Politics May Get in the Way of Empathy, Research Shows

[JFN1]

6. But one difference modern humans appear to have evolved

is empathy within a larger group, such as a nation, or even our entire species.

On 9-11, no one was talking about the victim's politics, and all except the totally unevolved felt empathy for those who died.

Same for fallen soldiers like Pat Tillmann.

And for a group of people in a life-or-death situation, like being trapped in a burning building, or a natural disaster - people typically don't ask political affiliation when working together for survival.

If aliens attacked the planet, the majority of Humanity would almost certainly shrug aside nationality and band together.

However - I wonder how empathy would play out if two opposing protest groups were at the epicenter of a major earthquake...would they help each other? Or would they refuse to help each other, and merely watch their opponents die?

Empathy is quite a bit more complex in practice than the study results would seem to indicate...