When people want to inspire you to turn against some group of people, they'll often use empathy. When Obama wanted to bomb… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
It's hard to pull apart empathy from compassion. What is really clear is that we innately care for other people at least… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I'm not a pacifist. I think the suffering of innocent people can be a catalyst for moral action. But empathy puts too… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
It has been a period where people have been far nicer to one another in every possible way. I'm not saying it's… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
“It might feel, at least to some of us, that our opinions about issues such as abortion and the death penalty are… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Something as important and central and encompassing as empathy can't be all bad. I think empathy plays a role in intimate relationships,… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
When people want to inspire you to turn against some group of people, they'll often use empathy. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I argue that we should be kind, we should be compassionate, and we should definitely be reasonable and rational, but that empathy… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
And empathy is narrow; it connects us to particular individuals, real or imagined, but is insensitive to numerical differences and statistical data. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Some people think that without that spark of empathy we would do nothing, but that's just flat-out wrong. You could feel compassion… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
For the most part, people use "empathy" to mean everything good. For instance, many medical schools have courses in empathy. But if… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
“So if the world were a simple place, where the only dilemmas one had to deal with involved a single person in… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Empathy zooms you in on an individual and, as a result, it's narrow, it's innumerate, it's racist, it's very biased. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Because of empathy, stories of the suffering of one person could lead us into a war that could kill millions of people. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
By “empathy,” some people mean everything that is good - compassion, kindness, warmth, love, being a mensch, changing the world - and… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I draw a lot from Buddhism, which focuses on compassion and kindness, loving kindness, as they call it, but rejects empathy because… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
On many issues, empathy can pull us in the wrong direction. The outrage that comes from adopting the perspective of a victim… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
My book is going to be called Against Empathy, which may give you a feeling for where my argument is going to… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
If evil is empathy erosion, and empathy erosion is a form of illness, then evil turns out to be nothing more than… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
This enthusiasm [for empathy] may be misplaced. Empathy has some unfortunate features – it is parochial, narrow-minded and innumerate. We’re often at… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I'm really interested in the pleasure we get from stories and the pleasure we get from movies, and certainly the pleasure we… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
What I mean by "empathy" is putting yourself in other people's shoes, feeling what they feel. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Empathy has some unfortunate features - it is parochial, narrow-minded, and innumerate. We're often at our best when we're smart enough not… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Because of empathy, we care more for, and devote far more resources to, someone who is familiar, from our country or our… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I have two teenage sons, and they're both surviving, thriving, and having a great time, and they're always on social media. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Families survive the terrible twos because toddlers aren't strong enough to kill with their hands and aren't capable of using lethal weapons. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
If Inigo Montoya were around now, he wouldn't need to storm the castle to bring his father's murderer to justice; the police would do… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Most of us know nothing about constitutional law, so it's hardly surprising that we take sides in the Obamacare debate the way we root… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
“Being a good person likely is more related to distanced feelings of compassion and kindness, along with intelligence, self-control, and a sense of justice.… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Imagination is Reality Lite - a useful substitute when the real pleasure is inaccessible, too risky, or too much work. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
One way to make a baby cry is to expose it to cries of other babies. There's sort of contagiousness to the crying. It's… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I want to convince you that humans are, to some extent, natural born essentialists. What I mean by this is we don't just respond… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
The fact that something can be used for good isn't necessarily a knockdown argument for it. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
Our best hope for the future [...] lies in an appreciation of the fact that, even if we don’t empathize with distant strangers, their… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
When people want to inspire you to turn against some group of people, they'll often use empathy. When Obama wanted to bomb Syria, he… — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image
I'm very interested in why we do good things, or bad things, and where moral judgments come from. — Paul Bloom Copy Share Image