Zero Degrees of Empathy

Professor Simon Baron Cohen presents a new way of understanding what it is that leads individuals down negative paths, and challenges all of us to consider replacing the idea of evil with the idea of empathy-erosion.

[matityaloran]

2:01, I don't think evil is meant as an explanation for the behaviour but a moral description of it. An act is evil if it's worthy of supreme moral condemnation and people who do evil things are considered evil.

[keithklassen]

I feel that the word "empathy" isn't specific enough for the purposes of this talk; it seems to me that the "lack of empathy" shown by a psychopath is a radically different thing from the "lack of empathy" of some people on the autism spectrum. Perhaps we can distinguish between empathy as expressed by *understanding* of the emotions of another, and empathy as expressed by *care for* the emotions of another.

[AliciaM]

Untrue about BPD. I have attempted suicide and I meant it, twice, and this came on the heels of losing my mother, bf, and great grandmother in one year. Typically, cluster b disorders are PTSD behaviors and specifically BPD can be 100% healed. DBT therapy works and I am enjoying almost complete remission, thank you very much.

[gargoylesama]

There are also those that have 'empathy burn out'. Not that they don't have empathy, but have used their empathy to their breaking point and just can't really access it. Sometimes the only fix for that is to take me time and be a bit selfish to allow your own empathy to recover.

[BadgerBotherer]

A disproportionate amount of psychopaths, paradoxically, end up working in the 'care professions' - i.e., in social work, mental health, etc. I've lost count of the number of reports I've heard of abuse of vulnerable people by social services, including my own experiences.

[AnAutisticPsychologist]

@theakstonsrock No. Some of them lack empathy, others have too much. We just lack the ability to translate our thoughts and feelings into words, body language etc. But the empathy itself is very often there.

[colloredbrothers]

Thats why I say an intelligent person is not necesairily a person that knows alot of stuff, it is a person that is caring and loving and non judgmental that truely is an intelligent person.

[j.b.]

I can do cognitive empathy, when I’m in tuned in. Affective empathy is actually exhausting, and I can’t sustain, so I usually don’t start. It’s there, just not always accessible. Dr.Cohen is great, and I always enjoy his chats.

[idea]

In my recent years, I've discovered that I lie more to the right of the empathy scale as a highly sensitive person. I think we can all benefit from this information by using our own empathy or relying on the empathy of others. Just because someone has low empathy does not mean they cannot operate appropriately in society.

[SimonSverige]

There is no such thing as a good person or an evil person. There are only people. All people are capable of good or evil. Love the sinner hate the sin. This is an ancient lesson that seems to have been forgotten. Many people do evil things every day.... when they believe they are doing good.

[TheAdhdGardener]

I'm a rather un-empathetic person..yet I LOVE animals n prefer to them than humans🤔 but when he said regarding low empathy n attachment at a young age..little emotional connection with other..makes sense

[anormalgirl]

Lack of empathy can be induced through brainwashing, certain negative life situations or intense negative emotions like anger or fear.

[TheMinuteVlog]

@Skeluz I'm a high-functioning autistic. So there goes your assumptions.
Yeah, we have a harder time reading subtle expressions and picking up on social cues. We also don't express our empathy as well because we don't show those cues as well. That doesn't mean we don't feel empathy. It doesn't mean we're sociopathic monsters.
Professors like this and Baron-Cohen make ableist blanket statements like this all the time and it's deeply hurtful.

[mrzeroten]

He's effectively demonstrated that he does not have a clear understanding of what empathy means. He's combining empathy and compassion, whenever these linguistic errors are made I get really turned off by what someone has to say.

[matityaloran]

2:18, I don't think "the absence of good" is a useful definition of evil though. If someone gets struck by lightning and dies that is not good but I wouldn't describe it as evil. When we speak of evil, we're referring to that which is morally condemnable.

[TheMinuteVlog]

@TheAnMish THANK you. AnMish says it best. We have a hard time with translation, but it doesn't mean we don't understand the sentiment.

[Engladko]

What an unbelievably crude and unscientific way to assess a persons empathy. (4:40) First point: It's necessary to distinguish the cognitive ability to understand that one is being rude or inappropriate, from the willingness and propensity of an individual to back off of that behaviour as the result of empathy. You cant assume a lack of practical social action to be synonymous with a lack of empathy. The lack in a person with aspergers, is the knowledge of which social action is appropriate

[felicianothorpe]

This is profound.So glad I found this.

[kerry-chzi]

A fascinating informative, straightforward, evidence-based discussion of a heavily subjective notion of human behavior. I was especially struck by whether the answer to political in-groups is more meta-cognitive than emotional. If all people don't have the same genetic tendency, then both approaches may be necessary to sustaining an optimal empathy level.

[yourcamden]

One of the ways to test associated or disassociated memories is that associated memories tend to be more colourful and richer in the other senses such as sound, tastes and smells. While disassociated memories tend to be greyer and lack other sensory imputes. An example of this is often reflected in charity visual media. Charity posters tend to be in black and white or greyscale, where as product promotion tends to be in vibrant colours.