Empathy can exclude as much as it unites

Empathy is a human mechanism, like attention. It's part of our ability to understand the emotions of our fellow human beings. The problem, as neuroscientist Samah Karaki reminds us, is that it is strongly biased by our environment.

Just look at how, for example, the Western world has been preoccupied by the violent forest fires of 2025 in California and the near-silence on crises in the Middle East or Africa. This is entirely explained by the mechanism of empathy, according to the specialist, who describes, among other things, an experiment carried out by Chinese researchers. They showed images of Asians and Caucasians having their cheeks pinched. They were asked which individuals seemed to suffer more. Systematically, people with Asian features were perceived as suffering more than Caucasians. However, this experiment would have the opposite results if carried out in France.

This biased selection of empathy makes it easy for specialists to dehumanize groups by attributing negative or even animal characteristics to them. Take, for example, the discourse surrounding the presence of Arabs in France, Canada or the United States. They are seen as a problem, and their suffering is systematically denied. This sometimes even serves as a way for groups to victimize themselves over minor or even non-existent phenomena, such as those crying "anti-white" racism as soon as a criticism is made of the white population or an actor of color is cast in a role.

So, should empathy be eliminated? Impossible. It remains a human brain mechanism. However, if we really want to take an interest in the suffering of others, we have to really go out and meet them, and move away from the empathic framework into a less comfortable one, where there is a real encounter and the other person's human condition is truly within reach.

Running time: 25:35

Image: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay