#9: Paul Bloom on The Downsides of Empathy in Moral Decision Making

Naturally Artificial | Bridging the Gap between Minds and Machines

In this podcast episode, I sat down for an in depth conversation with Paul Bloom. Paul is an Canadian American psychologist. He is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on language, morality, religion, fiction, and art.
Paul wrote a book Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion in 2016. The book draws on the distinctions between empathy, compassion, and moral decision making. Bloom argues that empathy is not the solution to problems that divide people and is a poor guide for decision making.
The discussion focuses on his argument 'Against Empathy'. We talk about the downsides of empathy, when empathy can be used for good and for bad, and the implications on how we should make moral decisions given the limitations of empathy.
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Credits
Host: Junior Okoroafor, Twitter: @JJStyles12, Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/junior-okoroafor-4b8069193/
Art Work: Charlotte Mason
Speaker Co-ordinators: Zoe Popescu, Emily Camp
Podcast Editor: Victoria Okoroafor