U.S. researchers used many generations of data to see if college student today have more or less empathy (compassion, understanding) to others than students of the past. Find out what they found out and what some of their comments are based on their study of empathy and college students--today and in the past.

The article highlighting this study is entitled ' Changes in Dispositional Empathy Over Time in American College Students .'It was presented on Friday, May 28, 2010, at the 22nd annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science ( APS ), which was held May 27-30, 2010, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.The three researchers involved in the study and the paper are Edward H. O'Brien, Courtney Hsing, and Sara Konrath , all from the University of Michigan.The three U.S. researchers based their study on 72 previous studies that involved about 14,000 U.S. college students. The previous studies were conducted between the years of 1984 and 2009.They suggested that, today, college students have less empathy for others then did college students of twenty or thirty years ago.In fact, they found that students today scored about 40% lower on a measure of empathy than students of the past. They used the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index The Index is a measure of dispositional empathy that takes as its starting point the contention that empathy consists of a set of separate but related constructs.Page two continues.





The Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index uses statements such as 'I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective" and "I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me" when measuring empathy in these college students.The researchers concluded, 'We find that Empathic Concern, Perspective Taking, and Fantasy (marginal) are declining over time, with Personal Distress remaining stable.' [APS]Thus, the researchers found that students today do not share feelings and/or emotions with their peers as much as students of the past did.In addition, students today were discovered to less likely to show gratitude than students of the past.The researchers contend the today's young are more interested in taking care of themselves then helping others.Dr. Konrath, a researcher the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, stated, "We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000.' [MSNBC: ' Today's college kids lack empathy ']Page three concludes.





Dr. Konrath, who is also with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, added, "Many people see the current group of college students '” sometimes called 'Generation Me ' '” as one of the most self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident and individualistic in recent history.' [MSNBC]She added reasons for this less empathic attitude with college students today. Dr. Konrath commented, 'Compared to 30 years ago, the average American now is exposed to three times as much nonwork-related information.' [MSNBC]'In terms of media content, this generation of college students grew up with video games , and a growing body of research, including work done by my colleagues at Michigan, is establishing that exposure to violent media numbs people to the pain of others." [MSNBC]And, "The ease of having 'friends' online might make people more likely to just tune out when they don't feel like responding to others' problems, a behavior that could carry over offline.' [MSNBC]