I don't buy into it, not 100%. And yet, I believe a person can, with intention, change for the better. Moreover, I believe that people can cultivate empathy for the 'other' and that good things can come of that.
But we are complex creatures in many ways. All kinds of forces inform our actions: biology, brain activity, genes, socialization, even heritage. We're just not fully autonomous thinkers and doers, not fully in control.
Last week, I listened to an episode of Sean Carroll's Mindscape Podcast: Robert Sapolsky on Why We Behave the Way We Do. Carroll's interviews always blow my mind. In this episode, Sapolsky, a psychoneurobiologist at Standford, reveals some crazy, soul-crushing examples of malevolent human behavior fueled by events outside of our control.
The Force of Hunger
Sapolsky refers to an influential study that shows the direct impact of hunger on their final. He says "Look at how many hours it has been since a judge has eaten a meal . . . that’s the single biggest predictor is whether …a judge is gonna send somebody back to jail, or grant them parole. Are you hungry or not?" (0:31:58.8). We are not our best selves when we aren't meeting our basic needs.
"If you are in pain, if you [are] tired, if you are hungry . . . if you have low blood glucose levels . . . . You’re gonna be less charitable . . . less trustworthy . . . less generous [and more] likely to punish somebody for their norm violations" 0:30:52.0.
The Brain and Hormones
Even with our very best intentions, it seems, so-called 'anti-racists' may be swayed to act against our beliefs. According to Sapolsky, many studies indicate that hormone levels, especially increases in testosterone, puts us in somewhat less control of our actions, even acting out of line with our morals. He says that the more intensely the "amygdala reacts to the face of an other simply because their skin color is different, the more likely you are to mistake their cell phone for a handgun in all sorts of simulation games and shoot them" (0:36:56.8).
Misguided Empathy
Among self-helpers, 'empathy' is a hot topic issue, maybe especially in 2021. The general slant is that we need to master empathy so we can wholly accept the 'other'. It sounds really nice, and I do believe it's possible to increase empathy. But it's more complicated than that.
Sometimes we are utterly overwhelmed with empathy for the sufferer, we feel their pain and, therefore, can't do anything about it. Also, we tend to have more empathy for people more like us, politically, racially, etc.
Studies have been conducted where participants are shown an individual's finger being poked with a needle. Sapolsky shares how if the individual's hand has a "different skin color from your own, on the average, there’s less activation of the anterior cingulate," a part of the brain involved in impulse control ethics and morality, and more. "In other words, not everyone’s pain is equal." These biological forces, combined with hunger, stress, health and biases we're not aware of and have little conscious control over, lead us to behave with astonishing malice 0:19:40.3.
Rational Empathy
And back to the buzz about empathy. It was validating to hear from an 'expert' that I'm not alone in my skepticism toward empathy as a fix-it tool. About empathy, Sapolsky says:
There’s a temptation to decide that empathy is a virtue in and of itself.
In other words, we can feel someone else's pain and sit on our laurels, proud that we're so virtuous. Or, as previously mentioned, we experience someone's pain so intensely that we're paralyzed by it.
However, if we are aware of our motives, biases, weaknesses, we can more intelligently respond to the 'other', and the more effective our actions will be. Sapolsky confirms that the key issue is "not whether you are empathically feeling somebody else’s pain . . . but whether that empathy actually gets translated into a compassionate act" 0:17:18.9.
Though perhaps only marginally, we do have some control over our actions. And cultivating empathy is inarguably a worth-while task. We can learn to become more effectively empathetic, using more 'rational empathy.'
