Like the poor lack empathy and then as you go up the bell curve empathy rises, maxing out at middle class, and then again falling as you start hitting being rich?
Like the poor lack empathy and then as you go up the bell curve empathy rises, maxing out at middle class, and then again falling as you start hitting being rich?
Maybe not entirely, but it’s a MAJOR factor.
It’s really hard to hurt another person when you feel their pain. I lack empathy for Walmart, and honestly don’t care if you steal from them, but I’m going to make problems for you if I catch you creeping around my friend’s house, because I’d empathize with their loss.
Consider the sadist. How can you enjoy someone’s suffering if you can’t recognize it?
The most wicked people are advanced empaths.
I’m on the fence here. I won’t rule out your claim, as sadism could be a perversion of empathy.
But, I think they recognize and enjoy the suffering BECAUSE they lack empathy, and it’s the feeling of power over another that drives them.
The human mind is a messy place, especially when you start analyzing psychopaths.
I’m not sure that recognizing someone’s suffering is the same as feeling that suffering. Empathy is feeling another person’s suffering as if it were your own. So, to hurt that person would be to hurt yourself.