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A review by gracetant
Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom
1.0
I really disliked this book, and I do not recommend it. I went into this with an open mind, because I'm a sucker for pop psych and have had discussions about the topic with people who have read this book. But I can't remember the last time I disliked a book this much, even though I agree with some of its points. Even the points I agree with (e.g. empathy is colored by our preexisting biases, and this can have a negative effect), I find to be very intuitive points that many if not most people are already aware of from their own experiences, so it was surprising when the author took a detour during a discussion of psychology research replication issues to note that "no one" publishes obvious, logical conclusions.
This book could have been argued just as effectively in a 20-page essay format. It seems like it more or less was originally, in the form of the author's articles. Though there's a lot of empirical evidence cited, most of it is repetitive or lacking in nuanced presentation, especially things like the discussion of Walter Mischel's delayed gratification experiments and the usefulness of IQ tests. Even though I think this perspective has a role in our cultural discussion of and reckoning with empathy (particularly as it could hypothetically benefit people who suffer from our unfair prioritization of empathy, including autistic people and people with cluster B disorders), I didn't find this book helpful or enjoyable.
This book could have been argued just as effectively in a 20-page essay format. It seems like it more or less was originally, in the form of the author's articles. Though there's a lot of empirical evidence cited, most of it is repetitive or lacking in nuanced presentation, especially things like the discussion of Walter Mischel's delayed gratification experiments and the usefulness of IQ tests. Even though I think this perspective has a role in our cultural discussion of and reckoning with empathy (particularly as it could hypothetically benefit people who suffer from our unfair prioritization of empathy, including autistic people and people with cluster B disorders), I didn't find this book helpful or enjoyable.