The Curious Case of Empathy – Do We Have It? Do We Need It?-Dipankar Khasnabish

Much has been spoken about the need for empathy in every walk of life, and most so in the case of leadership. But while it is on everyone’s (well almost) lips, it is hardly seen in action.

Why so? If we speak about it, we surely need it. And if we need it, practicing it will not only make us better, but it will also make a better society. So why don’t we see more of it in us, and around us?

One issue can be the understanding of the concept of “empathy”. While “apathy” has universal resonance, “sympathy” and “empathy” is often confused. Or is it true?

So there are many questions. Do we understand empathy? Does empathy matter? If it matters, how? Should we have more empathy or less empathy for the professionals around us? And if it is needed, and in short supply, can we do something about it? Like any situation where answers are not obvious, the best way is to ask. It was always been the case – for the best of the insights. And today also it is no different – it is called a survey. We at 1Bharat (www.1bharat.org) did ask people, electronically, a set of questions around empathy. We got responses, just should three digits, and compiled the responses. Here we enclose some of the findings.

Now first, who are the respondents? Well, they were mostly people we know, and their acquaintances. The survey was not anonymous as we wanted to keep the option of reaching back to the respondents, in case there was a need or an occasion. So let's begin, with the age and geographical distribution.

Having a sense of the respondents, the next question is, do people understand " empathy "?

The answer to that was quite revealing.

So, people know what empathy is, and how is it different from sympathy.

So why do we feel it is in short supply? Is it because there is a lack of expectations about it from people we interact with every day, and whose actions affect us? Or it is not the case.

We have done a deep dive into it and came up with some preliminary observations. We are presenting the data here, and will the forum open for comments/ observations/ views.

We asked - How important is “Empathy” for the following twelve roles:

Parent

Teacher

Doctor

Lawyer

Farmer

Computer Programmer

Businessman

Scientist

Politician

Policeman

Army Commander

Government Official

The roles are by no measure exhaustive, surely representative of most of the interactions we have in day-to-day life (or at least the material interactions).For each of the above professionals, the respondents were asked to respond to the importance of “empathy” (by extension, an empathetic behavior on their part). A scale of 1-5 was used, where 1 is “not important”, and 5 is “very important”.

The following are the results presented in a graphical form. There are no specific interpretations that have been made, we want all to soak in the findings.

How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Parent

How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Teacher

 How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Doctor

 How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Lawyer

How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Farmer

 How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Computer Programmer

How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Businessman

How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Scientist

 How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Politician

 How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Policeman

How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Army Commander

How important is “Empathy” for the following roles : (Rate on a scale of 1-5 against each profession: 1 – not important & 5 – very important) – Government Official

Among all the professions, probably the one we never meet but who has one of the most compelling influences on our lives is the politician. So we had an extra question about them. Do you think Politicians need empathy to be good Leaders?

What are your thoughts? Please share them.