On Wednesday, April 29th, I attended a discussion regarding the psychological aspects of empathy, and how empathy can be translated into the current pandemic. The discussion was held by the Rock Ethics Institute and was hosted by Daryl Cameron who is a professor of Psychology here at Penn State.
There were four panelists/speakers: Paul Conway, Abigail Marsh, Michael Poulin, and David DeSteno. All of whom are professors of Psychology at Universities across the country.
Each speaker talked about their work and how it may apply to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The first speaker was Paul Conway who specializes in sacrificial decision making. He explained sacrificial decision making as how people weigh decision that could hurt some people for a benefit or gain for more people. Put into today’s context, people (governments) had to make a decision and weigh the conflict between self-isolation (which leads to mental health and overall economic issues) and allowing people the freedom to take a risk and go outside. Self-isolation (which we are currently dealing with) will benefit the larger community but it has high costs which is something we are currently dealing with, and will be dealing with for some time after the virus has subsided. These moral dilemmas are what Mr. Conway concentrates on in his work. I found this very interesting especially since, as a business major, I may be forced with a moral dilemma that I will have to make a decision on. Learning the psychology behind this is extremely fascinating.
The second speaker was Abigail Marsh who researches “human altruism.” She explained that this is, essentially, the study of populations who are selfish vs. those that are empathetic. Psychologists learned that levels of empathy and compassion vary between people yet they don’t know how or why. They do know that alcheristic qualities are distinguished as the ability of someone to recognize another person’s fear. Empathetic people find happiness in other people’s happiness, so they act to ensure those around them are doing or feeling well. In relation to the current pandemic, psychologists have found that the average person is very altruistically motivated.
The third speaker was Michael Poulin who is interested in exactly what “empathy” is and how and why we use it. Researchers have not developed a single definition of empathy, however, Mr. Poulin believes empathy is a way that people connect to others whom they don’t even know. However, he notes that the desire to help or reach out to someone doesn’t always lead to action. This is because helping someone else typically comes at a cost (either financially or personally). He is interested to find how we as human beings navigate that tension between acting and weighing the costs. What is also very cool about his findings is that apparently asking yourself “how” you are going to achieve a goal will almost automatically allow for more success in achieving that goal. He wants to see how applying this knowledge could be used in pro-social goals, which I am very fascinated to learn too. In terms of the present situation, helping others means doing –at times– unpleasant things, such as wearing masks, staying separated, or risking your health. However, to get people to want to do this more, to keep up with these sacrifices, we need to explain to them “how” and “why” we are doing this because that will make people more inclined to listen.
The last speaker was David Desteno who studies the morals and emotions of humans. He explained how a lot of the success we have had as a species involves our brains and our interactions with others. He said that gratitude and compassion allows for us to sacrifice in the moment and wants to know why certain emotions allow us to do this. In terms of the pandemic, he wants to understand how our emotions have allowed for us to not engage in behaviors that give us pleasure; and, how we can control those behaviors to concentrate on the greater good.
The host, Mr. Cameron, also briefly shared what he is interested and what he is working on. He is curious about what degrees we can control and understand our empathetic response; and how capable we are to respond empathetically to current situations occurring. These are very, very interesting questions. This is something I have never even considered before but since hearing these questions, I have been thinking back to various situations I have been in, and my response to them.
A theme throughout everyone’s research seemed to be around how and why people make sacrifices in the short term and if we can understand these behaviors.
One question posed by the audience was how each panelist approaches “empathy” and how they would define it. After hearing what each person had to say, I crafted my own personal definition of empathy:
I believe empathy is recognizing the pain/struggle of another person, translating that pain to yourself, and wanting to help that other being.
Overall, I really enjoyed this discussion. It truly made me consider things I had never considered before.
Mr. Cameron was an excellent moderator. He looked for themes across everyone’s work and summarized them well. He also made sure everyone was heard. Lastly, he did a fantastic job engaging the audience and encouraging them to ask questions.