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The rise of social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Flikr, has been accompanied by fears that we are producing the most narcissistic “Generation Me” in history. But is there any actual scientific evidence for that view?
Well, a study of 14,000 college students found that today’s young people are 40 percent less empathetic than college kids from 30 years ago. The research was presented this weekend at the annual meeting of Association for Psychological Science.
Researchers analyzed data from studies conducted between 1979 and 2009, and found the sharpest drop in empathy occurred in the last nine years.
For instance, today’s students are less likely to agree with statements like, “I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective" and "I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me."
According to one of the lead researchers, Ed O’Brien, [AUDIO QUOTE] “It’s harder for today’s college student to empathize with others becau se so much of their social lives is done through a computer and not through real life interaction.”
O’Brien also notes that students are facing increasing competition so they’re spending much more time working on their grades and resumes, instead of socializing.
[AUDIO QUOTE] “I think our best suggestion now is to force yourself to step outside the computer a little bit each day and try to remember what it’s like to relate to others in the real world.”
—Christie Nicholson
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48 Comments
Add CommentA college professor wondered the same thing: her book My Freshman Year documents lack of ability to be a 'friend.' Symptom of alienation which the last decade of close computerization is yet another mask. Deeper answer is our society's destruction of family ties by suburbanization & family fracture.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFifty years of a government run by people slavishly devoted to that perverse and unspeakable hag, Ayn Rand, with her "greed is good," philosophy has done it's work well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe coming "Nation of Pigs," is not going to be a pretty sight.
I have to wonder if social media like Facebook are actually to blame, or just make for a handy scapegoat. Did this study show an actual _causal_ like between social media and decreased empathy? It seems to me that if you visit any college bar on a Fri. night, you'll see plenty of real-life socializing going on.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also wouldn't underestimate the effect of other factors, like the briefly-mentioned competition for grades and jobs. I can imagine that in situations where the economy is in a slump, bad economic/employment outlooks can foster more of an "I've got mine, get your own" attitude. It's ironic, but in more prosperous times we can afford to be more empathetic.
Dolmance, do you have anything to back up what you're saying, or are you just spouting an ideologically-inspired ad hominem? It was free-market economics that propelled the U.S. to being the #1 economic superpower and most prosperous nation in history--in spite of, not because of, gov't intervention in the economy. And it was certainly not the "Randroids" who have been steadily increasing the size and power of gov't over the past half-century, to the point where it's at now of being financially unsustainable. The federal gov't currently has, depending on who you ask, $60 to $100+ _trillion_ in obligatory future spending (mostly with Medicare/Medicaid & Social Security), with most state & local govt's in similar dire situations due to massive future gov't employee pension & health-care costs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt was not the free-marketers who have bankrupted this country with their gov't rent-seeking and unsustainable gov't spending. Please try looking at this situation from a more scientific & objective, and less ideological, perspective.
Do you have anything to backup what you are saying? This sounds like a lot of ideologically-driven free market religion to me. Please provide a double-blind study supporting you are argument. Same goes for Dolmance.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe comments here are a perfect example of what's going on. I am of the generation (and specifically one of the designers of) the media that allows all this to take place. I wrote and worked on large web projects for multi-national corporations. What the web allows you to do is act out what what you really want to say, like any item that lowers your inhibitions, it needs to be used with cation and thought. "Many" people say ie "comment" on the internet in a way they would NEVER say to another person. You do that enough times you start to think that way first, followed by talking that way. If you grow up like that without understanding, we have the issues outlined in the research. Look at the comment section on any news web site for examples. For a historical reference, think of how cocaine was [over]used in America around the 19oo's
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI disagree. Many cultures which are very poor, and have been for some time, are more communal. The tribe as a whole (and therefore the individuals in it) do better when they share. Sharing allows members to specialize, so that each job is done more efficiently. It also allows members to take risks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA fellow storyteller noticed that this year's Master of Library Science class in storytelling (don't laugh -- good storytelling and story collecting involves a huge amount of research) didn't make eye contact. This is an affluent group of white females -- a culture in which eye contact has always been considered appropriate. (In some cultures it's an invasion of privacy.) After discussing it with them, she learned they didn't realize eye contact was appropriate. I remember parents and teachers used to insist on it: "Look at me when I'm talking to you / when you're talking to me." Since then, they have said that her class is more friendly than others, and it's the only class where they socialize together after class.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen I was a kid, neighbours talked over the fence while hanging laundry and the kids played together in the park. Now we sit in our air-conditioned rooms or listen to our players while we jog. (SciAm podcasts are great, but at the expense of interacting with the neighbours.)
Pre-literacy scores were going up, but they're going down again despite government intervention programs. Preschoolers don't learn how to take turns in a conversation, have smaller expressive vocabularies, and aren't able to separate words into phonemes as easily. I suspect it's because parents these days listen to their iPods when out with their kids, instead of babbling with them and discussing what they see and touch at the grocery store. Even a simple game of ball (or "roll") is an important social interaction -- turn taking and enjoying each other's company -- and kids aren't getting it.
Lack of empathy or an increase of apathy? What's the difference one might want to ask-- Energy! Witness the last 10 years and how large corporate interest has run amuck over the vastly more powerful en mass individual that does little to nothing with the power. Or it could be just what stupid does... Universities appear to no longer create intelligence; more like drones. Again, a matter of energy and how to use it. The gulf, currently, is a good metaphor-- if one capable of that small leap in perspective.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think that's the crux of the issue, though I don't see the relationship to cocaine, beyond addiction and abuse. "Think before you speak" has lost all meaning. But it will be interesting to see if that creates a trickle-up problem, or if the much more stringent real world will act as a stabiliser.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is unfortunate you cannot recognize the irony of your statement, but the joke's not as funny after it's been explained.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for America being the most powerful and propserous nation in history, I think not. For one thing, it's a matter of scale: the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, and the English all had empires as large or larger, within their worlds. Indeed, "The Sun never sets on the British Empire"; the Royal Navy had complete and total dominance of every waterway on the planet. The American navy can't brag that.
For another thing, prosperity is not absolute. I would argue that 1950s America was much more prosperous. Taxes were higher, public works abundant, 4.4 children and a swimming pool, and most importantly, the distribution of wealth was much more even.
And finally, every great empire has collapsed from within on its own arrogance. The Greeks (Macedonians) collapsed in civil war after Alexander, the Romans fell victim to their own bureaucracy, the English epitomised arrogance, and finally America will fall victim to its own greed. No country can remain great forever, but it isn't social spending that's going to do in the US. Fugeddaboutit. China is the new great superpower, and in 100 years, their political cultist versions of you are going to scream abuse at anyone who doesn't believe that despotism is what made their countries the most powerful in history.
Thanks Anaventurer. I might add that people were making these kinds of comments on call in radio shows long before the internet. Further to your comment, I think that the decline in the teaching of the humanities and (consequently) in conscientious thought which is respectful of the facts and other opinions may also play a role in student attitudes. Free speech is revered for a reason but the fact that anyone can post any sort of content does not make a picture of your dog or a rant equal to real and useful thought.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEmpathy loss just might be related to increased populations, associated anonymity, or at least the perception of same.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting that the commentary quickly became politicized (Ayn Rand's fiction certainly was biblical in its effect on developing minds of college-age students. One might speculate that such limited assessments of human nature indeed cause limited perception!).
A characteristic observed in several species is that of stereotyping/generalizing: a mind's way of simplifying complexity unfathomable while attempting to function in that complexity. Is this modularity universal in brain function?
Use and abuse of cocaine or any other substance affecting neurotransmitters/modulators is certainly problematic, especially in light of the discoveries that when we introduce such replacements into ourselves, our system recognizes less need to produce our own.
Thus dependencies arise.
Yet are we not dependent upon periods of solitude? What happens when silence, temporary respite from our species, is denied?
Does our brain have a response that might imitate such respite, involved in some way with reducing empathy or recognition of others?
Surely a spectrum of sensitivity to social stimuli exists. I suggest another use (in addition to its common usage) of the term frequency dependent behavior.
I have indeed noticed what seemed to be a reduction in empathy, or at least increased emotional insularity, in the more recently born. Recognizing that all generations accuse the younger ones of social lapses, I have questioned my observations.
Yet some of our insights do have validity.
As to "real world", we would do well to consider that we have not adapted to urban cultures, and are yet best suited to the era for which our behaviors were most severely selected.
Welcome to the jungle.
Eric I read your comment this is your step-mom. I agree with this article just look at your brother Michael it's not your generation they are talking about but the teens and twenties of today. They can't even talk on the phone they just tex or email if you are lucky. For Gods sake my stock-broker tex's me will not call me. Now thats just sick!!! SM
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEric this is very true! I does not really apply to u. But it sure does to the teens and the twenties. They only tex or email, they can not have a conversation on the phone and in person a conversation is just to much to handle. Even my stock broker tex me and will not pick up the phone to call me. Now thats just sick!! SM
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have surfed blogs a while, and this vein of conversation is among the best.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThese same conversations still occur over kitchen tables, and at holiday family gatherings. At least in my family they do.
Blogs especially this one today - while offering anonymity - inform and enlighten. The amount of intelligent exchange in this blog today is rare. Individuals absorb more information than ever, and the distribution of this information - today -benefits many other forums. Computers are great sources for learning.
From 1979 to 2009 the student population increased exponetially. In 1979 everybody knew the weirdos on campus. Now the vast numbers of students mask these folks. Is this data normalized for population?
thanks again.
i don't care what any of you think.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this--- a college student
The total US economic output is destabilized by a corrupt banking system.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNext point?
There is actually a lot to this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisResearchers analyzed data from studies conducted between 1979 and 2009, and found the sharpest drop in empathy occurred in the last nine years...........because the White House was left abandoned by a paranoid war criminal who spent every hour hiding in a concrete bunker and a drunk who was vacationing in another state.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't believe me? Check out all the crucial industries that collapsed from that same period. Hell, we're lucky the planet wasn't incinerated.
dreamer-71: Not everything is about government spending, you freaky teabagger. In fact, this particular discussion is about the current generation lacking empathy, so your 'contribution' is relavent to the discussion how? Are you trying to imply that government intervention is somehow responsible for young people today lacking empathy? I'd like to see the data that suggests a causal link, please.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou pretend to seek a 'scientific' discussion, yet make blunt and unsupported statements like: "It was free-market economics that propelled the U.S. to being the #1 economic superpower". I am confident that conclusive evidence to support that claim does not exist. Your claims are no more scientific that those made by Dolmance. What is worse, your attempt at a rebuttal of Dolmance's claims is perfectly orthogonal to that claim. Your specious assertions concerning the United States' rise to economic dominance in now way counter Dolmance's contention that embracing a sociopathic ideology is the cause for young people today lacking empathy.
I suggest that you brush up on rhetoric and logic before throwing your criticisms around so freely.
What propelled us to being the superpower we are today was the fact that the countries of Europe and Asia were ruined by WWII. And our "Free Market" was hardly novel. We were blessed by location, size, natural resources and a working class that could be manipulated and exploited on a level not seen anywhere in the "Free World." That situation has changed considerably, and now we have levels of poverty not seen anywhere in the developed world, with very little in the way of a safety net for our citizens and a huge, huge underclass. Three percent of the country has more than 70 percent of the wealth. The lowest fifty percent of the country has less than five percent.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou, sir, are a no-nothing.
Here's some backup - Republicans have for the most part been ascendant since the days of Richard Nixon. The GOP has used Ayn Rand like a bible - and we have now had every financial instrument in the country ruined, and it's just the beginning.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe state of our economy and the reasons it is so depressed is all the back up anyone should need, but unfortunately there are people out there willing to give the country back to the people who ran nearly everything over a cliff.
Daycare, toxic mind blowing household chemicals, organophosphate insecticides, things over people. The kids I see are lacking empathy because their parents lack empathy. "We need the money", "They'll get over it" " I have to be happy" "If my perfume is giving her asthma, she can have a perfume free house when she leaves." "So what is she feels sick, she's going to school." Parents have said all of these
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen a child leaves an oversized highly decorated house and goes to school in a packed toxic FEMA trailer with only florescent lighting, do you think they feel cared about?
Neither the author nor anyone commenting has considered population density. As population density increases or is perceived to have increased, empathy in that society takes a nosedive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom my personal experience travelling round the world in the 70s and then in 2000, I experienced a marked lack of empathy in 2000.
In India during the 70s people were helpful and assisted a young traveller with little money, in 2000 it was all about how much money you had. It was not my age, I met up with a young English traveller who told me she experienced the same lack of compassion amongst Indians. This was before the events of Sept 11. What had changed: population density had more than doubled.
At first I thought compassion and empathy were hard earned traits of European society as a result of terrible wars and disease, since I could not see the same extent of empathy in any other society. The Americans (most from Europe) were more patronising than empathic especially in the south. This forced me to dismiss this idea.
My final conclusion without any double blind testing: Empathy decreases as population densities increase. The way you bring up your children could counteract this: Don't make them little "do nothing wrong - my you're so clever" little gods.
I'm saddened by the inconsistent and overly political level of discourse regarding this topic. My take: the decrease in empathy is a result of the demographics of the average American college student . In the seventies American university students were predominantly white and likely from the same geographic region of the US. Today American university students are from all corners of the world with very different physical attributes and cultures. Embracing diversity is challenging, and those challenges may include a lack of trust and diminishing empathy. However in the long term, as students learn to trust people from different ethnic backgrounds, I suspect their degree of empathy will increase.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo the massive military budgets get a total pass?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you research the effect of pesticides on the brain, the effect of divorce on the child, the effect of poor daycare and lack of physical contact on children, you will see a connection. These problems are becoming international. When you don't feel good, you have a harder time caring if no one cares about you. Motherhood used to be considered a sacred thing because children didn't sometimes live even if you were a good mother. The world is producing children like they are kennel puppies instead of having few but very loved children.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYoung adults are simply a reflection of our culture. Both parents worked full time, were too tired to be emotionally available, and divorced over money and sex with blind ignorance to the devastation reeked on their children. Individuals relocate hundreds or thousands of miles for education, training, and employment. Past concepts of community and families have been willfully disrupted by individual moves for economic gain. Business, government, and politics require actors and chameleons whose appearance on a 10 second media clip is far more valued than honesty, talent and experience. Social media allows for personal isolation with hundreds of electronic friends. The middle class has been swallowed by debt. Theres a growing chasm between the extremely wealthy and the other 99 % of people.
The most influential factor in the loss of empathy is the acceptance of our culture of one-sided extremist shock jock media, business, and politics. The GOP has been split by these phenomena and is now The Party of Me. Young adults are convinced they will be losers if they do not embrace this culture of selfishness that has replaced democracy in the US.
Empty, Competitive, Superficial, Dependent
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYoung adults are simply a reflection of our culture. Both parents worked full time, were too tired to be emotionally available, and divorced over money and sex with blind ignorance to the devastation reeked on their children. Individuals relocate hundreds or thousands of miles for education, training, and employment. Past concepts of community and families have been willfully disrupted by individual moves for economic gain. Business, government, and politics require actors and chameleons whose appearance on a 10 second media clip is far more valued than honesty, talent and experience. Social media allows for personal isolation with hundreds of electronic ‘friends.’ The middle class has been swallowed by debt. There’s a growing chasm between the extremely wealthy and the other 99 % of people.
The most influential factor in the loss of empathy is the acceptance of our culture of one-sided extremist shock jock media, business, and politics. The GOP has been split by these phenomena and is now “The Party of Me.” Young adults are convinced they will be losers if they do not embrace this culture of selfishness that has replaced democracy in the US.
I think is the other way around baby, because we have spend so much helping people and frankly its gotten us nowhere people are less patient, you know get over it......
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am of the empathetic generation polled 30 years ago and am now a heavy social media user. I personally feel that social media has created a new communication channel in which to express empathy. I recently heard (through Facebook) of a friend's surgery and I was able to send love, check in daily on her improvements and yes, even send those corny hearts. This is not something I would have done via the phone nor in person because she lives some distance away. Being in communication with others I have a long history with but can no longer engage with face to face only serves to increase my sense of connectedness. I agree that too much is said behind the cloak of anonymity but perhaps more attention should be paid to population density/ competition theories. They ring true to me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOceansci - I agree that population density is likely a contributing factor. If I recall correctly, there's not a lot of social interaction on Tokyo trains. There is a lot of game playing, music listening and reading, especially fantasy comics. Regardless of any direct competition, individuals must defend their virtual personal space through isolation. Electronic entertainment certainly enables those efforts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou have a point about the oversized role of the government. You can thank the Republicans, now dominated by the war-loving and big-spending Dixiecrats, for much of that growth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou have a point about the size of the government. And you can thank the Republicans for much of its growth and our oversized debt. The Republican Party is now dominated by the old Dixiecrats who love expensive wars (financed by borrowing from China) and big spending. Plus driven by a rigid ideology that says corporations can do no wrong and should be left to do as they please, with the government picking up the cost of the damages caused by private corporations.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes any public figure take responsibility? Or do they resort to a propaganda machine like Fox News to explain away horrible errors and spew malice at anyone who does not adhere to their irresponsible ideology? Adult are setting the example: me first, and it's your fault, not mine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis lack of empathy suggests a coming conservative era which will further damage the US economy and bring us into more wars.
I have to agree. There is undoubtedly momentum swinging in the "step on who you have to to get ahead" mentality that it is sickening to think about. There is a lack of correlation between what we do and WHY we do things (work). This generation is gearing up for a need based thought process and there assumed needs are false. We need to shift the momentum and emphasis living first working second. When you live and find what makes you happy there will be no need for mindless consumption looking for something external to make you happy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have to agree. There is undoubtedly momentum swinging in the "step on who you have to to get ahead" mentality that it is sickening to think about. There is a lack of correlation between what we do and WHY we do things (work). This generation is gearing up for a need based thought process and there assumed needs are false. We need to shift the momentum and emphasis living first working second. When you live and find what makes you happy there will be no need for mindless consumption looking for something external to make you happy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is my hypothesis that the "secular trend," the increase in size and earlier puberty occurring in children, is caused by an increase in the percentage of individuals of higher testosterone. More specifically, I suggest this is due to an increase in the percentage of mothers of higher testosterone with time within the population. This exposes more fetuses to increased maternal testosterone with time within the population. This causes permanent effects in the fetus which persist throughout the life span. I suggest this is the cause of the parallel increases in morbidity occurring within the population, such as obesity, cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, etc., including prematurity, small for gestational age, etc., including less obvious gross effects which later contribute to "failing schools" and other adverse behavioral outcomes in children.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have come to the conclusion that the "increase in testosterone" may partially be due to a reduction in "sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG)" as a number of phenomena explained by the secular trend may be based on changes in SHBG. A decrease in SHBG increases free testosterone levels.
This may explain a reduction in empathy in the following way: A "significant negative correlation between fT and scores on both measures" of empathy has been found between exposure to testosterone in utero and empathy (Soc Neurosci. 2006;1(2):135-48). I suggest these findings may be explained by the increased exposure to maternal testosterone which is causing the secular trend.
Studies done with historical controls are unreliable. Period. These "findings" are more properly ignored or disputed than explained. And Puleeeze, don't conflate free market economics - which is demonstrably good for all mankind - with some students' capacity for empathy. Good grief.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisall comments and the article are flawed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat has happened is that these kids have been taught from day one by the school system to be empathetic and to help others and share their grades with others . fortunately all these kids see this as a false ideal, you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink. all the empathy and help to those who won't help them selves has brought about this backlash. I have seen this in my family and friends kids.
It's a niggle but someone might want to point out to the headline writer that empathic does not mean the same thing as empathetic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt could be that the reason blogs have done so well is that people are becoming less empathic instead of the other way around, no? But that said, I'm not sure that social media Web sites won't be a good antidote to both blogs and lack of social empathy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have observed that the Internet medium has contributed a great deal to this decrease in civility. I do not say that as a Luddite. The benefits of the medium are many as well. It seems, however, that many develop a "keyboard courage" when hiding behind an avatar or profile name. They communicate in ways they would never in person (at least most would not). A good rule of thumb is to imagine oneself sitting at a table and having a conversation with another person. If you would find it appropriate to use the tone, language, and attitude in that setting then do so in the online environment; otherwise, do not.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs someone who teaches college students in both classroom and online environments, I have noticed the greater vigilance necessary for maintenance of civility in the online environment. Students often need trained in the art of civility.
Another consideration: What if the person expressing that heartfelt, albeit half-baked, opinion is really a 12-year-old boy just learning to form and express complex ideas? Some of us need to make greater efforts to humanize the medium. Of course, we should feel free to disagree, but we should do so with a modicum of humanity.
By the way, we could also make a social contract to ignore trolls and spammers, rather than allowing them to take over fora by taking the bait and engaging them in "argument." Why get in a pissing contest with a skunk?
It is no wonder that people have less and less respect for older Americans. The President of the United States encourages it through his words and deeds. A prime example is seizing $500 million from seniors medical insurance fund and transferring it to others. Who can blame youth for following this charismatic example?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Oh ye generation of vipers"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Honestly, must every topic mutate into an entirely irrelevant political rant?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJudem,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat's the difference? American Heritage Dictionary defines empathetic as empathic.