Reflections on Power versus Empathy
Reflections on Power versus Empathy(1)
The “mirror” system of the brain contains neurons that fire when we observe someone else acting. These neurons “mirror” the behavior of another as though we were behaving in the same way. Psychologists believe the brain’s mirror system enables us to understand the actions and intentions of others and may be the neural basis for our capacity for empathy and our ability to see another person’s perspective. Because we know the other person’s actions are linked to her beliefs and intentions, we also can understand and empathize with what motivates her. In other words, our brain’s mirror system can put us inside her head.
However, a feeling of power or its absence fundamentally changes the way the brain’s mirror system operates. People who have a sense of power have trouble getting inside another person’s head, whereas people who feel powerless have greater empathy with others. The fact that power diminishes all kinds of empathy may explain why men have less intuition than women, why the rich have less compassion for the poor, and why whites are unwilling or unable to empathize with African Americans(2).
Notes
(1)See generally Chris Benderev, When Power Goes To Your Head, It May Shut Out Your Heart, npr.org (August 10, 2013)
(2) https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/featuredtask.html
This is very interesting. I can see how people with power give themselves this empathy mind block. Almost like they don’t need it because they already have reached the position of power.
I really thought it was interesting how it states that people with more power have less empathy towards others. I had never thought of it this way until just now. I think when we are able to have empathy for the other person and get inside their heads, we are able to master the conversation and are able to understand the person a little better then someone who seems to think they have more power then the other person they are communicating with.
It’s a very interesting correlation that power leads to loss of empathy. It makes sense though, as power corrupts. It seems if you aren’t worried about consequences, you don’t seem to need to care about people that do have that worry!