Today's College Students Lack Empathy

[audtatious]

LINK

College students today are less likely to "get" the emotions of others than their counterparts 20 and 30 years ago, a new review study suggests.

Specifically, today's students scored 40 percent lower on a measure of empathy than their elders did.

The findings are based on a review of 72 studies of 14,000 American college students overall conducted between 1979 and 2009.

"We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000," said Sara Konrath, a researcher at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.

The study was presented this week at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science in Boston.

Is "generation me" all about me?

Compared with college students of the late 1970s, current students are less likely to agree with statements such as "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."

"Many people see the current group of college students - sometimes called 'Generation Me' - as one of the most self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident and individualistic in recent history," said Konrath, who is also affiliated with the University of Rochester Department of Psychiatry.

Konrath's colleague graduate student Edward O'Brien added, "It's not surprising that this growing emphasis on the self is accompanied by a corresponding devaluation of others."

Other recent studies have shown mixed results on the character of today's youth. For instance, one study of more than 450,000 high-school seniors born at different time periods showed today's youth are no more self-centered than their parents were at their age.

The role of media

Even so, Konrath and O'Brien suggest several reasons for the lower empathy they found, including the ever-increasing exposure to media in the current generation.

"Compared to 30 years ago, the average American now is exposed to three times as much nonwork-related information," Konrath said. "In terms of media content, this generation of college students grew up with video games, and a growing body of research, including work done by my colleagues at Michigan, is establishing that exposure to violent media numbs people to the pain of others."

The rise in social media could also play a role.

"The ease of having 'friends' online might make people more likely to just tune out when they don't feel like responding to others' problems, a behavior that could carry over offline," O'Brien said.

In fact, past research has suggested college students are addicted to social media.

Other possible causes include a society today that's hypercompetitive and focused on success, as well as the fast-paced nature of today, in which people are less likely than in time periods past to slow down to really listen to others, O'Brien added.

"College students today may be so busy worrying about themselves and their own issues that they don't have time to spend empathizing with others, or at least perceive such time to be limited," O'Brien said.

[AZhitman]

Interesting, considering they're all running around whining about our mistreatment of the whales, terrorists, trees, illegal immigrants, and Britney Spears.

[Ar878]

my generation sucks.
:\

[audtatious]

There is quite a bit of "me" going on as well. I see more and more of "It's my right to do whatever I want regardless of my actions bothering you".

[MellowZ32]

Interesting, considering they're all running around whining about our mistreatment of the whales, terrorists, trees, illegal immigrants, and Britney Spears.

a lot of them don't give a flying f*** about helping people, they just do it as an ego boost, so they brag to people about how humanitarian they are.

[Crazyirish]

Today's People Lack Empathy/Respect/Ethics/ability to see anything outside of their own colon.

Fixed.

[wingFeather]

It's true.

[bigbadberry3]

Maybe we're just more honest when filling out surveys

[Dattebayo]

Empathy is over-rated. Also remember that students did a whole lot more drugs then they do now...

[Red coupe]

Maybe we're just more honest when filling out surveys

Honestly a pretty good point here.

Things have changed for sure, but I somewhat doubt too drastic a shift in the basics of psychology in the past couple of decades.

Divorce has skyrocketed too... but does that mean married couples are less happy now a days? Or is finding a way out simply more socially acceptable?

I would not be surprised to find human nature to be more stable then these tests would suggest, and for the shift to be in the perceived need to uphold an image.

[Jesda]

Its both true and false.

This generation was raised by the baby boomers, and boomers are known to be career-driven, healthy, worldly, and a bit selfish. It also seems like the boomers ripped apart the great institutions built and created by The Greatest Generation.

So, its natural that Gen Y would all turn out to be a bunch of a-holes. Something good is lost as we distance ourselves from the people who pulled us out of the Great Depression.

[ProudNissanFreak]

Nobody cares.


Jk :P

[PEZi]

Nobody cares.

werd

i love my generation

[Bwana]

Its both true and false.

This generation was raised by the baby boomers, and boomers are known to be career-driven, healthy, worldly, and a bit selfish. It also seems like the boomers ripped apart the great institutions built and created by The Greatest Generation.

So, its natural that Gen Y would all turn out to be a bunch of a-holes. Something good is lost as we distance ourselves from the people who pulled us out of the Great Depression.

[seang]

There are more people than ever living on the world today, and empathy has become a very heavy load. If you were to be empathetic to every single person, just look at how many people there are! The reality is you don't even have the capacity for that.

[edited for spelling]

[TroubleBound]

F*ck humanity. I hope every country in the world launches their sh*t at the same time so we can all go boom.

[PyR0NiAk]

F*ck humanity. I hope every country in the world launches their sh*t at the same time so we can all go boom.

You ok? Need a counselor maybe?

[krimsonviper]

I don't really care how you all feel towards this article, I'm gonna sit here at the computer and flame every single noobert I possibly can, because of my freedoms to do so and I don't care if I'm ignored by my friends. Feels good man.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

This is definitely true. I can honestly remember even 10 years ago a whole lot less "its all about me" type crap going on. The s*** part is, you almost have to adapt that theory to yourself to prevent from getting f*** left and right.

[Looneybomber]

Here’s a clip from one of my old text books as indicated from this thread.
why-did-you-go-to-college-higher-level- ... 25169.html
As recent as 1970, nearly 80% of college students said "Developing a meaningful philosophy of life" was very important to them, but only about 35% deemed "being well-off financially" was very important to them.

In 2002, over 70% of students said "being well-off financially" was very important and a little over 40% said "developing a meaningful philosophy of life" was very important.

In 35yrs time, college students went from predominantly wanting to be smarter, to wanting to be wealthy.

So you can see more people are in college because in order to make money today, you must have at least an undergrad degree, and in some professions, a graduate degree (think MBA) is an unwritten requirement. So it’s not so much that students don’t have as much empathy, it’s that the pool of people they picked from 30-40yrs ago, was different than the pool today.
If 30-40yrs ago they picked names at random between the ages of 18-22, I would guess the results would be closer to today’s pool of college kids since pretty much everyone at least goes to one semester of college.

[ADDirishboy]

I don't care what happens to most people, unless its a little kid. But unlike the rest of my generation, I also don't give a flying f*** about the whales, terrorists, or illegals.

Your a whale? Diaf, I'm hungry.

Your a terrorlst? Diaf, you deserve worse anyway.

Your an illegal? Gtfo my country and get in legally, a-hole.

People in this world suck.

[audtatious]

I don't really care how you all feel towards this article, I'm gonna sit here at the computer and flame every single noobert I possibly can, because of my freedoms to do so and I don't care if I'm ignored by my friends. Feels good man.

Until the staff at NICOclub turn Nazi Mod on you and delete your posts



Then you can say how you have the right to post what you want as America is Free

[audtatious]

This is definitely true. I can honestly remember even 10 years ago a whole lot less "its all about me" type crap going on. The s*** part is, you almost have to adapt that theory to yourself to prevent from getting f*** left and right.

Those in my generation are also "about me" but NOT "all about me". I don't intentionally step on people in order to get what I want. My rights end where your rights start. There is too much "screw you as long as I get what I want" going on.

[ADDirishboy]

I agree with you aud. I don't purposefully s*** on other people just to get what I want. But I generally don't give a damn what happens to most people on this planet. Seriously, the only time I feel remorse is when something happens to a child or someone I actually know and love. Close friends, close family, and children. If you don't fall into one of those categories, you can lick my taint.

[audtatious]

I've always gone out of my way to not bother others and I'm mindful of others. I expect the same back, but generally don't get it anymore. As an example, when my kids were little and in strollers I intentionally kept out of peoples way whereas I notice today a parent with a kid/stroller has a "I have a kid and deserve special priv's so GTFO of my way" attitude. Using the kid example again, if my kids started crying I would immediately take them out of the restaurant so as to not bother others meals. Today you have to deal with kids squalling and running around while you are trying to relax and eat. The kids parents don't care as long as they don't have to tend to them.

In general, the older I get the more I hate other people.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I

In general, the older I get the more I hate other people.

...and kids, apparently!

[audtatious]

Yeah....Kids should be duct taped into a closet, except for school time, until they are old enough to move the fuk out.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I'd agree, except say until they are old enough to just get up and leave the house for extended periods of time without adult supervision... like 6 years old in the rural countryside, or 10 or so in the city.

[PyR0NiAk]

You kidding? All they want do now is play video games..

[DMeN Z]

Those in my generation are also "about me" but NOT "all about me". I don't intentionally step on people in order to get what I want. My rights end where your rights start. There is too much "screw you as long as I get what I want" going on.

I like your thinking sir.

I

In general, the older I get the more I hate other people.

...and kids, apparently!

End discrimination. Hate everyone...