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No, healthy people are born with empathy. Which is why childhood animal mutilation is a standard test for sociopathy.
by djtriptych 10y ago
No, healthy people are born with empathy. Which is why childhood animal mutilation is a standard test for sociopathy.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> No, healthy people are born with empathy. Most of the reading I've done seems to suggest that that's something that's developed at a very young age, and very sensitive to early childhood environment, rather something people are born with.
- djtriptych 10y agoIt's a normal part of childhood development. The original comment suggests that hate is inborn and empathy is learned - no real evidence for that.
- Retric 10y agoEmpathy is a far more complex emotion.
- djtriptych 10y agoDogs have empathy.
- sidlls 10y agoNo, healthy people learn empathy, they aren't born being empathetic. They should learn it very early, and certainly should demonstrate some empathy by the time pre-K rolls around.
- sqeaky 10y agoThis back and forth sounds a great deal like "NO U" being shouted on 4chan. Are there any sources, papers or studies indicating whether it is learned, innate or both? Sources and empiricism are what we should be resorting to, not down-votes.
- sqeaky 10y agoA down-vote instead of a link, I don't know what I expected.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- M_Grey 10y agoYou're not going to find a lot of people jumping through that hoop, given that 5 seconds with Google is all that it takes. This isn't some controversial developmental theory, and this isn't a formal debate.
- sqeaky 10y agoI am not taking sides. I may even have done some reading up already, but I want to remain neutral. I want to know why the people going back and forth think one way or the other. If I rely on my own research I might not get the nuance that a psychologist or other person with a vested interest would be able to share. There seems a great deal smoke but no light in this discussion. This is uncommon here on hacker news, normally sources are appreciated and I frequently see them brought in well before an argument begins, even on extremely casual topics. They often earn an few upvotes too.
- M_Grey 10y agoThen shed some light on it, don't spend a handful of posts complaining about it while cryptically suggesting the value of your own neutrality and what you might or might not know. Again, this isn't a controversial topic, and just a case of one poster who didn't seem to know about the topic in general, as indicated by believing that one aspect of the Macdonald triad being diagnostic for a child. So again, if you want to add to the discussion, add to it, don't try to control it.
- mcguire 10y agoAs a general rule, in scientific circles anyway, the person making an assertion is the one who gets to support it. Asking "Why do you believe that?" is always valid.
- djtriptych 10y agoIt's a complex emotion, and we don't have good tests to measure any but the most basic emotions in infants. But we do have good indicators that 12 month old babies show empathy. As well as dogs. Dogs have empathy, even for humans. So yeah, the idea that an 18 year old is struggling with an emotion that babies and dogs don't have much trouble with is a silly proclamation IMO.
- M_Grey 10y agoIt's not a test, it's not diagnostic, it's part of a hypothetical triad of indicators, in the context of an adult's childhood history. You can't even diagnose a child as antisocial, at best you'd have "Conduct Disorder".