This week our Michigan Radio colleagueKyle Norris will be starting aseries on homelessness. So, when I came across this post on the stellar Sociological Imagesblog I thought it was worth a mention.
Itexplores a studythat finds our brains, not just our emotions, react to the homeless with "disgust." This happens in part because we see them as very different from ourselves. Then, with the help of our brains we build up our tolerance for seeing suffering among these people. We rarely feel empathy for them.
I'll be exploring issues of empathy and children in a few weeks with the help of one of our storytelling sources. This study is an an interesting introduction.