Although empathy is often seen as a good thing, there are some scholars that believe that it has a hidden dark side that’s not often considered. Some like Indiana University’s Fritz Breithaupt, author of The Dark Sides of Empathy, argues that empathy can be selfish and lead to more polarization. In an interview with NPR Breithaupt speaks about what he calls “vampiristic empathy” where people try to manipulate those that they empathize with in the hopes of making their life better. He also cites Northern Ireland as an example of an attempt at building empathy that increased polarization. In the early 2000s in an attempt to diffuse religious tensions between Protestant and Catholic students, educators decided that they would start to teach both sides of the conflict. Rather than seeing the other side’s argument, students became more convince and more empathetic of their side. Other scholars like Yale Professor Paul Bloom see empathy as a poor guide for making fair and moral decisions. He also warns that empathy can often lead to burn-out in the people who are doing the empathizing.