Choose one of the following options:
- Your Empathy Range and Mindset
In the first chapter, Zaki describes how our ability to empathize is not a fixed quality; rather, the strength of our empathy is greatly influenced by our experiences and our mindset. More importantly, we can purposely change our level of empathy (move ourselves along our “empathic range”) both by adopting a mobilist mindset toward empathy and by consciously practicing empathy skills (27). Start by taking the empathy quiz developed by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/empathy. (You can choose to reveal your score or not in your reflection.) Then, compose a reflection on your own empathy range and mindset, considering how they have been shaped by previous experiences, and the role you see them playing in your future. Then, as you write your reflection, consider some of the following: Do you agree with the score you received? Why or why not? What, specifically, has shaped your attitudes toward empathy? To what extent do you feel your beliefs about empathy and empathic abilities will be important in your future? Why? - Defending Empahty
¿What is the best argument in favor of empathy? Defend empathy using specific examples from The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World and at least one especially compelling reason that you have thought of on your own or that comes from another source of inspiration (book, movie, friend, etc.). Make your best case, and assume that your reader needs to be persuaded.