Were the subjects of this study all American, and if so, do the results take into account cultural perceptions surrounding “race” ?

An experience I had in a public bathroom in San Francisco left me with the impression that African Americans might be more empathetic in general, to everyone, including to me, a white woman, than white people are to each other. I was in this bathroom because I had had a severe bout of diarrhea that left me cleaning my underwear and trousers in the sink, and drying them on the hand dryer. Several white women who used the bathroom gave me evil looks, including one who looked me up and down before leaving. ( Luckily I had a long top on.). An African American woman in her 30′s propped a door half closed so I could have more privacy and actually smiled and said I would be OK. I wondered whether experiences with persecution and bad times helped her develop empathy – experiences which the other women didn’t have.

Is this really surprising? I don’t find it unusual that white people care less about other white people. They (in my experiences) tend to look at class and social status before ethnicity. A white Irish-American wouldn’t immediately know that a fellowman was also Irish, but they would immediately ascertain their clothing, mannerisms, car make/model, etc. These all have an effect on how we treat people and from what I’ve seen, a lot of white Americans only care about others in their own social caste, or higher. It doesn’t help that having brown skin is considered lower class here. Oh well, at least this study shows a positive thing — minorities help minorities. Somebody has to! lol

I would hope that this is not representative, and since it was only one experience we can’t assume it is. I would think this would vary more by area of the country than race. Certain cities (my hometown of Nashville, for example) are known for being friendly and helpful. They test this periodically in a scientifically designed study and have researchers ask for directions, etc, and compare how many people are willing to help, if memory serves. It’s still a convenience sample, but by doing it repeatedly over time I think it’s a reasonable way to get an idea of the differences between cities.

I have travelled to Germany several times (and stayed for a month each time) and I have a feeling they would have been even less friendly on average. This is a country where I once saw a dead man on the floor of a busy train station with his face covered with paper towels and three orange cones around him. Apparently, if the EMTs can’t do anything, they just leave and the coroner or German equivalent thereof has to come take care of it. Everyone just walked by like it was nothing!!! Not one person seemed even remotely bothered by this, but 20 years later I still remember being horrified and I can picture the scene easily.

This is so flawed and misleading.

@MM – are you referring to the Futurity article or the research itself? I’m actually quite curious to know what scientific definition of “race” was used. The link to the article is broken – could it be fixed?

William, I’ve updated the broken link to the journal article: http://bit.ly/dhJ518

1. Experiment 2. Publication for the world see, study, examine and review.. That’s why knowledge advances.

Empathy for the same race is equal to in Nature.

a. “birds of the same feathers” see all birds similar flying together. birds fly together.

b. “school of fish” in the ocean. See how the doplphins, tunas, sardines swim together. fish swim together.

c. “animals of the safari” zebras, elephants, wilderbeasts, rabbits run in groups.
There is safety in Numbers. Proection from the lions, and meat-eaters. animals eat grass together.

Nature at work. Of course, people of the same races have empathy for each other.
Nature at work. Work of Nature. Nature is Not a Public opinion.

Bill, I don’t meant to bitchy, but your comment is nonsense. The notion of “race” as it applies to other species does not exist in THE human race. (Scientific American wrote an article about this topic which you can read here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=does-race-exist ) Even the article itself refers to “social groups” and uses the classifications “African-American” and “Caucasian-American”, which I believe in most countries would called ethnicities, rather than races.

Even the term “ethnicity” is culturally heavily loaded. The key sentence in the abstract for me is “when observing the suffering of members of their own social group.” It could be, for example, that Caucasian-Americans don’t see themselves as a social group. It would be interesting to repeat the exercise using other parameters.

Human have been separated by space-time. continents, land/sea/mountains for thousands, if Not millions of years.

It’s ridiculous, people do Not have have empathy for their race. Race is your extended family.

Note the first 5 USA presidents all owned slaves. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson each owned 200-300 slaves on their plantation..

Slavery exited in USA until 1865 and “seperate but equal” “Jim Crow” was law of the land until the 1960s in USA.

USA has a dark past. USA past is know to the world.
What a “suprise” after Slavery and “Jim Crow”, people do Not have a empathy for their race.

Bill Gates, your kaleidoscope “logic” bursts forth from no particular discernable source and disapates into an opinionated ooze – based solely on cracked fragments of faulty folk “wisdom.”