' If we hope to meet the moral test of our times then I think we're going to have to talk more about the empathy deficit The ability to put ourselves in somebody else's shoes to see the world through somebody else's eyes ' Barack Obama Empathy is the power of understanding others imaginatively entering into their feelings It is a fundamental human attribute without which mutually co-operative societies cannot function In a revolutionary development we now know who has it who lacks it & why Via the MRI scanner we are mapping the human brain This is a new frontier that reveals a host of beneficial ideas for childcare teens challenged by the internet the justice system decent healthcare tackling racism & resolving conflicts In this wide-ranging & accessible book full of entertaining stories that are underlined by the latest scientific research Peter Bazalgette also mounts a passionate defence of arts & popular culture as a means of bridging the empathy gap As the world's population expands consuming the planet's finite resources as people haunted by poverty & war are on the move & as digital communications infinitely complicate our social interactions we find our patience & our sympathy constantly challenged Here is the antidote Culminating in a passionate manifesto on empathy The Empathy Instinct is what makes us human & what can make us better humans