Empathy Linked Violence in Surprising New Psychological Study

It is generally considered a good thing to be able to understand people and their problems, especially in a world that has a hard time understanding one another. However, the psychologists have a very different take on this matter. Their studies reveal that putting ourselves into someone else's shoes can just as easily turn you against that person to a point where you might end up being too resentful and violent against them. The New York State team in University of Buffalo found out that the greater you have the ability to empathize with the victim, the greater will be the feelings to inflict pain against the perpetrators, as reported by Independent.

In the research published by Anneke Buffone and Michael Poulin, they told the subjects about a competition between two people in another room of the lab. The participants of the research were told two different stories about a student suffering from financial distress. While one was pressured by the low funds she had, the other claimed to be ok with the fact that she doesn't have enough money. They participants were told that both the poor students will be made to sit in a competition where they could win $20. The participants had to give hot sauce to either one or both the participants. The respondents of the research were willing to administer more hot sauce to the student who didn't care about the money problems than the one who did, as described by The Atlantic.

As per the author of the research, her findings reveal that the humans, by its very nature, are animals. Their caregiving and aggressions are linked to each other. They also say that when empathizing with the victims, the aggression can take place even when there has been no provocation or wrong doing, says Independent.