Are people born feeling empathy (nature) or is taught (nurture)? Question prompted because a current theme in recent US news seems to be, “I supported so and so politician until their policies (promised during their campaign so no surprise there) had a direct negative impact on my life.”
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Probably a mix of both some ppl seem naturally more empathetic but a lot of it comes from how you’re raised and the experiences you go through. Nothing teaches empathy like actually feeling the struggle yourself.
It’s both. Some people are naturally more empathetic than others, but there’s absolutely a learned component to it. The more you learn about other people and their plights, the more you’re encouraged to put yourself in their shoes and imagine what it would be like in their position, the more empathy you will develop for other people. Humans come out as pretty selfish creatures lol. Like I said, some people are more prone to be empathetic than others, but you definitely need that learned component to really flesh out someone’s empathy.
It’s a mix. Tribalism seems more built-in, while being kind to things outside your tribe seems more learned.
The irony here is that there are a bunch of “Christian” churches in the US that are actively promoting hate, divisiveness, and selfishness. I’m no biblical scholar, but I got the sense that Jesus kinda preached kindness, forgiveness, and empathy.
Edit: to clarify my thinking, I feel like anti-empathy is more taught, while base empathy is more innate.
It’s like those videos where somebody goes out on the street and finds a person who doesn’t know who the President is. They ask 500 people, 496 get it right, and they find four dumbasses. So they put those 4 people in their video.
American news is highly politicized. What you’re seeing are news organizations who want to find somebody from “the other side” who regrets their vote. In a country of 330 million people, you’ll be able to find someone who fits that description.
They’re born with a genetic predisposition to how their empathy will develop. Then, nurture influences that genetic predisposition. Some people who undergo trauma experience hyperempathy, others hypoempathy, and some experience societally deemed “healthy” empathy.
There’s no way to test the exact difference between nature and nurture as nurture is unavoidable. I would argue most people have a genetic predisposition that – if they undergo severe trauma – they’ll either develop hyperempathy or hypoempathy, most people just don’t undergo severe trauma in their lives. Cognitive empathy, being able to rationalize someone’s emotions, does not appear at birth and is taught in school; but parents have told me that their kids seem to experience affective empathy (feeling how someone feels) pretty young. You’ll also see people with intellectual disabilities struggle to verbally describe how someone else would feel, but rush to help someone who is crying (with varying degrees of success, but still intent to help). Cognitive wasn’t able to be learned, but affective empathy was.
So, imo, cognitive is actively taught, affective empathy is inherent but can develop abnormally if there are adverse experiences. But, there’s no way to test it, just observe inconclusive actions and try to understand them as best you can.
Empathy for a majority of people is taught and learned through life experiences. I know that my experiences have taught me to be an empathetic person.
Ask any pre-school teacher and they will tell you that most kids are just born with empathy. For example, if a kid gets hurt, most of the other kids will come to help and give hugs and kisses.