Is empathy overrated?

Does the ability to share the feelings of another person make us better human beings?

Fans of empathy describe it as working like a spotlight, focusing us on specific individuals, driving us to feel as they do, and making us care. This sounds good, but it has its perils. Spotlights illuminate what they're pointed at, and since we find it natural to empathize with those close to us, decisions driven by empathy tend to be tribal. Spotlights have narrow focus, and so empathy is innumerate, favoring the one over the many, the specific over the statistical. It is because of empathy that we often care more about a baby stuck in a well than about a large-scale crisis such as climate change.

There are many examples of how empathy can steer us wrong. When it comes to decisions about criminal justice, foreign aid and whether to go to war, we are better off without it. But what about our personal lives? Here empathy seems valuable. Isn't it essential to share the experiences of those we love, our friends, our children and our romantic partners?