College Students Short on Empathy

Students today seem to care more about things like the environment and animal welfare and poverty around the world, but how much empathy do they really have toward their fellow man?

Surprisingly, not that much, according to a survey by researchers at University of Michigan. In fact, today’s college students, the scientists found, exhibit the least empathy of students studied over the past 30 years.

According to the data, which involved 72 studies of college students collected between 1979 and 2009, today’s students are 40% less empathetic than their counterparts from the 1970s. They were less likely to agree to statements such as “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me,” or “I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective.” They were more likely to display self-centeredness during crises by agreeing to statements such as “When I see someone who badly needs help in an emergency, I go to pieces.” The results were presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science.

The results aren’t that surprising given that the current crop of higher education students have been dubbed “Generation Me” to highlight their tendency toward narcissistic and selfish behavior — a trait that some blame on over-indulgent baby boomer parents. Such an individualistic focus can lead to a devaluing of others, say the scientists, in proposing some theories about why empathy is on the decline.

That “me”-centric perspective is only exacerbated by the prevalence of social media. The more that students are tied to one another electronically, and informed of every move their friends make, the more likely they are to treat interactions with others as noise, and tune some of it out. Such habitual dismissal over time can lead to caring less for what a person has to say or how he feels.

In addition, the scientists note, recent generations of college students are the first to grow up having played video games for a good part of their childhood; such games, with their emphasis on competition and frequently destroying or killing objects and people, could also desensitize players to the feelings of others.

paganbarbarian

I know I’m muttering into the wind, yet I really must protest Psychology studies. Such papers are too restricted and limited to be of any use to science or any practical application. In the first place, college psychology studies are almost always based on psychology students. Now, obviously, any student who wants to study psychology is clearly aberrant, abnormal, and weird in the first place. They cannot be used as a foundation or benchmark of what normal people would do or feel in any circumstances. Look at the narrowness of the perspective.

First of all, we’re looking at only the young people who go to college, a minority of all the young people in the country, who are already a small minority of the base population. Then the further limitation of only the students who chose to major in psychology, a very small minority of a minority of a minority. The representative number is even more tightly channeled into those students willing to volunteer for a study, to please the instructors, to get better marks, because they are masochists, for a wide variety of reasons. Now we have a very tiny minority of a very small minority of a small minority of a small minority. Can the public see where this is going?

On top of that, psychologists announces grandiose, sweeping generalizations on the basis of a study of less than 20 people, usually less than 10, all people who are extremely disconnected from normal people, extremely isolated and bizarre, because they are all psychology students, not normal people. These studies and papers are not valid or legitimate science. They don’t even sum up to the basis of any good old wives’ tales. They represent a study of how weird and cuckoo psychologists are, more than anything else.
gglady

The methodology of this study may have something to do with the result…

I don’t know many middle-aged adults who would admit to often having “tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me,” And, the brain isn’t really mature until age 27, so how many college students would you expect to be able to consciously “try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective.”

And is it really “self-centeredness during crises” or it it lack of maturity and knowledge if they “go to pieces” when they “see someone who badly needs help in an emergency.”

I’m in my mid-forties. My own ability to empathize developed through my late twenties to late thirties. But I have to admit it peaked as I reached forty and is now waning. Empathy just didn’t stand a chance against the overwhelm I began to feel about out-of-control economies, governments, and industries, Don’t even get me started about the environment.

So I wonder how this overwhelm, caused by too much information about too many bad things, was factored into the results. You have to feel you really can make a positive, measurable difference that will make the world better, or else empathy just makes you a little crazy and depressed.

So maybe there’s a sort of wisdom in the attitude of our current crop of college students. Or maybe we’re just making them world-weary before their time.

Read more: http://wellness.blogs.time.com/2010/05/28/college-students-short-on-empathy/#ixzz0pFYyztUO
gglady

Bravo, paganbarbarian.
Dahlia

Great study. These findings are very important…I can see signs of this…especially with all the time spent with technology and away from people
vanhallm

“Now, obviously, any student who wants to study psychology is clearly aberrant, abnormal, and weird in the first place.”
-This is quite a stereotype to make. What evidence do you have to support such a statement?

“Then the further limitation of only the students who chose to major in psychology, a very small minority of a minority of a minority.”
-The U of M psych subject pool is required for students who take intro psychology 111, which includes many students who don’t major in psychology. Also, any student who joins the paid subject pool may take part in the study as well.

“I’m in my mid-forties. ….”
-This is a pure anecdotal story and holds no weight on the generalization of all college students.

The study is up front about its limitations. It strictly applies only to college students and it doesn’t make any claims about generalizations of the public at large. I don’t see what griefs one might hold with the study.
http://www.techcomet.com abhiroopb

I think technology has shrunk our borders and so young people have become more concerned about wider global issues.

In previous years your “local” issue was the only one you ever really saw.

Now, it is increasingly becoming easier to connect to a global cause.
http://wellnessmuse.wordpress.com wellnessmuse

Playing violent video games on a regular basis has to have a negative effect on people. It’s sad to see so many young and middle aged people “killing” people for fun. What does that really say about our society?