For 18 days the world’s attention was focused on the plight of 12 child soccer players and their coach trapped in a maze of water-filled caves in northern Thailand. During that same two-and-a-half week period, approximately 378,000 children died (21,000 a day) in developing countries,

mostly from poverty-related diseases. Little if anything was reported about the suffering and death of these individuals as the media provided round-the-clock coverage of the situation in Thailand.

The federal government reported that from October 2017 through June of this year, 2,432 children were separated from their parents when they illegally entered the United States with them. (Unofficial estimates suggest that number is closer to 3,400.) A poll conducted for National Public Radio by Ipsos (a market research firm) in June found that 11 percent of Democrats, 25 percent of independent voters and 52 percent of Republicans supported a government policy of “separating families who cross the border illegally as a deterrent.” No doubt many of these individuals (probably most) were empathetic to the plight of the lost soccer players and their worried families. How can this selective compassion be explained?

To begin, we have to make a distinction between two related although distinct terms: empathy and compassion. Empathy is the ability to take the perspective of others and attempt to discern their emotions, what sociologists call “taking the role of the other.” Compassion (from the Latin “compati” meaning “to suffer with”) is when empathy includes the desire to help individuals and groups perceived to be suffering and/or in need of help.

A significant number of social psychological studies have resulted in the following regarding empathy and compassion:

1. The victim as unworthy

A European study found that fans of soccer teams had less empathy and compassion for fans of rival teams than they did for fans of their teams. If something as trivial as support for rival sports teams results in less compassion, how much compassion will individuals have for people from different races, ethnic groups, religious and political persuasions? The “in group” and “out group” dichotomy is one of the best predictors of how much empathy and compassion individuals extend to others.

President Trump has referred to Mexicans and Latin Americans who enter this country illegally as murderers, robbers, rapists and animals, stating emphatically these individuals are “infesting” our country. As journalist Ed Kilgore notes, the verb “infest” is typically associated with insects, rats and other creatures that contaminate one’s environment. Kilgore states that using “infest” when referring to a category of people “is literally out of the Nazi/anti-Semites’ playbook for talking about the Jewish threat.” Dehumanizing individuals and/or groups clearly indicates these people are unworthy of empathy and compassion.

2. Psychic numbing

University of Oregon psychologist Paul Slovic states that as the number of victims increases, both empathy and the willingness to help them decreases. According to Slovic, tragedies — from mass shootings to devastating hurricanes to wars that claim dozens and in some cases millions of victims — are perceived as abstractions, with our minds diminishing or completely ignoring the tragedy.

For Slovic, psychic numbing is a major reason we have not come to grips with the opioid crisis in this country, a scourge that claimed 42,000 lives in 2016. According to Slovic, “there is no constant value for a human life … the value of a single life diminishes against the backdrop of a larger tragedy.”

Having to consider only a small number of victims is a major reason the trapped soccer team triggered world-wide attention — and empathy. The 12 boys and their coach was a psychologically manageable number to comprehend. Even though the players were an “out group” for most of the world, middle-class parents everywhere could empathize with the boys and their distraught parents.

3. A false sense of ineffectiveness

Related to psychic numbing, a significant number of victims is perceived as a hopeless situation. That is, if the suffering of most victims cannot be eliminated or reduced, it’s useless to help anyone.

In one experiment, Slovic asked individuals in one group if they would be willing to help 4,500 refugees in a camp that held 11,000 individuals. A second group was asked if they would be willing to help 4,500 refugees in a camp that held 250,000 people. Participants in the second group were less likely to offer support than participants in the first group even though the number of individuals who would receive their help was identical.

In another experiment, participants in one group were shown a picture of a starving child and asked if they would donate money to feed that child. A second group was shown a photo of the same child along with summary statistics of the number of starving children in that region. The participants in the second group were half as likely to donate money as were participants in the first group.

Subjects in the second group were dissuaded from helping when presented with the gravity of the larger situation as opposed to one starving child. Slovic argues this is an instance of false ineffectiveness as even small acts of charity on the part of many people can have a substantial impact.

Compassion is a central tenet of all the world’s major religions and is especially important in Buddhism. An integral component of compassion implicit in Buddhist thought is “non-judgment” — that is, to accept and remain tolerant of other people even when they and/or their conditions illicit feelings in us such as frustration, fear, anger or distrust.

Psychologist E.A. Pommier states this interpretation is grounded in an acceptance of our “common humanity,” an understanding that we could find ourselves in the circumstances of those who are suffering — a realization that “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

Evolutionary biologists state that just as our brains are wired for the acquisition of language, we are hard-wired for compassion as cooperation and compassion were necessary for the survival of human beings from our days as hunters and gatherers. However, compassion — just as language — must be developed and nurtured.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin taught young adults a Buddhist loving-kindness or “meta” prayer: “May you be free from suffering. May you have ease and joy in your life.”

The participants recited this prayer over and over, thinking first of a loved one, then a friend, then a stranger, then someone they had a conflict with and/or disliked. Lead researcher Helen Weng stated that repeating the loving-kindness prayer was similar to weight training: “We found that people can actually build up their compassion ‘muscle’ and respond to others’ suffering with care and a desire to help.”

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George J. Bryjak lives in Bloomingdale, retired after 24 years of teaching sociology at the University of San Diego.

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Sources:

“Brain Can Be Trained in Compassion, Study Finds” (accessed 2018) Association for Psychological Science, www.psychologicalscience.org

“Empathy: is it all its cracked up to be?” (2015) The Aspen Institute, July 3, www.aspeninstitute.org

Hegarty, A. (2018) “Timeline: Immigrant children separated from families at the border” USA Today, June 27, www.usatoday.com

Kilgore, E. (2018) “Trump Uses Language of Extermination on ‘Illegal Immigrants,'” New York Magazine, http//nymag.com

Resnick, B. (2017) “A psychologist explains the limits of human compassion,” Vox, September 5, www.vox.com

Resnick, B. (2018) “Mass shootings and the limits of human compassion,” Vox, Feb. 15, www.vox.com

Rose, J. (2018) “Immigration Poll Finds Deep Divide Over Trump’s Agenda,” NPR, July 16, www.npr.org

Shah, A. (2011) “Today around 21,000 children died around the world,” Global Issues, Sept. 14, www.globalissues.org

Straus, C. (2016) “What is compassion and how can we measure it? A review of definitions and measures,” Science Direct, www.sciencedirect.com

“What is Compassion?” (accessed 2018) The Greater Good, www.greatergoodberkeley.edu