Andrew McCluskey

the idea of empathy itself only dates to the late eighteenth century. The notion was invented by psycho-physiologist Wilhelm Wundt to describe our ability to experience another’s experience, and different, Wundt thought, from sympathy and compassion. Empathy is about the transmission of information; sympathy and compassion are reactions to that

Put simply, the masses hate experts. If forced to choose between the advice of the learned and the vague impressions of other people just like themselves , the masses invariably turn to the latter.