All the Feels: Developing Empathy in Political Science Courses

In recent years, the discipline of political science has expressed interest in the concept of empathy and its role in politics. Some scholars argue that empathy is necessary to cultivate in a democratic society as it helps us to understand and identify with others; others argue that this is not necessary, or is even counterproductive to this goal, due to the negative aspects of empathy. This leads to the question of whether empathy can - or should - be cultivated in our political science classrooms? To answer this question, we conducted studies in general education courses in order to gauge students’ levels of global empathy and determine whether it was being successfully taught, or if we were inadvertently teaching the “dark sides” of empathy. Evidence from a survey of the students and review of their assignments demonstrates some evidence that their global empathy grew as a result of the course.