I found this post from Marc Stoiber, blogging at the Huffington Post interesting not so much because he mentioned empathy, but rather the means he suggests using a system of understanding human values called spiral dynamics, first uncovered by Clare Graves, former Professor of Psychology at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. Stoiber writes:
These differing worldviews are usually a factor of:
1. Different values lenses – different shades of values people have, which give them different perspectives on a story.
2. Different filtering styles – individual means of screening information based on triggers and internal sorting mechanisms.
3. Degrees of social optimism – Ways of interpreting realities based on the optimism or pessimism of the viewer.Renowned social psychologist Clare Graves was an innovator in this field, breaking down audience worldviews according to eight levels of evolving human behavior systems.
1. Autistic thinking. Traced back to 40,000 BC, this type of thinking was characterized by living in the moment, and feeling helpless before the terror of nature. A strong desire to live in tribal units for security helped mankind evolve beyond this behavior.
2. Tribal thinking. Post 40,000 BC. Civilization was tribal, and suffocated by tribal rules. The chief factor contributing to the demise of this behavior system was the desire to break free and set out on journeys of self-determination.
3. Heroic thinking. 8000 BC. A behavior system favored by early conquerors like Atilla, Genghis – but very much alive today in dictators and gang lords. This form of thinking favors taking what one wants, creating empire, and domination. Clearly not a form of thinking for the meek, it was largely supplanted by the search for deeper meaning and a true, spiritual leader.
4. Absolutistic thinking. 4000 BC. A backlash against heroic thinking, absolutism favored the clarity and discipline of rigid morality. Honor, self-sacrifice, a fear of contradiction and a strict code of behavior characterize this behavior system. Today, absolutism is personified in conservative thinkers….
I’ve found spiral dynamics a great inroad to empathizing especially with people whose value systems appear to differ from my own. One note of caution: I’ve noticed the temptation to pigeonhole people into these categories when in fact these memes are tendencies we possess rather than hard categories we act upon.
I wanted to add a little clarity around your last comment. While indeed Spiral Dynamics is NOT about types of people or personalities, or labels, it is indeed more than tendencies that you mention. It is cultural DNA that is alive in each of us. SD maps out the value systems that we tap into and do indeed act from. Spiral Dynamics is not about WHAT we think (the content of our thoughts), but rather HOW and WHY we think. These levels of development are formed by our life conditions which in turn require us to get creative in our problem-solving. Our life conditions present us with issues, changes, survival, etc., and in turn we create solutions. It is our ability to get ever more complex in our problem-solving thinking that moves us along the spiral of development, as individuals, and humanity as a whole.
i too enjoyed his article, and want to put in a plug for Rifkin’s book, “The Empathic Civilization.” I thoroughly enjoyed it and got my brain in motion even more than it is!