One thing that is working on even me, even though I easily fall into flight-or-fight reflexes shutting down my capabilities to empathize, is “OMG I can’t believe you just said that! Must be irony right?” Such a simple “trick” and works on me every time, I instantly wonder “Wait, I just violated a rule most people agree about and I was not even aware of its existence? Better crawl back under a stone, I don’t seem to be able to keep up.” The “trick” is that censure, judgement given with such a confidence feels like actually having a strong social support behind it, even when it is not the case.
Good point! Salemicus convinced me well that anger is an emotion felt over the felt violation of social rules, thus it can also be used to generate consensus and cohesion about social rules: http://lesswrong.com/lw/lsw/rationality_quotes_thread_march_2015/c2yn?context=1#c2yn
One thing that is working on even me, even though I easily fall into flight-or-fight reflexes shutting down my capabilities to empathize, is “OMG I can’t believe you just said that! Must be irony right?” Such a simple “trick” and works on me every time, I instantly wonder “Wait, I just violated a rule most people agree about and I was not even aware of its existence? Better crawl back under a stone, I don’t seem to be able to keep up.” The “trick” is that censure, judgement given with such a confidence feels like actually having a strong social support behind it, even when it is not the case.