empathy for others may erode
The belief that one’s personal opinion is more valid or important than reality or facts can be associated with several psychological concepts. Gator never been about that.
As people age, they often solidify their beliefs and surround themselves with like-minded individuals, both in person and via social media. These echo chambers reinforce confirmation bias, making it harder to accept new or contradicting information. Each generation may also grow up with its own set of experiences and societal norms that shape its perspectives, leading older generations to hold onto opinions formed under different societal conditions. This can lead to a reluctance to adapt to changing realities, especially when faced with newer challenges that weren’t as prominent in their formative years.
Values and belief systems are often passed down generationally, creating a cycle where each generation influences the next. If older generations have been conditioned to prioritize their viewpoints or place higher value on their experiences, they might transmit these attitudes to younger generations, perpetuating the belief that their opinion holds more weight than others. This can be particularly problematic when facing modern issues, such as mental health or neurodivergence (like autism), that previous generations might not have been equipped to understand or empathize with.
Empathy is often shaped by lived experiences, education, and exposure to diverse perspectives. In situations where certain challenges are invisible to the majority—such as mental health issues, disabilities, or neurodiversity—those who have not experienced them may lack the ability or willingness to empathize. When one generation has not had to face these challenges, or when they haven’t been socially acknowledged, they may struggle to relate or understand the need for flexibility in accommodating others. For example, individuals who grew up in a time where mental health was stigmatized might view conditions like autism or anxiety as trivial, attributing struggles to laziness or poor parenting.
Each generation grows up in a different socio-economic, technological, and political context. Older generations might view challenges faced by younger generations—such as climate change, mental health struggles, or economic precarity—as exaggerated or less important because they are outside their own lived experiences. This can lead to dismissiveness and the perpetuation of the belief that their opinions, shaped by their own life experiences, are more valid than the realities faced by younger people. Over time, this can cause rifts between generations, with younger people feeling misunderstood or marginalized.
As society becomes more individualistic, empathy for others may erode. Social and cultural narratives increasingly emphasize self-reliance, leading individuals to prioritize their own experiences and opinions over collective well-being. If a challenge is not visible—such as dealing with a neurodivergent child or managing mental health—it may be disregarded by those who don’t directly experience it. This lack of empathy becomes a cycle, reinforced over generations as societal structures often prioritize individual success over communal care.
Subjective Validation: This occurs when two unrelated or even random events are perceived to be related because a belief, expectation, or hypothesis demands a relationship. In this case, a person might believe their opinion is correct despite evidence to the contrary because it aligns with their expectations or beliefs.
Confirmation Bias: This is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities. People may give more weight to their opinions when they find even slight evidence supporting them, ignoring stronger evidence against them.
Egocentrism: In cognitive psychology, egocentrism is the inability to differentiate between one’s own perspective and another person’s perspective. An egocentric person might overly rely on their own opinions and dismiss real-world data that contradicts their views.
Dunning-Kruger Effect: This cognitive bias is where individuals with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. Applied more broadly, it can refer to the situation where individuals rate their own knowledge or opinions as much higher than they actually are.
Theory of Mind: The ability to understand that others have thoughts, feelings, and perspectives different from one’s own. Those with a less developed theory of mind may struggle to empathize with experiences they don’t understand. Generational gaps in understanding societal changes or emerging issues can create disconnects in empathy.
Generational Trauma: Past experiences, particularly of hardship or survival, can cause older generations to have a hardened view toward contemporary issues. They may dismiss mental health or neurodivergent challenges as “weakness,” attributing it to a lack of resilience, as their own upbringing may have lacked focus on emotional well-being.
Egocentrism in Adulthood: While egocentrism is often associated with children, some adults retain a level of self-centered thinking, leading them to overvalue their perspectives. This tendency can be exacerbated by age, experience, and cultural reinforcement.
Generational conflicts, lack of empathy, and the devaluation of other people’s challenges often stem from deeply ingrained psychological and social dynamics. When one generation feels that their views, shaped by their experiences, are more valid than emerging realities, it can lead to entrenched positions and a lack of understanding. Building empathy across generations requires openness, education, and exposure to diverse perspectives—particularly regarding challenges that are not immediately visible, like neurodivergence or mental health issues.
To further speculate on the psychological and sociological dimensions of how individuals can overvalue their opinions over reality, especially when there’s an empathy deficit, we can examine various trends across generations and societies. These trends, compounded by media exposure and technological change, highlight why this issue can become exasperated over time.
Over time, the rise of fragmented media environments (social media, cable news, personalized online algorithms) has created isolated bubbles, where individuals increasingly seek confirmation of their own views. Echo chambers develop, leading people to prioritize their own opinions as truths, with little exposure to conflicting or broader realities. This kind of media consumption fosters “epistemic closure”—a term used to describe environments where individuals are sealed off from information that challenges their beliefs.
For example, a generation that grew up relying on a few trusted media outlets may view newer platforms with skepticism. In contrast, younger generations are exposed to constant streams of information that are personalized to them, which can make individuals more entrenched in their own realities. The 2016 U.S. election was a key expose of how deeply these bubbles can polarize individuals across generational and ideological lines, resulting in groups that hold entirely different worldviews despite living in the same society .
The decline of traditional industries, shifts in the economy (such as automation), and growing income inequality have led to an environment where some generations, especially older ones, feel economically displaced. They might hold onto views that reflect a past era of prosperity or stability, resisting newer economic realities that younger generations face. This resistance creates a divide, where older individuals may undervalue or dismiss the difficulties of navigating today’s volatile job markets, mental health struggles, or the housing crisis, all of which are more visible to younger generations.
Economic precarity can lead individuals to double down on the belief that their past experiences or values are superior, because acknowledging new realities would threaten their understanding of success. For instance, the stereotype of millennials being “lazy” or “entitled” is a common refrain from older generations who overlook the larger structural challenges this cohort faces, including higher education debt and housing market barriers.
Some sociologists argue that we are living in an era of cultural narcissism. This term, popularized by Christopher Lasch, reflects a society increasingly focused on self-interest, individualism, and personal validation over communal concerns or empathetic understanding. The digital age, with its emphasis on personal branding and constant reinforcement through social media likes and shares, fosters environments where personal opinions become central to identity. This amplifies the phenomenon where people value their own beliefs more than objective or communal truths.
In a world where validation comes through likes, shares, and comments, the act of being “right” or seen as an authority can matter more than facts or empathetic engagement. This trend can be seen in phenomena like the anti-vaccine movement, where personal beliefs and anecdotal evidence are held up against decades of scientific research. Such movements are prime examples of how opinions can be valued over empirical reality, often exacerbated by misinformation campaigns.
Another key factor is the trauma carried by certain generations, particularly those who lived through wars, economic downturns, or major cultural shifts. These experiences can lead to rigid worldviews and a strong sense of nostalgia for the past. For instance, the “Greatest Generation” or Baby Boomers may reflect on post-war economic prosperity and cultural cohesion with nostalgia, seeing it as the ideal time period. As a result, they may struggle to empathize with newer generations that face entirely different sets of challenges (such as mental health crises or climate change).
This intergenerational trauma manifests as a resistance to change, with older generations sometimes clinging to values and beliefs from their era, regardless of the reality faced by younger people. Their lived experiences, however valuable, may be outdated in addressing the modern-day complexities of globalization, technological disruption, and environmental degradation. This resistance is often dismissed as a “generation gap,” but it reflects a deeper inability to reconcile changing realities with entrenched beliefs.
Empathy Deficits and Hidden Challenges
Empathy deficits become especially pronounced when people face challenges that aren’t visible or well understood by others. Neurodiversity, mental health issues, and chronic illnesses often fall into this category. A society that doesn’t openly discuss or validate these experiences can lead individuals to dismiss others’ struggles as overreactions or personal failures. Autism spectrum disorders, anxiety, and depression are classic examples of conditions that, without awareness and empathy, may be trivialized by those who don’t experience them directly.
For instance, older generations might struggle to understand the increased focus on mental health today, viewing it as a sign of weakness compared to the stoicism valued in their time. This lack of empathy can be devastating for families or individuals dealing with invisible challenges, leading to increased social isolation or conflicts, as seen in cases of neighborhood disputes or workplace tensions.
Studies show that empathy has decreased significantly over the past few decades, with younger people today scoring lower on measures of empathy than previous generations. This decline is linked to factors such as increasing urbanization, digital communication, and social media, which may limit face-to-face interactions and thus hinder the development of empathetic skills . When society shifts away from communal living and toward individualism, people may become less concerned with understanding others’ struggles. As empathy erodes, people’s opinions about what “should” happen in their communities or environments are prioritized over the lived realities of those facing unseen difficulties.
Generational attitudes that prioritize personal opinions over reality, especially when faced with challenges that are invisible to them, can become more exasperated as social, economic, and technological conditions shift. Lack of empathy across generations leads to growing disconnects in how people understand and engage with societal issues, often dismissing or undervaluing the struggles of others. In a world increasingly driven by individual validation and fragmented media consumption, these dynamics are likely to deepen unless concerted efforts are made to build empathy, awareness, and dialogue across generations.
