Among people in my 50-plus age bracket, “walking a mile in someone’s shoes” was a lesson many of us heard in school, particularly in parochial schools like I attended. So I could identify with this National Public Radio article by Hanna Rosin that I saw posted today in my Smartbrief on Leadership newsletter. Research by Sara Konrath indicates that our ability to empathize has declined precipitously, and empathy appears increasingly reserved for those who share similar opinions as ours. As an antidote, try thinking about empathy as a way to selfishly expand your worldview instead of turning away, argues Fritz Breithaupt in his book “The Dark Side of Empathy.”