Less Kindness for Strangers

Nothing surprising here: A paper presented in May at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science in Boston (“Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time: A Meta-Analysis,” by Sara Konrath, a researcher at the University of Michigan), found that college students today are 40 percent less empathetic than those of 30 years ago, with the numbers plunging primarily after 2000.

Although I am certainly aware of students that are engaged in charity work, I've often found myself in discussions with college professors about the lack of interest seen in most of the students. Compared with the 60's activism, college students seem to have a 'what is the point?' response to significant problems and needs around the world.

Many (if not most) of the people I know are more absorbed in the fate of actors on reality TV shows that with helping people with real needs. It seems common the hear people using terms like "love", "hate" and "angry" while talking about these shows.

Few TV shows have any moral lesson. In fact, most TV shows applaud and champion behaviors that would have been banned from TV in earlier times. I am not advocating a return to the rules that required the actors on "I Love Lucy" and other shows to use separate beds when the bedroom was filmed, but I pose this question: What was gained by trashy language, trashy behaviors and suggestions that moral decisions were no different than deciding what color shirt to wear?

The most common reply to that question is "It gave us freedom!" Sorry, that is just silly. We are free to eat rat poison. Freedom to portray outrageous behavior is not an accomplishment for the entertainment media. TV does influence opinions, attitudes, and behaviors. Stating that 'you do not have to watch' and 'it is up to parents to supervise' are shallow responses.

When families included stay at home moms who could monitor what their children were watching on TV, there were stronger TV standards than today, when most moms and dads are working and not with the kids.

Freedom from rules always sounds great to those that do not follow rules. That is why so many people 'church shop' until they can find a group that believes in 'their god' - you know - the one that doesn't have 10 commandments, rules, or consequences.

The New York Times published an article about the college study and that article ended with this statement. The implications are hardly superficial. Low empathy is associated with criminal behavior, violence, sexual offenses, aggression when drunk and other antisocial behaviors. Depressing news.