Lerner claimed modern people possess psychological empathy that traditional people lack
Evidence
Daniel Lerner, author of the highly influential book The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East, argued that people who live in modern societies are distinguished by their personalities, which he explained in psychological terms. Modern individuals have “empathy,” which allows them to see themselves in the shoes of others and therefore to visualize and make possible social mobility. Traditional individuals do not have this capacity and are therefore in need of Western influence to help them shed their old, static ways. Lerner’s method of analysis was based on social scientific methods even while they reproduced Orientalist racist propositions. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 250
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines Lerner’s empathy concept: a supposedly modern psychological capacity that traditional individuals lack, warranting Western intervention.
- XREF: connects to: Modernization theory pathologized Middle Eastern people as lacking empathy — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 250; Racism shows natural affinity with anti-modern emotions — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 181; Novel-empathy rhetoric can flatter Western readers while denigrating another culture — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 235 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Modernization theory pathologized Middle Eastern people as lacking empathy
#corroborates(0.88) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 250 - Western industrialized populations are psychological outliers at the extreme end of a human spectrum
#corroborates(0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 189 - Novel-empathy rhetoric can flatter Western readers while denigrating another culture
#complicates(0.78) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 235 - Racism shows natural affinity with anti-modern emotions
#expands(0.72) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 181