As you ____1____, does it feel like other people care less about how rough you have it and how much you ____2____? Well, your suspicion may have some data to back it up. Because according to an article in Scientific American Mind magazine, analysis of surveys of college kids reveals that self-reported empathy has been dropping for the last 30 years. And empathy really took a ____3____ in the last 10 years.
Nearly 14,000 student questionnaires that were completed in the last three decades were used for the study. And 75 percent of those surveyed today rated themselves as being less empathic than what was the average score 30 years ago.
One possible explanation is social isolation—we tend to do more things on our own and engage in fewer group activities than we used to. Another possible cause is ____4____. Studies have found that the number of stories preschoolers read ____5____ their ability to understand other people’s emotional states. The good news is that if empathy can go down, it can also go back up. You feel me?
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
get jostled in the daily rough and tumble are getting tumbled nosedive a decrease in reading fiction for pleasure correlates with
过去三十年里，自我评价的同情心下降了 当你每日在混乱无序的生活中冲冲撞撞前行时，是否觉得身边的人很少关心你过得有多么艰难、摔了多少跟头？如今，你的这种怀疑有数据为证了。因为根据《科学美国人心理（Mind）》杂志上发表的一篇文章，过去三十年间对高校学生的调查分析表明，其自我评价的同情心已经下降了。而在过去十年里同情怜悯之心的水平已急剧下降。 此项研究在过去三十年间对近一万四千名学生进行了问卷调查。现今，其中75%的人评价自己的同情心低于三十年前的平均水平。 一种可能的解释是社会孤立——我们更喜欢在独自一人时做更多的事情，而比以前更少参加集体活动。另一个可能的原因是出于乐趣而阅读小说的次数减少。研究显示，学龄前儿童阅读故事的数量与其理解他人情绪状态的能力密切相关。好消息就是既然同情怜悯之心会减少，那它也还可以回升。你懂我的意思吗？