Book Review: Against Empathy

I am trying to work through some of the books I’ve purchased over the years. Yesterday, I picked up one that has been languishing in my Kindle library for quite a while—Against Empathy by Paul Bloom. I’ll confess that I approached the book with a bias: I’ve always felt, perhaps irrationally, that the idea of empathy is overrated. I’m happy to say that the book did not disappoint.

The central argument, as I understood it, is that while empathy might make us feel warm and fuzzy in the short term, it can lead to poor decisions and even worse outcomes in the long term. Bloom supports his thesis with numerous examples drawn from psychology, neuroscience, and economics, explaining why this might be the case. While I found myself nodding in agreement throughout much of the book, I was left a little underwhelmed by the end. For me, it didn’t feel like an outright argument against empathy; instead, it seemed more like a comprehensive list of caveats to consider when discussing the concept.

Reflecting on my own perspective, I found myself wondering why my position so closely aligned with Bloom’s. I wasn’t familiar with all the nuances and caveats he presented, but I suspect my background in accounting and finance has conditioned me to be sceptical of arguments based solely on emotion.