The revolution of empathy | Tati Fukamati | TEDxPedradoPenedo

Tati Fukamati is a biologist, specializing in empathy, sustainability and social innovation, and a post-graduate student of neuroscience and applied psychology. Tati founded the project titled "A Revolução da Empatia" (The Revolution of Empathy) and through this project she promotes lectures, workshops and events about the subject as a skill for the future and a tool for transformation. She believes that empathy can make the world more connected, cooperative, sustainable, fair and peaceful, and she has been doing everything to mirror that idea to more and more people every time.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

What's a world issue that most
bothers you and makes you angry?

The kind of issue that
speaks to your heart

and you'd like to see resolved.

What issue is it?

Start thinking about it for a bit
and shortly I'll tell you what mine is.

Since my childhood, I wanted
to do things differently,

in a different way,

and that turned me into
a very inquisitive teenager

very defensive of my own ideas
and of what I believed in.

I was always passionate about nature

which made me decide to be a biologist
early on at the age of 13.

I felt that my contribution to this world

would come through my love of nature.

I was one of those people

who would say they liked animals
more than people, you know?

But over time I changed,
I think I matured,

and when I finished college six years ago

I knew I wouldn't be following that path,

because the truth is
you can't change the planet

without changing the people.

So I started to understand

that the way we relate
to ourselves and to others

has everything to do with some patterns
we observe in our society

and with many of the problems we face.

The way we see others,
how we listen to each other

and how we connect
with each other has to change

if we want to build
a more peaceful, sustainable,

and cooperative world for everyone.

And when I understood
that every transformation

passes through us
and that our minds are powerful,

I decided I wanted to study
how our brain works.

So I started studying neuroscience,
and during my graduate studies

the topic of empathy came to me
as my subject of study,

almost like an intuition,
I can't really explain why.

And at that time, I still had no idea
of the whole capacity of empathy,

and I had no idea that this topic
would become my cause

and would change the path of my career.

In fact, I had no idea just how important
this topic would become to me,

that inquisitive teenager,

very defensive of her own ideas
as if they were absolute facts.

So I started to study about empathy,

which is our ability to put ourselves
in someone else's place;

to embrace their view, in other words,
to see the world through their eyes

and share their feelings.

That's when I discovered
that real empathy

actually breaks the majority
of our paradigms.

You know that golden rule
we're taught as children?

"Treat others the way you would
like to be treated."

Forget it. From now on, it's meaningless.

Don't treat others the way
you would like to be treated.

They could simply just have preferences
completely different to yours.

Empathy is about understanding this.

You know what empathy is:
that cute, loving, maternal feeling

that accepts everything?

We’ll go far beyond that concept.

Empathy is a powerful force.

Empathy is what unites
us all as a society.

We could even consider
that society, the way it is now,

is not the society that people
want to live in,

but I can guarantee you
that, without empathy,

we wouldn't be living in any society.

Empathy is a revolutionary force

that can help us change
this world we live in,

in the world we want to live in.

It's truly a hard time for dreamers,

and in these hard times, sometimes
it's not easy to talk about empathy.

Sometimes people are led to believe

that human beings
aren't empathetic by nature.

Many historians, writers, and philosophers

have written about the dark side
of human beings,

the Machiavellian, self-centered side,

and we can be led to believe,

our society is leading people to believe,

that this dark side might be bigger
and stronger than the good side,

than the cooperative or generous side.

I won't deny the events we see daily,
on TV, on newscasts,

or even things that happen
in our daily lives,

can confirm that belief,

can make us think
that humans are self-centered.

But that is where science comes in
to give people a little more hope,

because neuroscience
has made many discoveries

about how humans function
and how we relate to one another,

and these discoveries have offered us
a new perspective on human beings.

So, to begin with,

neuroscience has proven
that we're empathetic by nature.

We are social beings

and we are made to live and benefit
from a harmonious society.

We're born with structures,
processes, brain connections

that exist so that we can connect
with each other and express empathy.

We start to manifest this as babies.

You know when you have a baby
and you start making faces at them

and suddenly they imitate your face,

or you make a sound and suddenly
they start imitating those sounds?

That baby is imitating you,

and imitation is one
of the neural bases of empathy.

We can empathize because
we are capable of imitation.

This is possible because we have
a system of special neurons,

known as the mirror neuron system,

whose function is to recreate
and mirror, in our own brain,

anything that we see in others.

It could be an action,
a movement, or an emotion.

We observe ourselves in others
and it's as if we were in their place.

That's the reason why, if I were
to ask you right now

to imagine a little cut
in the middle of your finger, like this,

that came from a paper cut,

and a drop of lemon juice
right in the cut...

I noticed some of your faces
and the way you reacted:

you cringe, you make weird noises,

because in that moment
our mirror neuron system is working

and it's as if it was happening
to your own body.

That is also why we cry during sad films

and it's why we can, somehow,

feel what others feel,

because we always mirror each other.

Secondly, neuroscience shows us

that, despite empathy
being innate, it can be trained,

and this is possible due to
one of the most wonderful aspects

of our brain, in my opinion:

our brain is plastic.

This means that it can mold
and adapt itself

to all and any stimulation
that we give it.

That's why at any moment in your life

you can learn new things.

You can learn to speak a new language,
play a new instrument,

or develop any skill you wish.

With empathy, it's exactly the same thing:

from now on, if you settle on

training your empathy in a conscious way,

your brain will start to develop
specific structures,

it will start to make new neural routes,

and over time empathy will become

a more automatic
and natural process for you.

So, cool. Science shows us
that we're born empathetic

and that we can practice empathy.

But for what?

Why would we waste our time
practicing our empathy?

Firstly, I think it's because
nobody lives alone in this world,

and empathy can help us
have more profound relationships

and more meaningful ones
with people around us.

Secondly, because today empathy
has already been considered

one of the important skills of the future,

one of the important skills
of leadership of the future

because it helps us improve
other very important skills.

Empathy helps us to be
more creative, more innovative

and to have a much faster
systemic thinking.

When we can view a problem,
not just through our own perspective

but through many different perspectives,

the chances increase of us finding
a more effective solution for it.

And in this world
which is increasingly networked,

increasingly connected,
increasingly cooperative,

I think that these skills are fundamental.

But I'll say it again:
empathy is even more than this.

I asked you at the beginning

what is a world problem
that bothers you the most.

Here we have a chart
with some of the world's problems.

The problem you thought of
is probably here.

If it's not here, tell me later
so I can add it.

So, war, inequality, poverty,

intolerance, machismo,
environmental issues.

We have many current worldwide problems.

If we start to analyze,

we realize that these problems
aren't isolated from one another.

They're all systemic, interconnected,

and they always feed back into each other.

And despite being different,
they have some things in common,

they have some of the same causes,

and I have no doubt that lack
of empathy is a common cause

to all these problems.

We can see this chart
from two perspectives.

From the negative perspective,
we can even become paralyzed from it,

and say, "Wow, what a complex issue.

What can I do to resolve a chart this big?

How can I handle all this?"

Or we can look at the positive side,
the side of solution,

and think,

"If lack of empathy is the root
to all of those problems,

then we can imagine
that developing empathy

may help us solve all those problems."

I want to bring up a different concept,

which is the concept
of acupuncture points.

In Chinese medicine, acupuncture points
are points on our bodies

that have a great concentration
of energy flow

and, upon activating those points,
you're not resolving a specific problem,

you're relieving the whole system.

When we have very complex
systems like that one,

in which we cannot take action
upon it directly,

we need to find acupuncture points.

If you tamper with that,
you shake everything up.

I really believe that empathy is one,

if not the most important
point of acupuncture of our society

that needs to be developed.

When viewing this,
I discovered that is my problem,

that's what keeps me up at night.

Our crisis over relations has to do
with our lack of collectivity.

How is it that our connection
or lack of connection with some people

came to cause these problems?

How is it that some relations
are so fragile

to the point of causing wars

or violent conflicts,
caused by intolerance?

This cannot happen,

and this became my cause,
it became the subject of my work.

Since then, I have tried
to take this subject,

this broader vision
of empathy to many people

and have tried to plant a little seed
of empathy in all of them.

Just like me, there are lots of people
out there doing the same,

using empathy as an inspiration
for social transformation.

I wanted to briefly show three examples.

There is an app,

kind of like Tinder, but not only
for loving relationships,

- you can find friends there too -

that connects people on opposing
sides of political conflicts.

What this app does,

besides linking Israelis and Palestinians,
republicans and democrats,

is bring people closer
to what really matters,

what they have in common,
not where they differ.

Sometimes, empathy can also inspire
real life-changing experiences.

TETO is an NGO

that promotes the growth
of communities in need.

Through TETO, young people,
normally from higher social classes,

spend days immersed
in a community in need,

building a house for a family.

I was a volunteer for TETO for some time,

and I can guarantee that,
even more than building a home,

the connection that exists between people,

the experience and this deep
sense of empathy

transform you in a way
that will change you forever.

After an experience like that,

you won't see poverty
or inequality in the same way.

Sometimes empathy can even inspire
revolutions in technology.

This is a virtual reality
project by the UN.

The UN has created these films
in virtual reality,

where you wear the headset
and you feel like you're really there.

Through these films, you can live
the experience of a child

in a Syrian refugee camp,

or you can visit an Ebola
treatment center in Africa

through the eyes of a volunteer nurse.

Despite this experience
being virtual reality,

it is extremely visceral

and it also stays with you
as if you were really there.

I wonder about the potential of this
on a larger scale.

Imagine if everyone in the world
could connect in that way

with people they'll never meet
in their lifetimes.

And, more than that, imagine
if all the governors of the world,

before making important decisions,

could go through these experiences,
live the reality of those people.

I'm confident that their choices
would be different.

These are only some examples

of people who are using empathy
as a source of inspiration.

There are many, many others.

I'm certain that many will show up here.

All these examples
are, in fact, revolutions,

peaceful and systemic revolutions,

that are primarily changing our relations,

to change that whole system later.

In this whole process since starting
to study empathy a few years ago,

I've learned some things,

with the workshops I've done,
with the conversations I've had,

with people who see empathy
in a different way

and with the processes of change
that I have followed.

I want to share three of these lessons.

The first is that empathy
is already in every one of us

and it's already a part of our lives.

We wouldn't be here, living
in our societies, if it weren’t for that.

Then I wonder,

"If it’s already inside each of us
and it's already a part of our lives,

then why are we not
practicing it more often?

We worry so much about developing
all these professional skills,

things that we think
will be important for our careers,

and perhaps we're forgetting
one of the most important personal skills

for the world today.

Secondly, I learned that change
begins within each of us,

but that this isn’t sufficient.

We need every transformed person

to get out of the woodwork
and out into the world.

Get off the couch and out into the world
to create new projects, new movements,

or at least inspire new people,

because we can't change
the world on our own,

but, mainly, we can't change the world
just by looking inside.

We need to look outside too.

And finally and most importantly:

it's very easy to start.

The first step is very easy.

Every person in this room
in this exact moment

can start this revolution.

Every person can take on the commitment
to adopt one new habit

for more empathetic
relations and societies.

It doesn't depend on anybody,
it only depends on each of us.

And if we are constantly mirroring
what we see in others,

if our mirror neurons allow us to do so,

could it be that, upon doing so,
we'd be inspiring others

to also take up commitments
for new and more sustainable habits?

I think so.

And if more people adopt
new and more empathetic habits,

could it be that, together,
we’ll get nearer to having

a more peaceful, sustainable,
and cooperative society?

I think so.

I really believe
in this revolution of empathy

and I know the road is very, very long,

but I think that the more people
believe in it together,

the quicker we'll get there.

Thank you.

(Applause)