The limits of empathy

Part A: Which of the following best describes Brooks' central claim in the text?

• Empathy provides people with the emotional capacity to care for those who are suffering and drives them to help others.

• While empathy encourages caring feelings towards others, it alone does not drive people to act on their feelings in the same way as a sense of responsibility.

• Feeling empathy for others is a self-serving emotion, as it provides people with the sense that they are good even when they ignore suffering.

• It is the best not feel empathy for others, as people tend to take advantage of the sympathy they know they can inspire in empathetic people.

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Part A: Which of the following best describes how the author makes his claim?

• The author compares how likely empathetic people are to take moral action with people who have a sense of duty.

• The author draws on personal experiences of witnessing empathetic people not taking action in immoral situations.

• The author emphasizes how much better people with a sense of duty are than people with empathy.

• The author provides scientific evidence for why empathetic people are less likely to take actions than people with a sense of duty.

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Part B Which quote from the text best supports the answer to Part A?

• "There even a brain theory that we have mirror neurons in our heads that enable us to feel what's in other people's heads and that these neurons lead to sympathetic care and moral action."

• "In the early days of the Holocaust, Nazi prison guards sometimes wept as they mowed down Jewish women and children, but they still did it."

• "Eighty-seven percent of the people who found the dime offered to help a person who dropped some papers nearby, compared to 4 percent who didn't find the dime."

• "Empathy is a sideshow. If you want to make a better world, help people debate, understand, reform, revere and enact codes."

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CCSS.RL.8.3

Which trait do you believe has a more powerful influence on how people act: empathy or self-interest?

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