Most of us have felt it, the sense that people are ruder, more self-absorbed, less willing to help a stranger. But is this feeling grounded in reality, or is it something else entirely?
The Perception Is Universal, But Probably Wrong
Psychologist Adam Mastroianni studied data from at least 60 countries and found that people have believed morality and kindness are declining for at least 70 years, since at least 1949. In every country surveyed, a majority answered “yes, people are getting worse.” Yet Mastroianni argues this is most likely a psychological illusion rather than fact. As Steven Pinker notes, rates of violence and crime have actually fallen. The world is, by many objective measures, safer and more cooperative than it used to be.
But Empathy? That Does Seem to Be Declining
Here the data is more concrete. A longitudinal study of American college students spanning three decades found that empathy dropped by 48 percent between 1979 and 2009, with the sharpest decline after the year 2000. The average student today scores lower on empathy than three-quarters of students surveyed in 1979. Stanford neuroscientist Jamil Zaki describes empathy as “under threat.”
The pandemic accelerated things further. Research shows that by 2021–2022, people were measurably less extroverted, less open, less cooperative, and less conscientious compared to pre-pandemic baselines, a shift equivalent to a full decade of normal personality development. Young adults were hit hardest, with the steepest drops in agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Meanwhile, our social networks are quietly shrinking. According to the Survey Center on American Life, men’s social circles have contracted continuously for 30 years. We have fewer close friends, talk to fewer people, and rely on them less for support, fueling what public health researchers now call a loneliness epidemic. Stefan Einhorn explores the practical consequences of this erosion in The Pragmatic Power of Kindness.
Could Globalization Be Part of the Explanation?
It is a reasonable question, and the research supports a nuanced yes.
A meta-analysis of 48,400 Chinese students found that empathy declined in parallel with market economy expansion, suggesting a negative correlation between market orientation and empathic concern. When competition and individual performance are rewarded, the social norm gradually shifts from care for others toward self-optimization.
Globalization also drives urbanization. Around 55 percent of the world’s population now lives in cities, and single-person households have nearly doubled since the 1990s. In dense urban environments, we interact daily with hundreds of people we will never truly know, and we may unconsciously learn to switch off our empathic response as a form of self-protection.
There is also the question of digital connection. Research suggests that empathy in digital interactions is up to six times weaker than in face-to-face encounters. Globalization has given us a world where we can reach anyone, but that breadth may come at the cost of depth.
Finally, globalization brings people and cultures into contact faster than our evolved capacity for group identity can adapt. Rather than openness, this can trigger a defensive “us versus them” response, making empathy more selective rather than broader.
A Reason for Cautious Optimism
The picture is not entirely bleak. More recent research suggests a wave-like pattern: empathy declined sharply between 2000 and 2007, but has been recovering among young people since 2008. This suggests that societies can self-correct, perhaps because globalization also spreads ideas about inclusion, rights, and compassion.
The Real Question
The paradox is striking: the feeling that people have become unkinder is ancient and universal, yet behavioral evidence on violence and crime points in the opposite direction. What does seem to have genuinely eroded is empathy, deep relationships, and the social conditions that make kindness possible.
Which raises a harder question: is globalization itself the problem, or is it the social and economic structures we have allowed it to build? For a deeper look at the evolutionary roots of this tension, see From Apes to Algorithms.