<p>A substantial amount of research demonstrates that we sometimes discriminate against members of certain social groups, even in the absence of an intention to do so. One possible remedy to this kind of discrimination may be empathy. Perhaps, if we better understand what other people feel and think, and cultivate empathic feelings like sympathy and compassion, we will be less implicitly biased against them. In this paper, we critically reflect on the studies that have investigated this relationship. We argue that in order to establish whether empathy really helps to overcome implicit bias, critical questions about the conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement of empathy and implicit bias need to be addressed first. In the second part of the paper, we reflect on the character of implicit bias and the role empathy may play in diminishing it, and argue that the relationship between empathy and implicit bias is not straightforward.</p>