When I first read the article I found it surprising because I have never read about this point of view that people can’t sympathize with more than one person before so I was surprised. I never thought about it before. The piece talks about how we can’t have empathy for multiple people because of the energy it takes to empathize with one person and how empathy can show our biases and show our narrow point of view. Bloom’s first main point is that “empathy distorts our moral judgements in pretty much the same way that prejudice does”(Bloom 2). He means that empathy can be like a spotlight in the way that it focuses on certain people. Empathy can expose our biases. People may feel more sympathy for someone who is like them but less for someone who looks or seems different than them because of apparent biases. Bloom’s second point is that we can’t empathize with everyone, but we can make them a factor in our decisions about issues. We are not able to empathize with more than one person because we gravitate towards one person in a crisis rather than many. Bloom mentions that empathy “is particularly insensitive to consequences that apply statistically rather than to specific individuals”(Bloom 4). People tend to empathize more when they hear about a single child being sick than multiple children being sick(Bloom).  His final point is that we need to control our sympathy. People who have a large amount of empathy can get too caught up in the suffering of others(Bloom 6). This decreases how much we can help in the long-run because we have to cause short-term consequences.  I do agree with his points because I do think that people empathize less when a tragedy happens in a different country or to people they aren’t familiar with. I am guilty of that myself. I find myself thinking that something is out of sight, out of mind at times because it is happening in an area I don’t know much about. But I notice when people hear about a child that is suffering from cancer they will empathize much more because they are able to focus their empathy much more on one person than many. 

His points challenge my understanding because I never realized why it was harder for people to empathize with a mass of people than with a single person. I never realized why I empathize less with a mass of people on a personal level too. Reading the article has made me think about how much empathy I actually have towards people. It made me think of how many times in my life I have shown empathy to on person but have found it difficult to show it to a mass of people.

I chose the quote “Empathy is a spotlight with a narrow focus; it shines brightly on those we love and gets dim for those who are different or strange”(Bloom 3). I had a strong reaction to this because I found this to be relatable. I say that because I think in our daily lives when we hear about a crisis going on that has to do with people we aren’t familiar with such as people in other countries, some of us forget about it. This happens a lot with people suffering in other countries such as Syria and Iraq. When we hear about a child who is sick or hurt in a town we live in we are much more apt to feel empathy and act on it. I think that most people can relate to that.