Is Empathy something you can learn?

Question:At what age? Yes, at the beginning of ones life, there are many things to learn before getting empathetic. But at a certain adulthood, one doesn't need to learn empathy. One is equipped with that. Wisdom plays a great role here.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: At what age? Yes, at the beginning of ones life, there are many things to learn before getting empathetic. But at a certain adulthood, one doesn't need to learn empathy. One is equipped with that. Wisdom plays a great role here.

Yes. It is made possible by our ability to imagine ourselves in the place of others. But empathy can be practiced and therefore sharpened and it can be ignored and dulled.

Empathy is just a feeling and we can ignore it or rationalize it away if we want.

Perhaps. If someone had the say same illness or problem as you once had it would be much easier to empathize with them.It requires you to view life from their point of view.Can a man who has always been rich relate to a man who's always been poor.I don't think they could, but If the rich man had once been poor he would have know what the poor man felt like.I don't think it's something to be learned unless you've had some great epiphany in your life.

Empathy is an emotion induced by specific chemical secretions in the brain (sorry I don't know which chemical/s or what part of the brain induces it). People are diagnosed as psychopaths after undergoing an examination to detect the physical signs of empathy and compassion while being subjected to videos displaying the kinds of images which drive empathy and compassion in the average person.

Since we are a social species, it is likely that this emotion arose as it benefited our ancestors to have a strong and trusting group around them who could work together. Looking at modern humans in hunter/gatherer societies, tasks are shared enabling the group to obtain sufficient nutrients for a balanced diet. Such an emotion probably increased the success of this early in the human or primate line (perhaps even earlier).

So effectively, this is kind of like asking if someone can learn to not suffer from depression. It is the result of genetic and environmental interactions and while there may be some humans who can ignore the emotion, it is still occurring under the surface. For these people, they may be able to learn how to let go of the reasons they have for not feeling it.

http://www.percepp.com/lovempat.htm
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/...

No, you can learn to feel sympathy but not empathy empathy is something that can not be taught.

I think it can be taught...some people have the natural ability to feel this...I know I do...and it can work either for you or against you...
I find myself having empathy a lot at my job...and it makes me see things a lot differently...
Having the ability to feel empathy is a good thing...