The ability to understand and share the experiences of other people, called empathy, is today one of the main virtues. It is all the more surprising to learn that it is empathy that can make us more cruel.
The words “feel someone else’s pain as your own” sound like the highest praise for someone who is capable of such an experience. It is the very essence of empathy. However, let’s try to figure out what follows this experience of someone else’s pain, as if it were our own. Such an attempt was made by the American psychologist Paul Bloom. And the results were quite unexpected.
For starters, try to remember some movie or book in which villains brutally torture the protagonist or heroine. But the injured party still escapes – and then cruelly takes revenge on his tormentors. And now admit that you perceive the scenes of this retribution with sincere triumph, almost childish joy.
There is nothing strange or surprising here. For example, back in 1759, the English economist and philosopher Adam Smith noted in his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments that we always rejoice watching someone who has been a victim of ill-treatment get the opportunity to get even with the offenders, and we are ready to help him in every possible way.
Revenge in hot sauce
The problem, however, is that empathy plays tricks on us. And sincerely worrying about the victim of certain cruel circumstances, we, without noticing it ourselves, also become cruel and show aggression even against those who, in fact, are not to blame for anything.
An excellent illustration of this idea is a recent study by psychologists Annek Buffon and Michael Poulin.1. The outer side of their experiment was very simple.
The assistant girl had to pour some hot and fiery sauce into the participants’ food plate. Those had to eat it all – as part of the study of the ability to tolerate unpleasant and painful taste sensations.
But the amount of sauce was determined by a large group of “arbitrators” who were the true target of the study (and, of course, did not know that in reality the sauce was not spicy at all).
Before the start of the experiment, everyone read the essay of the assistant, where she explained why she decided to participate in this work.
Half of the “referees” were given a completely neutral text about the fact that the girl is not averse to earning some money as an assistant, since she really needs money now. The other half were given a text describing the suffering of an unfortunate girl who has been penniless for several months now and feels crushed and insignificant like never before, and therefore grasps at any straw.
The result was not long in coming. Those who read the neutral text favored a moderate amount of hot sauce. Those who got the plaintive essay unanimously voted for the maximum number of essays.
At the same time, it is important to understand that the participants, who ended up eating the “unbearably spicy” dish, did nothing wrong to the assistant and were in no way to blame for her financial difficulties. That is, there was no question of any revenge. Consequently, empathy – empathy for the misfortunes of the unfortunate assistant – made the “arbitrators” “bloodthirsty”.
By the way, Buffon and Poulin did not stop there. They also took tests from all participants to identify specific genes responsible for increased sensitivity to oxytocin and vasopressin. It is these hormones that neuroscientists believe are associated with the expression of sympathy, the desire to help, and other manifestations of empathy.
The hunch was confirmed: carriers of such genes were much more active in favor of the maximum amount of hot sauce
Admittedly, politicians and propagandists seem to have been aware of this relationship long before it was established by psychologists. Thus, on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the American media abounded with detailed stories about the atrocities perpetrated by Saddam Hussein and his associates.
However, you don’t have to go so far for examples, remembering, for example, the events in Ukraine. The purpose of such monstrous stories is quite obvious: playing on the most sincere and kind feelings of citizens, politicians provide support for their actions – in reality, not always good or even necessary.
Paul Bloom also recalls the lynchings in the United States, which were often inspired by tales of brutal rape of white women by blacks. And about Jewish pogroms in Europe, which were just as often preceded by tales of Christian babies being sacrificed in Kabbalistic Jewish ceremonies.
Paul Bloom’s conclusion is simple. It is generally accepted that anger and fear push people to the worst actions and decisions. The cognitive psychologist states that empathy should also be added to this list. And he urges us to do everything so that empathy with the suffering of some people does not push us to doom others to the suffering.
1 A. Buffone, M. Poulin «Empathy, Target Distress, and Neurohormone Genes Interact to Predict Aggression for Others–Even Without Provocation». Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 6 октября 2014 года.