The effects of Twitter and Facebook and all those things on people's psychologies is a really interesting question to which nobody knows the answer.

Because of empathy, stories of the suffering of one person could lead us into a war that could kill millions of people.

In my own life, I do not live like an effective altruist. An effective altruist would really disapprove of my life. I don't give enough to charity and I still have both my kidneys.

Stories turn anonymous strangers into people who matter.

The irrationality of disgust suggests it is unreliable as a source of moral insight. There may be good arguments against gay marriage, partial-birth abortions and human cloning, but the fact that some people find such acts to be disgusting should carry no weight.

I kind of like social media, and I like hearing from people. I don't like the ugly stuff, but there are some people - smart people - who have a very different perspective, and I'll get a backlash from them. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

When people want to inspire you to turn against some group of people, they'll often use empathy.