that it was slightly too long, I definitely think it could have benefited from a better editor.
February 17, 2018
The book engages with empathy from all sorts of fields of study; science, social science and arts and humanities. It brings together the research of many people and gives you a big picture of what is being explored concerning empathy. The book is greatly optimistic and the last chapter, "A Charter for Empathy" is inspiring. The reference system used confuses me a bit though, so I rate it somewhere between a 3 and 4 star. But even if some things seem too good to be true (such as, reading can prolong your life by 2 years (p.272), or seem like not given enough details are given to convince you completely, it's full of wonderful ideas that I hope our generation will continue to expand on, especially arts and culture as a part of empathetic education.
December 21, 2018
I mistook a bright cover, a perfect placing of the book in a bookshop window, and a trending keyword in the title for a content. The title seemed promising and the issue – urgently relevant. However, the only reason I managed to finish reading this mix of half-essays by a Sir-Ken–Robinson–wanna–be is my severe unfinished book guilt syndrome. I fell asleep more than a few times while burning time on this blunder of words and author's superficial attempt to grasp everything from Holocaust to autism, from Armenian genocide to criminal justice reform, from Srebrenica to nursing homes, from whatever to Big Brother and everything in between. I can't even tell you what the thesis was. Superficial doesn't begin to describe it.
June 19, 2018
Love the thought provoking tone and spirit of this book. Special messages to parents, policy makers, teaching staff and business leaders. Surprised to see how much scientific body of knowledge has evolved in this space and curious to learn a bit more about it. Hard to see some of the points in the suggested charter evolve at the required pace to really make a difference, especially here in Latin America!
September 9, 2018
Empathy is part of the problem as well as part of the solution - By nature we are tribal for survival and yet we have a degree of inbuilt empathy - By nurture we can learn to be compassionate / compassionate depending on our upbringing and circumstances - Many issues discussed such as role of parenting education and technology and its effects on institutions of Health Justice. The role of Arts and story telling in enlightening the human race to the value of empathy for all
May 19, 2017
A tad thin at times. A fine set up but lacking. Best section is on prison reform.
July 5, 2017
Really interesting - lots of food for thought.
December 20, 2017
Everyone needs to read this book. That's it.
August 26, 2022
I was expecting something completely different.
It is interesting to a point but for me, it dragged on and on and on...
It was difficult to finish it.
It is interesting to a point but for me, it dragged on and on and on...
It was difficult to finish it.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews