Why we evolved to feel empathy during pandemics and other disasters
For every trait, there is a method of distribution across populations. (Unsplash/)Peter Sterling is professor of neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and author of What Is Health. This story originally featured on the MIT Press Reader.Across the world, many of us are imagining a possible rendezvous with Death. Some are turning to common addictions, such as alcohol and drugs. A recent study found that nearly 40 percent of remote-working New Yorkers are drinking while working, and one in five are stockpiling booze. Others are coming together, figuratively speaking, to help those in great need. Still others are circling their wagons and loading up on more guns and ammo.When circumstances jolt us from our routines, we grow unsettled and anxious. Some of us manage to reset — somehow grasping that business is not as usual, that time could be short. We manage to ask, “What really matters...