Are you capable of empathy?

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Ah...sorry...was thinking out loud...

That was directed to the one who accused me of lying.

Is that purely an assumption? How did you reach that conclusion? Many abilities have variations, for example.

In addition, research on empathy, especially in autistics, shows large standard deviations on measures of this ability (I can provide references if requested).

Degrees of empathy are irrelevant to the poll. If a person scored 1 of 1,000,000 on a hypothetical scale of empathy, he or she is still capable of empathy.

I have a third option:

I do not know. To know a thing, one must be sure they are experiencing it and not a reaction caused by societal expectations. If you were raised by wolves and had never seen a human, could you feel for an injured human that you encountered in the wild? If one experiences no empathic reaction when stumbling across this strange new being, would one be considered to be devoid of empathy?

I believe empathy to be a learned trait in this regard. If you are raised with these humans AND are able to identify with them as you do with yourself, you may exhibit empathy that you have no control over. Similary you may exhibit empathy towards something you personally identify with that is not human.

The rare scientific evidence in this regard (I cite the "real life Tarzan" child and the case of the child "Dani" who was raised in a closet) would seem to support this conclusion.

Logically, therefore, this question may not necessarily reveal the presence or absence of empathy towards humans, but rather a failure of the mechanism that allows us to identify with and as humans.

You may find this site of interest: http://www.feralchildren.com/en/index.php

Does the poll apply for all times as well? For example, the ability may be completely absent due to a certain variation (due to injury, for example) in the brain, but that might not have always been the case.

How would I know?

I can imagine what another person may be experiencing if it is explained to me in words and if it is something which I have experienced, or some close approximation.

Otherwise, probably not, at least not in the sense of being able to quickly assess things by just looking at people, especially in the absence of situational context. Is this information just supposed to magically zap over from one person's head to another, without either having to bother saying something? Is that how communication is supposed to work? Could my probable failure to meet others' expectations actually be a product of someone else's unrealistic model for how information is transferred? I am sure I was worse with this when I was younger (fewer experiences). My empathy may in fact have been zero at some point.

I know there are people who think I'm insensitive because of my tendency to play "devil's advocate" sometimes with problems I haven't experienced firsthand, even though I'm not really joking or trying to be mean.

Last edited by sgrannel on 02 Jun 2009, 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I always understood empathy as the ability to physically feel someone's distress. If I see someone being humiliated I feel humiliated too. I physically feel the shame. Hearing about that distress is different- I think sympathetically but my body feels detached.

So you're insisting that I just answer "yes" in the poll and not give any additional information or feedback? That makes for a rather dull discussion. I prefer analysis over rigid black-and-white thinking.

I can empathize easily with some people and not at all with others. I can make sense of people who think and feel in similar ways to me.

Quote me where you fell under the impression that I discouraged additional information and feedback, because I cannot see the remotest implication of such in your present quote.

I was unveiling the simplicity of the question in the poll. Feel more than free to relate empathetic experiences in this thread. Even discuss degrees.

That is the last time I explain myself on the matter.

Nope, I cannot even feel bad for someone or feel sympathy, let alone EMPATHY!

I voted no, after reading your definition of empathy.

I've already written this in another thread but I'll repeat it here.

I can acknowledge a person's emotions, understand the events that lead to their emotional and/or mental state and comfort them (although this is a forced response). I can picture myself in their place by theorising how I would interpret and react to their experiences, remember how I felt if I have been or am in a similar situation but I don't and can't feel the same emotions they experience unless it's coincidental.

Not taking account of all times, I voted no. I am currently incapable of empathy and have been for a few days at the very least, though I have no reliable objective measures to go by. I am sure my mirror neuron system, for example, would have been activated to an extent, though I was not consciously aware of it, and I do not know the threshold at which any measurements of activation would be considered empathy.

I am capable of empathizing from a purely intellectual standpoint. I've experienced joy, so I know what it's like when somebody else experiences joy. Empathy specifically defined as some kind of emotional synergy within a group is something I'm not capable of.

I guess it's much like emotions in general. I feel emotion, but it's normally difficult for me to express that emotion. Likewise, I can feel empathy inside of me, but it's hard for me to express that empathy, which can yield some people into thinking that I don't feel empathy solely because I'm not expressing it.

I may be able to feel the experience but being able to express it is another matter. I am always awkward at those times and anything I would say would come out sounding insincere.