Empathy and the liberal-conservative political divide in the U.S.

Abstract

When future historians look back upon the current political climate in the U.S., it is likely that they will view the severe state of political polarization between liberals and conservatives as being one of its defining characteristics. While some have suggested that a difference in general levels of empathy among liberals and conservatives could be playing a role in shaping their differing political attitudes, psychologist Paul Bloom has forcefully argued against any such difference in his book “Against Empathy”. In this commentary I set out to counter Bloom’s claim that there is no significant relationship between the capacity to experience empathy and political ideology. To this end, I discuss how a growing collection of empirical research indicates that an individual’s propensity to experience empathy correlates with one’s general political attitudes (including party affiliation) as well as with which specific policy positions one takes. More specifically, this research suggests that a strong connection exists between empathy and liberal political views. In light of this research, I suggest that empathy can help account for the differences in political attitudes among liberals and conservatives in the U.S. and may even help explain why such attitudes have become increasingly polarized. The analysis provided in this essay aims to further our understanding of how personality traits can be used to predict voter attitudes in the U.S. and beyond.

Political ideology and pandemic lifestyles: the indirect effects of empathy, authoritarianism, and threat

“…In addition to these primary considerations, we would like to briefly discuss some of our secondary contributions. In support of previous research, we confirmed that political conservatism is associated with lower levels of empathy [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], higher levels of authoritarian beliefs [48][49][50][51][52][53][54], and lower levels of several dimensions of perceived pandemic threat [1, 1 3 13-15, 17, 59-63]. Our analyses of our disaggregated conservatism index are also informative.…”

“…The first link in our theoretical model suggests that political conservatism contributes to riskier pandemic lifestyles by reducing empathetic concern. While we are regularly inundated with popular depictions of "heartless conservatives" and "bleeding heart liberals, " research consistently shows that political conservatives tend to exhibit lower levels of compassion and empathy (i.e., less concern for the feelings and experiences of others) relative to their more liberal counterparts [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Cameron and Rapier [36,p.…”

Optimism and Social Resilience: Social Isolation, Meaninglessness, Trust, and Empathy in Times of COVID-19

“…We did not ask respondents' occupations, but future research should explore the relationship between work experiences and empathy. Confirming earlier findings [49], and as evidenced also during the 2020 presidential election, respondents who described themselves as liberal showed higher levels of general empathy, empathetic concern, and perspective taking than respondents who described themselves as conservative. As discussions of facemask requirements and "opening up the economy" illustrate, conservatives may take the pandemic situation less seriously [47].…”

Political Ideology and the Perceived Impact of Coronavirus Prevention Behaviors for the Self and Others

“…Engaging in coronavirus-prevention behaviors can be perceived as a cautionary measure that reduces the spread of the virus and impacts others, which in turn influences the welfare of society (Jordan et al 2020). This construal may not resonate with conservatives due to their tendency to hold people responsible for their own problems (Morris 2020) and emphasis on self-reliance (Janoff-Bulman 2009). Conservatives may infer that their actions cannot prevent others from being infected or reduce the spread of the virus because of their belief that individuals are responsible for their own outcomes.…”