PSYCH101 Psychology

In the quote by Morelli, Being distracted reduces our empathy for others and blunts responses in the brain, what are the implications of this quote for civic engagement?

 

Sylvia Morelli conducted research, and in her report, she quoted that “Being distracted reduces our empathy for others and blunts responses in the brain.” This quote received numerous reactions. Additionally, she noted that distractions affected people’s happiness and the manner they contact their social lives. In her article, Morelli focused on the electronic entertainment that has today caused civic disengagement. This paper will explore the implications of Morelli’s quote on civic engagement and concludes the graphs presented in the article.

Civic engagement relates to making a difference in the society through the development of skills, acquisition of knowledge and sharing of values. It aims at promoting a quality life for people in the community through political and social institutions. However, civic engagement has been derailed especially with the existence and development of social media and the internet. Rather than sharing information through facilities and training, communities have resulted in social media and online sites to gather information, most of which may not be entirely factual. Besides, it has limited physical human interactions (England, p. 3).

According to Morelli’s quote, people are more distracted particularly in this era of technology. Instead of sharing experiences and spending quality time with family, people are destructed by electronic devices. However, this quote acts as a wakeup call for people. For civic engagement, it means that people will work towards creating a quality life. First, people are always seeking what makes them happy. Morelli notes that distractions affect people’s happiness. Additionally, spending time and creating memories creates a better life void of electronic distractions. The quote suggests that people have civically disengaged and calls for action from people in the community. Therefore, limiting distractions enhances human connections, allows sharing of knowledge and gravitates civic engagement (Kluger, p. 4).

Conclusions

As a neurologist, Morelli included pictures in her article to show how distractions limited empathy in people. From these images, some conclusions can be drawn. First, empathy can be explained scientifically. In her pictures, Morelli points neural regions that depict an individual’s empathic state (Morelli, and Lieberman, p. 3). When a person is distracted, these parts are not stimulated and thus reduce empathy. Secondly, while the empathic process is not automatic, the cognitive load is an inhibitor. As such, being distracted also disrupts the empathic process. Additionally, attention impacts on neurons and induce subjective responses amid empathy. It is from these conclusions did Morelli make her quote (Morelli, Lieberman, and Zaki, p. 59).  

Refernces

England, Julie. "Passion, Happiness, And Empathy - Prime Women Magazine." Prime Women,2015,

https://primewomen.com/second-acts/personal-growth/passion-happiness-and-empathy/.

Kluger, Jeffrey. "The happiness of pursuit." Time Magazine (2013).

Morelli, Sylvia A., and Matthew D. Lieberman. "The role of automaticity and attention in neural

processes underlying empathy for happiness, sadness, and anxiety." Frontiers in human neuroscience 7 (2013).   

Morelli, Sylvia A., Matthew D. Lieberman, and Jamil Zaki. "The emerging study of positive

empathy." Social and Personality Psychology Compass 9.2 (2015): 57-68.