KarunaNews Story

Our world is full of daily battles in which we’ve consciously or subconsciously sorted ourselves into “us” and “them” camps. According to Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki, empathy creates links between camps, giving us collective power to accomplish more together than we ever could apart. These aren’t just feel-good ideas. Several academic studies show that empathic individuals excel professionally and experience greater subjective well-being. Research also reveals that the most successful workplace teams are those in which employees report high levels of psychological safety and interpersonal sensitivity. Zaki is author of the book, “The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in Fractured Times.” In the book he argues that empathy is a skill that can be learned and makes the case for why we need much more of it today.