Today's College Students Self-Centered, Competitive: Study

Today's College Students Self-Centered, Competitive: Study

College students today have 40 percent less empathy than people their age did two to three decades ago, a new study from the University of Michigan has found.

HealthDay reports:


The analysis indicated that relative to their late-1970s' counterparts, today's college students are less likely to make an effort to understand their friends' perspectives or to feel tenderness or concern for the less fortunate.

"Many people see the current group of college students -- sometimes called 'Generation Me' -- as one of the most self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident and individualistic in recent history," observed Konrath, who is also affiliated with the psychiatry department at the University of Rochester.

Researchers cited increased media exposure and more competitive social environments as possible reasons for the dip in empathy.

What do you think? Have you noticed a drop in empathy in today's youth, or among your peers?

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