Learn about how there are two types of empathy — and why we need both, why sturdy steel razors dull, and whether it’s possible to learn perfect pitch.
Learn about how there are two types of empathy — and why we need both, why sturdy steel razors dull, and whether it’s possible to learn perfect pitch.
There are two types of empathy, and we need both by Kelsey Donk
If steel is stronger than hair, why do razors dull? By Grant Currin
Carne, N. (2020, August 6). Hair v razor. Why hair wins. Cosmos Magazine. https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/materials/hair-v-razor-why-hair-wins/
Roscioli, G., Taheri-Mousavi, S. M., & Tasan, C. C. (2020). How hair deforms steel. Science, 369(6504), 689–694. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba9490
Can You Learn Perfect Pitch? By Ashley Hamer
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/two-types-of-empathy-why-razors-dull-and-can-you-learn-perfect-pitch
ASHLEY HAMER: Hi. You're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity.com. I'm Ashley Hamer.
NATALIA REAGAN: And I'm Natalia Reagan. Today, you'll learn about how there are two types of empathy and why you need both, why sturdy steel razors dull, and whether it's possible to learn perfect pitch.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's satisfy some curiosity. It can be frustrating to see a government official talking about a crisis, especially when it's clear they understand how bad something is, but they aren't doing anything. Can't they just have some empathy?
But really, they may have plenty of empathy. They just might not have the balance you want. That's because there are two different types of empathy. And we need both of them to really act with compassion. Those two types of empathy are cognitive empathy and affective empathy.
Cognitive empathy is the kind you often see coming from politicians and government officials. It can sometimes make people seem too cold to care. Cognitive empathy means taking someone else's perspective and being able to imagine what they might be feeling, thinking, or wanting.
So when someone clearly understands that you're having a hard time but doesn't seem particularly moved to act, they're experiencing cognitive empathy. That's not to say it's wrong. Cognitive empathy is a central part of compassion. You have to be able to understand what someone's going through to really help them.
It's when cognitive empathy is the end of the road that becomes a problem. Some narcissists and sociopaths are actually pretty high in cognitive empathy. They just use that understanding of people's emotions to hurt them.
Affective or emotional empathy is the other side of the coin. It involves feeling what other people feel. It's like when someone around you is sad and you start to cry. Affective empathy isn't good on its own either.
Medical workers, managers, and counselors actually have to be careful about how much affective empathy they experience since it can keep them from doing their jobs effectively. I mean, it wouldn't be great if your doctor started to weep while giving you bad news. Or what if your lawyer flew into a rage on your behalf? The key is too detach from some of those emotions without becoming indifferent.
You might naturally experience more of one form of empathy than another. But to really be at our best, we need both kinds in moderation. If you can successfully cultivate both kinds of empathy you can stay cool in a crisis and spring into action. And that's the most effective way to help.
NATALIA REAGAN: The first day with a new razor blade isn't that bad. It's still shaving. But it's nothing compared to day 3 or even week 3. But why is that? A steel razor blade is 50 times harder than hair, so how can stubble wear it down?
Metallurgists at MIT wondered the same thing. So they bought some razors, did some shaving, and analyze the worn out blades with an electron scanning microscope. What they found was sort of surprising.
Before the experiments, researchers thought hairs damaged the hard coating that's applied to razor blades during manufacturing. Even if you don't know about the coating, this is probably close to what you imagine happens to a blade. Over time, shaving causes the sharp edge to be worn down. Thousands of hairs cause general dulling, simple enough.
What really happens is a little more interesting. And it starts with imperfections in the blades microscopic structure. A lot of people think of steel as having a very uniform molecular structure like in a textbook illustration.
But the microstructure of a lot of steel, including in razor blades, isn't uniform. That means there are stronger spots and weaker spots. What researchers discovered is that a razor blade can sustain a lot of damage when even a single hair hits one of its weak spots, especially if the razor hits the hair at an angle.
Once there's an initial crack, that spot on the blade becomes weaker and even more vulnerable to cracks and chips. The accumulation of those micro-scale imperfections leads to the horror that is a dull razor. But it's not just razors. The same phenomenon probably causes all kinds of blades to dull after cutting much softer materials like cheese knives and sewing scissors.
The good news is that these findings might help engineers design blades that can keep their edge for longer. The researchers say that simply using materials with more uniform microstructures could do the trick. But for now, you'll have to keep switching out your razor, though it's fun to know that your stubble can do more damage than we thought.
ASHLEY HAMER: About one in every 10,000 people possesses perfect pitch. You know, that amazing ability to name any note you hear as easily as naming a color. Some say you have to be born with this ability. Others say it can be learned.
The truth is probably somewhere in between. Decades of studies have concluded that people can only acquire perfect pitch, also known as absolute pitch, as children before the age of nine. That's during the so-called critical period when kids' brains are uniquely primed to mold themselves to certain skills like music and language.
But it also requires specific musical training during those years to learn the names of individual notes by sound. But even that isn't always enough. That suggests that there might be something genetic going on.
A 2011 study found that a fraternal twin has a roughly 45% chance of having absolute pitch if their twin has it. But an identical twin to someone with absolute pitch has about a 79% chance of also having it. Because identical twins share more DNA than fraternal twins, that suggests that absolute pitch has a genetic component. But if you don't have the genes or the training, there still might be a way to learn absolute pitch.
In 1970, electrical engineer Paul T. Brady published a paper demonstrating his attempts to teach himself absolute pitch to some success. He did this by programming a computer to play tones at random except with different numbers of C notes included in the sequence. At first, the sequence contains more Cs than any other note. But these notes drop in quantity until eventually, the sequence has no more C's than any other note.
After two months of daily lessons, he finally tested himself and scored a respectable 65%. Not perfect by any means, but better than chance. Later, he attempted to use his approach to teach two students absolute pitch in two weeks but wasn't successful.
But studies since then have shown that adults really can learn to identify notes upon hearing them and even retain that ability for months afterward. And while not everyone has the privilege of learning absolute pitch in a lab study, there are plenty of smartphone apps that can teach you. Learning absolute pitch as an adult is probably like learning a language late in life. It'll never feel as easy as if you had learned as a kid, but it's a useful skill no matter how you do it.
All right. Well, let's recap what we learned today.
NATALIA REAGAN: Well, we learned that humans have two types of empathy-- cognitive and affective. And we need both to be truly empathetic. Cognitive empathy is to be able to understand what someone is feeling. Affective empathy is actually feeling those feelings. Having those both types of empathy allows us to really walk a mile in one's shoes. But a little too much of one type of empathy can be a bad thing.
ASHLEY HAMER: I know there's this book by Paul Bloom called Against Empathy. But I haven't read it myself. But my understanding is that it's about why affective empathy can be harmful because if you feel too much of what someone else is feeling, you're not as likely to act. And so it's more important to think, I guess, critically about what someone else needs and center it less on yourself?
NATALIA REAGAN: Interesting. Yeah, no. Because I mean, if you think about the idea of absorbing one's feelings, which I feel like I know that I'm one of those people-- if someone's having a hard day, I sort of I feel like I take it on.
And that's not very helpful because I want to help my friend that's going through a bad day, rather than absorb their feelings. And now, we have two sad sacks rather than one not so sad sack lifting the other one up. I see that the balance is so incredibly necessary.
But it's hard. I mean-- and just what you mentioned about those with cognitive empathy, like sociopaths and narcissists using it to hurt people, I mean, that, oh, that's evil. That's ugh.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, it's rough.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: Got to strike that balance.
NATALIA REAGAN: That's a good villain aspect to have. I never thought about that. What's your superpower? Cognitive empathy.
ASHLEY HAMER: Like, oh, that sounds pretty good. Oh, you just wait.
NATALIA REAGAN: You have no idea what you're in for.
ASHLEY HAMER: And we learned that even though steel razors are 50 times harder than hair, they can double because they have microscopic imperfections that are susceptible to wear and tear even from those soft hairs. But hopefully, this knowledge will lead to better razors that will stay sharper for longer.
NATALIA REAGAN: That is what I need. I am a-- I'm a Scottish lady. I have been told that each follicle has more than one hair. I go through razors like nobody's business. So this is a study that I could get behind. If they want to do a GoFundMe, I'm throwing some money in.
ASHLEY HAMER: Perfect. I didn't know Scottish was a hairy thing.
NATALIA REAGAN: I mean, maybe just me. I don't know. Have you ever seen a Heilen Coo, those Scottish cows?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, are they the fluffy ones with the curly hair?
NATALIA REAGAN: Yes, yes. That's me, actually. I'm really selling myself here. It's no wonder that I did a Bigfoot show. For the listeners at home, are you yeti for it?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh.
NATALIA REAGAN: So we also learned that perfect pitch isn't easy to achieve once we grow up. It's easier to learn like languages when we're kids. But scientists have used technology, including computer programs and even apps, to hopefully find a way to get perfect pitch because that's another thing I could really use. I cannot sing. Can you sing, Ashley?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, I can sing OK. I mean, it's the kind of thing where if a fellow musician asked me if I can sing, I say no because they're asking as can you get on this stage and perform and I would be like, no. But I can, yeah, I can hold a tune.
But when I went to music school, if you've ever seen someone with perfect pitch, it is amazing. I knew someone who could tap a wall or ding a glass, and he would just be able to say what that note was in an instant. It's amazing.
NATALIA REAGAN: Today's stories were written by Ashley Hamer, Kelsey Donk, and Grant Currin, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who's the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough, Sonja Hodgen, and Natalia Reagan. Today's episode was edited by Natalia Reagan. Curiosity Daily is produced by Cody Gough.
NATALIA REAGAN: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: And until then, stay curious.