EMPATHY

Empathy, the ability to understand the feelings of another person

is often viewed as a virtue that encourages helping behaviors.

But people often don't want to feel empathy.

"There is a common assumption that people stifle feelings of empathy because they could be depressing or costly
such as making donations to charity,"
said lead researcher C. Daryl Cameron, Ph.D, the American Psychological Association.

"But we found that people primarily just don't want to make the mental effort to feel empathy toward others
even when it involves feeling positive emotions."

medicalxpress.com/news/2019-04-empathy-m...bmceSFe-7LxXVHTlQc5Y

The study, which was published online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology:
General, included 11 experiments with more than 1,200 participants
Cameron led a team of researchers at Penn State University, where he is an assistant professor of psychology
and the University of Toronto.