Is Empathy Dying?

That’s the subject of this interesting article by Hanna Roisin.As Roisin writes in her article, researcher Sara Konrath at Indiana University "collected decades of studies and noticed a very obvious pattern. Starting around 2000, the line starts to slide. More students say it's not their problem to help people in trouble, not their job to see the world from someone else's perspective. By 2009, on all the standard measures, Konrath found, young people on average measure 40 percent less empathetic than my own generation — 40 percent!”For me the article triggered some interesting thoughts. If empathy truly is dwindling in supply, then each successive generation of new sellers will possess less of it. So, it begs the question, can you sell without empathy? Have we exaggerated the value of empathy in understanding the concerns of our buyers and building relationships with them?Or, are we seeing the emergence of a more dispassionate and rational empathy, along the lines described by Paul Bloom in his book, Against Empathy?What do you think? I’m interested to hear your opinions.I’ve just posted this question on LinkedIn. Please click on this link here to contribute your comment to the discussion.- Andy Paul