文章轉錄自ScienceDaily（點此連結）；文章主要論述：在美國現今大學生的同理心不比八零和九零年代的大學生來得高，研究方法主要是藉由人格測驗的幾個問題著手，去推估受測者的同理心表現；研究者試著為此現象找出可能原因，包括資訊發達、人際交友關係、社會步調等等。以我的觀點，這邊有一個哲學上的問題：「人格的先天或後天」，人格測驗中測得的「人格」應屬於穩定結果，不論天生或環境影響與否，一個人在不同時間點應測得同樣的人格，但是研究者提出的可能原因都偏向於「環境」因素，意思是以前環境和現在環境不同造成不同的行為表現，如果真的如此，一個人在不同時間點測得的人格結果都會依照環境影響而不同。當然這疑問是可以技術解決的，譬如回答說，這研究是抓出測驗的幾題題目來分析而不是整份人格測驗、或人格有發展期，過了某些時段就不再因環境而變化；但是，我們願不願意想像，八零和九零年代或更早的人們生出了基因中不具有同理心的下一代？（當然大家不願意想像，同理心怎麼可能跟基因有關），那乾脆這樣問，同理心的上一代怎麼培養出沒同理心的下一代，或創造出沒同理心的環境？（這問題，我可不太想演變成兩代之間的對立）。最後，講了那麼多，什麼又是同理心（Empathy）呢？

Empathy: College Students Don't Have as Much as They Used To, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (May 29, 2010) — Today's college students are not as empathetic as college students of the 1980s and '90s, a University of Michigan study shows.

The study, presented in Boston at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, analyzes data on empathy among almost 14,000 college students over the last 30 years.

"We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000," said Sara Konrath, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research. "College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait."

Konrath conducted the meta-analysis, combining the results of 72 different studies of American college students conducted between 1979 and 2009, with U-M graduate student Edward O'Brien and undergraduate student Courtney Hsing.

Compared to college students of the late 1970s, the study found, college students today are less likely to agree with 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."

In a related but separate analysis, Konrath found that nationally representative samples of Americans see changes in other people's kindness and helpfulness over a similar time period.

"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," said Konrath, who is also affiliated with the University of Rochester Department of Psychiatry.

"It's not surprising that this growing emphasis on the self is accompanied by a corresponding devaluation of others," O'Brien said.

Why is empathy declining among young adults?

Konrath and O'Brien suggest there could be several reasons, which they hope to explore in future research.

"The increase in exposure to media during this time period could be one factor," Konrath said. "Compared to 30 years ago, the average American now is exposed to three times as much nonwork-related information. 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."

The recent rise of social media may also play a role in the drop in empathy, suggests O'Brien.

"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," he said.

Add in the hypercompetitive atmosphere and inflated expectations of success, borne of celebrity "reality shows," and you have a social environment that works against slowing down and listening to someone who needs a bit of sympathy, he says.

"College students today may be so busy worrying about themselves and their own issues that they don't have time to spend empathizing with others, or at least perceive such time to be limited," O'Brien said.

The American Association of University Women provided support for the analysis.

To test your level of empathy and compare how you scored to the average empathy level of college students, visit http://umichisr.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bCvraMmZBCcov52&SVID.