this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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Because it's taught and not inherent. And like with anything else some people are too dumb to learn.
I'm really struggling to wrap my head around it being a learned skill because it feels like second nature to me. Sometimes to my own detriment. But maybe that's because it's pretty common for ADHD folk to have high empathy.
ADHD sufferers can feel emotions more intensely, but aren't specifically more empathetic.
There is both a nature and nurture aspect to empathy, like most of our behaviors. Even toddlers share some things and gain enjoyment from it without prompting even if they are 'selfish' with most things.
This is the distinction between empathy and sympathy. Sympathy is a far older word and a synonym of compassion and what you describe in your comment. Empathy is a concept from aesthetics and psychology, though, (actually derived from the German Einfühlung circa 1909) and is really an intellectual activity. Real empathy is, indeed, taught.
If you want to learn more about empathy I can highly recommend Theodor Lipp's Leitfaden der Psychologie (a work of philosophy, not psychology as the title would suggest): Internet Archive [German].
Sources:
I already commented on this in this thread, but describing the concept of something and the something existing are two different things.
Sliced bread also wasn’t sold in stores until the 20th century, but people were slicing bread long long before that. People have been experiencing empathy since before we were homo sapians.
Prosocial behaviors have many origins and its multi factorial, the interplay between them are complicated. But it’s not like the feeling of empathy isn’t part of our genetic make up.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5513638/
Fascinating article, it was a pleasure to read! I learned something new, certainly. I am otherwise only familiar with empathy from philosophy.
The other thing you refer to – concept vs. actual reality, if I understand you correctly – is, of course, a very valid and big debate in linguistics; prescriptive definitions vs. descriptive definitions. That is why I linked the OED, since it is a historical dictionary. Or do you mean philosophical concept vs. physical reality?
My comment was about that prescriptive, philosophical definition of the word. But the study you link shows that empathy is, indeed, much bigger than that.
Really I didn't want to criticize the person I replied to, though – just share the origin of empathy (the word). But thank you for providing a far more detailed explanation of what it actually is!