This is a free excerpt from my book. :) ...: In this way, empathy remains strongest for those closest to us. Our friends and family receive more empathy than our neighbours, or strangers in another city. In the absence of friendship or kinship it is easy to disregard someone as “not one of our own”, in not belonging to our class, social group, race, religion, ideology and so on. We create a personal distinction between ‘us’ vs. ‘them’, in which we feel empathy and a common mutuality when we say ‘us’, and indifference, if not outright hostility, when we say ‘them’. If we belong to a sporting team, we feel empathy and concern if a player on our team gets injured right before the Grand Final. By contrast, we feel joy if a player on the other team gets injured. Our empathy is diminished for this “rival” group, and enhanced for our own. My book is on sale on amazon: amazon/Us-Them-Case-Social-Empathy-ebook/dp/B00LDMSIVC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1404726691&sr=8-2&keywords=us+vs+them Hard copies coming soon!
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 10:17:57 +0000
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