1. In 400 words or less, summarize the piece AND show (with framed quotes and paraphrases from the text) what you believe to be the author’s three main points/arguments. Support with textual evidence and include your own initial response to the material.
  2. Do you agree with Bloom’s main arguments? Why or why not? 
  3. In what ways does Bloom challenge your initial understanding or perception regarding empathy?
  4. Find one claim Bloom makes that evoked a strong response. Paste the direct quote from his piece, then write a few sentences in which you challenge OR support his claim in your own words.
  1.  “Is Empathy Overrated” by Paul Bloom focuses on how empathy “can be narrow, biased, and surprisingly insensitive” (1).  Bloom compares empathy to a “spotlight with a narrow focus” (1) in the sense that empathy has a tendency to focus on one very small group of people when there are others that are more deserving.  Empathy is biased to those that we can relate to.  When there are people going through something terrible, but we have no experience with what they’re going through, it becomes harder for us to put ourselves in their shoes.  Empathy is insensitive due to the fact that “more schoolchildren were murdered in one American city – Chicago – than were murdered in Newtown, and yet I’ve never thought about those Chicago children” (2).  Bloom goes on to explain how humans value the lives of individuals, so when certain events happen steadily all the time, such as Chiago murders, people tend to care less.  Empathy can be a wonderful, positive thing that can help others relate to one another and make people feel better or more validated.  However, empathy is also shown to have many flaws and serious downfalls such as those highlighted in this article.
  2. I do not agree with Bloom’s main arguments in this article.  While I can understand his reasoning behind why empathy isn’t always a good thing, at the end of the day I believe that empathy is a necessity to human interactions and meaningful relationships.  Empathy allows people to connect with one another on a deeper level and have more impactful conversations and connections.  Without being able to understand what others are going through and being able to feel how they’re feeling, one may never experience the bond of friendship as deep as those who can empathize.
  3. I have never bothered to think about the possible negative aspects of empathy.  Bloom was able to present many different arguments that created endless questions in my head about whether or not I actually believe that empathy is as wonderful as I once thought.  I have always been an extremely empathetic person when it comes to the people close to me and I believed that that was a good thing, until Bloom made the argument that by doing that I am being narrow minded or biased.  There are always positives and negatives to any sort of action, but the negatives of something as caring as empathy are never really talked about.
  4. “Actually, in the year of the Sandy Hook killings, more schoolchildren were murdered in one American city – Chicago – than were murdered in Newtown, and yet I’ve never thought about those murdered Chicago children before looking up that figure” (2).  Being from Connecticut, this quote really stood out to me, as I remember exactly when this shooting took place and just how much it shook everybody in the state.  I agree with Bloom in this instance, due to the fact that I was also unaware of the amount of people murdered in Chicago during that same year.  It made me feel guilty to realize that I was so deeply bothered by the Sandy Hook shooting when it happened, but also completely oblivious to the fact that countless innocent people were being brutally murdered each day in Chicago.  This proves Bloom’s point of empathy being biased, as I was more empathetic towards the people in Newtown, simply due to the fact that I know the area, and I was in school at the time.