How empathy gets in the way of a better world with Paul Bloom

To get a free copy of the Infectious Generosity book, visit ted.com/generosity . It may feel like the world is running low on a seemingly crucial human trait: empathy. But Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, thinks that empathy is not the best measure of goodness. Paul’s work focuses on exploring some of the most puzzling aspects of human nature, including pleasure, religion and morality. He argues that empathy can actually lead to inequality because it muddles our judgment and narrows our prejudices. Chris and Paul talk about the biological evolution that led to our modern human psyche, discuss the perils of acting emotionally and break down the relationship between empathy, generosity and what Paul calls "rational compassion." Transcripts for The TED Interview are available at: go.ted.com/TTIscripts . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to How empathy gets in the way of a better world with Paul Bloom online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

How empathy gets in the way of a better world with Paul Bloom is an episode from The TED Interview by TED.

This episode is 37:45 long.

This episode was published on Apr 4, 2024.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The TED Interview when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.