I can’t improve on the points Frank and Robert make, but a couple weeks ago I was noodling around on this subject and came across this

It’s from MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and discusses recent work suggesting a persons sense of morality, can be turned off by application of an EM field to a brain center called the right temporo-parietal junction.

Interesting, to be sure,…but not very comforting.

I believe most people have the capacity for empathy. Even sociopaths exhibit empathy on occasions. Maybe it has to be nurtured or taught to turn it on. It seems that empathy is apparent in women far more frequently than men.

Either way I know that many individuals seem to be devoid of empathy. I have read some things about murderers/serial killers bypassing empathy by mental compartmentalization. Personally, I have a hard time understanding this and many other psychiatric theories.

I have preached to my grandsons about the qualities of Truth, Empathy, Courage and Honor. Each one has demonstrated empathy and the other qualities occasionally. All I can do now is hope that all the qualities grow in them as they get older.

But I don’t think that was empathy we saw in the video. I think it was a bit of “monkey see, monkey do”–I’ll bet that mommy was making a sad face while singing. Not to trivialize that; some child psychologists believe that the very first human learning is conducted through the simple transaction of mommy smiling and baby reacting. The important lesson comes when baby learns he/she can make mommy smile by smiling, and thus becomes a participant in the world instead of a spectator.

The mental faculty that makes empathy possible is called “the theory of mind”, and starts developing around 7-9 months, but doesn’t become fully-developed until 3 or 4. The wikipedia article first paragraph sums it up pretty well:

Theory of mind (often abbreviated “ToM”) is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different from one’s own.[1] Deficits occur in people with autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,[2] as well as neurotoxicity due to alcohol abuse.

The article’s section on “Development” is pretty germane. This last paragraph connects that smile-transaction to theory of mind:

Recent research in developmental psychology suggests that the infant’s ability to imitate others lies at the origins of both a theory of mind and other social-cognitive achievements like perspective-taking and empathy.[37] According to Meltzoff, the infant’s innate understanding that others are “like me” allows it to recognize the equivalence between the physical and mental states apparent in others and those felt by the self. For example, the infant uses his own experiences orienting his head/eyes toward an object of interest to understand the movements of others who turn toward an object, that is, that they will generally attend to objects of interest or significance.

The “theory of mind” is, to me, a mental faculty, or power, or ability, or whatever; and like all human gifts, there’s a wide variety in how strong and accurate it is in different people. I think sociopaths have a very weak ToM, and tend to think of people as just objects in the environment to be manipulated. And of course people we perceive as nurturing and caring have lots of Tom, and it’s been observed that people like royalty have a gift for putting other people at ease. That is, “graciousness” might require empathy.

One of the dangerous things about sociopaths is that they tend to intellectually work out something like the theory of mind, a set of rules based on observation that lets them predict how other people will react and behave, and from that sociopaths can synthesize charm and psuedo-warmth. Sociopaths are manipulators based on that knowledge, but they’re manipulating complicated machines, not people.

Gotta go finish the lentils…

Are people who promote war capable of empathy? War is ultimately a series of atrocities against innocent people, after all. Are people who promote a boycott against Cuba capable of empathy? After all, the embargo didn’t affect the privileged, was devastating to the average Jose. Any empathy there? Of course not. Are people who would deny medical care to the less fortunate capable of empathy?

Of course not. They may have a bit of affection for their closest relatives, but as far as any identification with the larger nameless masses it’s not there.

Oh, they may feel a stirring if they see a picture of an abused child, that might count for a very little.

Entire political agendae are defined by a lack of empathy. “Hooray for me and the hell with you.” What is fortunate for those people is that they lack insight and introspection, cannot see that in themselves and usually consider themselves quite generous. “Oh what give the genie gie us – - – “