29. Strengthen your empathy muscle.
Do you feel like empathy is in freefall? If so, you’re not alone.
What?
According to a 2025 report from the Muhammad Ali Center, 61% of Americans believe compassion has declined over the past four years.
That fear isn't irrational — but it also isn't the whole story. A study tracking empathy in American youth from 1979 to 2018 found something surprising: after a significant decline (48%), empathy and perspective-taking bottomed out and then rebounded, rising steadily from 2008 onward.
Of course, a lot has happened since 2018! It’s unclear if empathy is continuing that upward trajectory or has reversed again.
One detail from that study struck me—empathy tended to rise during periods of more loneliness and less socializing. The researchers speculate that loneliness causes a “social hunger”—producing a greater motivation to empathize and connect with others.
So what?
Empathy involves trying to see and understand people as whole, complex, three-dimensional human beings. It takes time.
But much of what we consume encourages the opposite. News and social media give us short, sensationalized snippets. Algorithms favor content that is extremist, fear-based content or divisive. Complexity gets lost.
Personal feeds do something similar. We see curated, two-dimensional snapshots of other people’s lives—highlight reels, or fragments of a much messier reality.
What worries me is that when people become less than three-dimensional in our minds, it gets easier to dehumanize and dismiss them, blame them, or see them as stereotypes or enemies. Empathy helps keep people human.
Fortunately, empathy can be taught, practiced, and strengthened.
Connection Skill & Action Step: Strengthen your empathy muscle.
Want to strengthen your empathy muscle? Here are a few ideas:
Check out this <3-minute video on empathy by Brené Brown.
Be slow to judge. It’s easy to write people off based on one piece of information, mistake, or misstep. Try to dig a little deeper. Learn more to understand other people’s experiences and perspectives.
Consume long-form content such as books, movies, or TV series with strong character-development. There’s evidence that longer, deeper content builds empathy.
Have meaningful conversations. Ask deeper questions, like the ones on the Conversation Cafe Menu.
Become a certified ProjectConnect Facilitator. You’ll be able to run groups that build connection—and empathy—in your school, college, workplace, or other setting.
Questions to reflect on or to spark conversation. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts—please share your comments below
Do you think there’s been a change in empathy over the last decade? What have you noticed?
How do you try to build empathy in the group and communities you’re a part of?