Urgent: 5 Reasons why developers lack empathy?

Special Request #3

The developer community has built a culture of elitism, exclusion and toxicity. This can be argued for various reasons but more is coming to light as technology develops. I was formally a virtual design construction engineer in the construction technology industry and it was no different. Since I've been exploring collaboration and empathy and wanted to share some interesting finds.

1. Women are more empathetic than men. Studies found that genetics can contribute to empathy. Women are on average more empathic than men, scoring an average of 50 (63%) vs 42 (53%) for men. According a global software developer survey, 91.5% of developers are men, highlighting the high likely hood that many developers you would meet will lack empathy.

2. The Empathy Delusion. The marketers that market the products develop do not have a proficient understanding in experiencing the world in somebody else's shoes. This encourages us to keep developing products without truly understanding the users.

3. The 80:8 Rule. In a study of 400 organisations by Bain Management, 80% believed they are delivering a superior experience to customers. Only 8% of their customers agreed. Whether you're an entrepreneur or employed by a company, chances are you believe your providing a better service for your users than you actually are. Not only is this out of touch with how your users really feel, it reinforces a culture that lacks empathy.

4. Empathy levels are falling. The average American today is 75% less empathetic that the average American 30 years ago. This includes the average American developer.

5. "Compassion fatigue". Some have argued the limits of empathy. There are psychological impacts to constantly being empathetic. It can be exhausting.

What are your thoughts? Do developers lack empathy?

Sources:
https://hbr.org/2016/01/the-limits-of-empathy
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-016-9573-7
https://www.dropbox.com/s/45r0cl32hs2rma9/University of Michigan - Sara Konrath (2011) Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time - A Meta-Analysis.pdf?dl=0
https://media.bain.com/bainweb/PDFs/cms/hotTopics/closingdeliverygap.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1c8mgajh5ucnjjr/Reach (2019) The Empathy Delusion.pdf?dl=0