Key points

Empathy often triggers compassion, which helps cement our social relationships.

Empathy varies with gender, age, and political preference.

Both empathy and compassion can be taught using Compassion Meditation.

In 2025, the Muhammad Ali Center published a report on compassion in the United States that revealed that 61 percent of the more than 5,000 people surveyed between 2020 and 2024 said they perceived a decline in compassion in America (the Muhammad Ali Center, 2025). The majority of us apparently see wider gulfs and taller walls between groups in our world.

The terms empathy and compassion are often used interchangeably, as if they meant the same thing. Empathy and compassion are similar in meaning, but they are not interchangeable. Empathy is feeling what someone e

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