Transcript

MIRANDA MCKEARNEY:

So we founded Empathy Lab in 2014. And it was sparked by an absolutely fascinating building body of neuroscience research which showed that because of how our brains work when we read, identifying with the feelings of book characters helps us build real-life understanding of other people. And we wondered if society and the education system was really absorbing the importance of this research because if reading is empathy building, then we can harness, as a society, books ubiquitous presence to build empathy skills-- a hugely exciting double win.

So on our quest to find out more, we enlisted the help of some really great expert academic advisors and encountered a second body of scientific research equally exciting, which is that empathy is learnable. We’re not just born with a fixed quantity of it. Only 10% of our empathic ability is genetic, and 98% of us, the scientists say, are capable of learning new empathy skills at any point in our lives, with the obvious caveat that it’s best learned as young as possible.

So with this research as our foundation stone, we became a small nonprofit, and we’ve been experimenting lab-like with several interventions. And we think a lot about what levers society has to raise an empathy-educated generation. And our program now features four main areas-- an annual read for empathy book collection with 50 books, an in-depth whole school education program, empathy-focused author events, and of course, empathy day.

And as we grow and develop, we’re keen to cater more for early years providers. And this webinar is a marker of that future intention. We passionately believe that empathy is a core life skill that every child needs. Not a fluffy thing. And that it’s a powerful catalyst for a better future, the root of real understanding and real kindness.

And my goodness, as Sarah said, if ever there was a time to be focusing on empathy, it surely has to be now. The pandemic, I think, has shown how very different and unequal people’s lives are and how important it is that we understand what other people are going through. And so many of our children will have seen their communities acting on that and looking out for each other. We’ve seen a huge wave of community caring. And we believe that offers very precious building blocks for a better future.

So Empathy Lab’s overall aim is to raise an empathy educated generation, young people who are inspired to lead a new empathy movement and build a less divided world, a generation who our work aims to take on a seven-step journey, from knowing what empathy is right through to putting it into action, happier children, who as a result of going on this journey, become wonderful citizens, wonderful parents, at the heart of building strong communities and a more civil society.