Empathy has emerged as a focus of public interest in Korea, reflecting a growing desire to understand one another in an increasingly polarized society. The steady stream of bestselling books on the subject underscores its significance in public discourse. However, popularity does not guarantee clarity. How well do we actually understand empathy, and what does it ask of us as members of a civil society?
Empathy is far more than clasped hands, tearful eyes or the familiar platitude, “I feel your pain.” It is a capacity that integrates emotional attunement with cognitive perspective-taking. While emotional resonance enables us to feel what another is feeling, the cognitive dimension is to mentalize as we step beyond our own vantage point and see the world from another’s perspective. Rightly understood, empathy becomes a foundation of social life, grounded in the recognition of human dignity and a commitment to the well-being of others. Without such an orientation, civic bonds fray, and those vulnerable are pushed to the margins of society.
Yet, a growing body of scholarship suggests that this essential human capacity is diminishing. Researchers have documented measurable declines in empathy among adolescents and college students over recent decades, with emerging evidence pointing to further erosion amid pandemic-related distress and social isolation. Observers trace this shift to the conditions of modern life: Relationships mediated by digital technologies, deepening political polarization, chronic stress and a cultural ethos that prizes competition and individual achievement. Such conditions narrow the psychological space necessary for reflective attention to others, weakening the moral foundations essential to civic life.
Korea is not insulated from these global trends. A society shaped by traditional values of social interdependence now confronts conditions that threaten sustained empathy. As people face competitive educational environments and navigate escalating professional demands, opportunities for attentive listening and mutual understanding become rare. Not only is empathy dwindling, but the social conditions that nurture it are weakening. In this climate, the pursuit of individual greatness overshadows collective well-being. Democratic participation is understood primarily as the freedom to speak, while listening is displaced from the center of civic life. Empathy, once understood as a moral expectation and public responsibility, becomes an individual preference.
These pressures intensify in Korea, where tensions across political ideology, gender, religion and generational lines intersect with historical divisions that continue to shape the social climate. Because empathy can no longer be assumed to guide the public sphere, it must be deliberately cultivated and institutionally sustained. Without such efforts, existing fault lines widen, deepening divisions within Korean society. Social cohesion in a polarized Korea may ultimately depend on our willingness to remain open to lives that are not our own and on a collective resolve to sustain the conditions that make such openness possible.
However, as human rights advocate Kristina Lunz argues, empathy alone is insufficient to create a fairer and kinder society. To strengthen civic life, it must also be paired with the courage to resist fragmenting forces such as polarization, inequality and violence. One reason is that while empathy is celebrated as inherently virtuous, it is not distributed evenly across human relationships; we are subconsciously inclined to empathize with those who share our background, values or life trajectory. Shaped by their implicit biases and social identities, individuals may unwittingly participate in patterns of exclusion and oppression that reinforce social boundaries and perpetuate the status quo, thereby exacerbating the very divisions empathy seeks to dismantle.
For empathy to mature into morally grounded action, we must invest time and effort to expand our perspective, remain open to difference and cultivate a nonjudgmental attitude as a daily discipline. Unlike the more instinctive pull of emotional resonance, perspective-taking is a cognitive ability that can be learned and strengthened through critical self-reflection and practice. Its formation begins early in life, as children and adolescents encounter social difference and develop the moral frameworks that shape their understanding of others. Schools and communities should model principled solidarity and civic action while working to remove forces of division. Empathy can then become a civic imperative anchored in openness, shared responsibility and a commitment to justice. Only when empathy is woven into the fabric of our institutions and everyday exchanges can it function not merely as sentiment, but as a sustaining force of democratic life.
We live in a time marked by eroding civic trust, escalating violence and deepening polarization. Empathy cannot resolve every conflict that confronts a democratic society; without it, however, a shared future is difficult to imagine. Yet, these conditions clarify our task: To cultivate attentive listening, humility, patience and moral engagement as the habits that undergird civic life.
Ma Kyung-hee is a Seoul-based editor and researcher focusing on psychological well-being and community care.
Source: Korea Times News
