The American Divide on Empathy

PRRI’s 2026 American Values Survey reveals some, uh, interesting views on whether Americans think empathy is a good thing or not. Those respondents unaffiliated with a religion were much more inclined to think that empathy is “a foundational moral value that helps build a healthy society”.

With the exception of white evangelical Protestants (42%), around two-thirds or more of all major religious groups believe that empathy is a foundational moral value for a healthy society, including about eight in ten religiously unaffiliated Americans (83%), members of other non-Christian religions (80%), and Jewish Americans (77%). By contrast, a majority of white evangelical Protestants (54%) believe empathy can become dangerous when it leads people away from building a society guided by God’s truth.

Here’s the breakdown by party:

(Btw, “not strongly agree” seems to mean “agree, but not strongly” and not “disagree”. Grammatically correct but a little confusing if you don’t read it carefully…)

See also How empathy came to be seen as a weakness in conservative circles.

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