discoverynews:

Researchers say people may wrongly predict their behavior in embarrassing situations because of an “empathy gap” with their future selves.

Very interesting. I’m coming to believe that the reason we’re seeing so much blatant, hysterical hate-mongering on the right is a failure of empathy—either people unable to feel empathy, or people more afraid of the rejection of their peers than willing to allow themselves to behave empathically. For the people who can’t feel empathy, or have a very difficult time with it, I wonder if it’s a low-level sociopathy or a failure of imagination—that they just can’t see themselves in the situations they willingly inflict on other people. Whenever somebody trumpets “WELL I WOULDN’T HAVE AN ABORTION SO ANYBODY WHO GETS ONE MUST BE A BAD PERSON” or whatever bullshit, just think of this study. Failure of empathy with their future selves…