Students Show a Dramatic Drop In Empathy

MotorMachineMercenar writes "Several news sources report that today's college students show a precipitous drop in empathy (here's MSNBC's take). The study of 14,000 students shows that students since the year 2000 had 40% less empathy than those 20 and 30 years before them. The article lays out a laundry list of culprits, from child-rearing practices and the self-help movement, to video games and social media, to a free-market economy and income inequality. There's also a link so you can test your very own level of narcissism. Let's hope the Slashdot crowd doesn't break the empathy counter on the downside."

Who cares?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

I don't give a rat's ass about what college kids feel!

In what units do you measure empathy?

[mykos]

Subject one contains 160 milliempathetals, while subject two's milliempathetals measure only 96.

I'm not taking that test

[istartedi]

I'm not taking that test. Fuck you. I've got better things to do with my time. How'd I do? D'oh! Points off for asking. Not that it matters.

This Narcissism Crap

[Black Gold Alchemist]

You know, after hearing this, I felt the need to write extensively about the subject on facebook, so everyone can see what I feel.

Re:Oh god..

[Codename Dutchess]

Personally I think people are just as self centered now as always and we've just gotten better (supposedly) at measuring it.

We've gotten better at tallying these 2 numbers?

1) are you empathetic
2) are you _NOT_ empathetic

I'm glad your post makes sense. Thanks!

Broken test

[biryokumaru]

Also, the test is broken. You still receive a point for the lowest option, so the minimum score is 20%. This is why psych majors need to take more math.

Re:Who cares?

[An Onerous Coward]

Ha! My test said I'm empathetic as hell. Take that, you hard-hearted, non-empathizing bastards!

Too many adverbs

[RabbitWho]

5. When I see someone being treated unfairly, I SOMETIMES don't feel very much pity for them.
Sometimes! Of course sometimes! If i've had a terrible day and if the person being treated unfairly is my boss who takes every opportunity he can to insult criticize and put everyone else down and who we therefore bully relentlessly.. then yes SOMETIMES i don't feel much pitty. If you treat people like crap they'll do the same to you.

even with all those silly adverbs 84.3% I got. I cry when I watch the news and if I see a talk show that mentions a family that lost their baby (for example) I find it difficult to get up the next day i feel so sad. I still wouldn't trade it for a stone heart because then I'd run around drawing Mohammad and insulting people I didn't know and adding to the amount of pain and anger and suffering in the world. I can't do too much good or benifit but i can do my best not to make things any worse.

Ubuntero

[Anonymous Coward]

Mark Shuttleworth's fault, obviously. Empathy is simply not ready. They should have kept Pidgin as the default choice.

Glaring omission

[spruce]

Isn't this one we can pretty much all agree is /b/'s fault?

Re:Oh god..

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a shit test, and measures nothing.

You could show a little more empathy for the people who made the test you insensitive piece of shit.

Re:Who cares?

[phantomfive]

Wow, I got modded insightful for that, way to boost my ego!! Thanks whoever you are, my superiority complex thanks you!!

Re:or to the point THE JOKER IS RARE

[Anonymous Coward]

i would put bets that folks that could pull off WHY SO SERIOUS during a real disaster are say 1 in 200,000 worldwide (which means that The Joker has roughly 29 "friends")

Apparently none of them are mathematicians.

Re:and the score is

[roman_mir]

look at the response to my post, I am like the most caring person here, you fucking pieces of shit, get out of my fucking comments, go to hell, all of you.

Re:Leftist propaganda

[Protoslo]

I was convinced that it was going to be some kind of gross "get-off-my-lawn" Republican screed (Kids don't need self esteem! They need to play Cowboys v. Indians outside like the Greatest Generation! The idiot box is destroying their minds!) until I got to the second half where the author blames Ronald Reagan and conservatism for destroying empathy in the millennial generation (!!!). I think that she is not so much liberal as insane.

Re:In what units do you measure empathy?

[williamhb]

In millilitres per day, of course (from your bleeding heart).

I'm here all week, try the bean salad...

70/70

[JackSpratts]

i got a perfect score. seriously.

now go fuck off.

- js.

Re:Oh god..

[fractoid]

I don't care.

Re:Oh god..

[Anonymous Coward]

i beat you. i scored 28!! but i'm just going to college in july.

And to jail for rape in December!