ABSTRACT
It has been claimed that emotional empathy is vital for democracy and an antidote to polarization. Empathy is a form of sensemaking, but making sense of a political opponent's beliefs and actions does not require one to adopt their perspective in a way that engages one's emotions. Active listening rather than emotional empathy is indispensable for political sensemaking and democratic legitimacy. Mutual understanding will not necessarily overcome political polarization since political adversaries might understand one another only too well. Some conflicts are actual and much worse than a misunderstanding. When socially or economically marginalized individuals appear blind to their interests, this might result from “false consciousness,” which can be defined as a mode of consciousness that misrepresents socio-economic reality while also being determined by that reality. A generalization about highly unequal societies is that they are often kept on an even keel by their ability to induce large numbers of socially and economically marginalized people to believe that the status quo works for them. However, historical observation rather than empathy reveals the truth of this generalization.
