Is empathy taught or learned?

Question

Is empathy taught or learned?

Answer 1

since empathy is the ability to relate to someone else's troubles because you have gone through the same or similar troubles, it definitely is learned through life lessons.  Did you mean sympathy in your question?  Now that would be a much tougher one to tackle.

Answer 2

yes

Answer 3

I believe it can be both taught directly and learned through experience.

Moms of small children, for instance, teach their little ones that hitting/biting/pinching/etc hurts the other person.  Asking them questions like, "If she bit you, would it hurt you?  How would that make you feel?  Do you think she feels sad and hurt?" teaches them to realize the physical/emotional impact they can have on each other.  That is just one example, but it's one way that I teach my children empathy.

Of course, not everyone has a mom that teaches this.  These people aren't destined to live a life without empathy.  Empathy is something that anyone can learn.  If you have a friend whose father passes away, and you've had a family member pass away, you are able to understand the pain, fear, anger, and grief that your friend is going through.  Expressing to your friend that you understand how they're feeling and offering to be there for them is having empathy.

Answer 4

I guess depending on how you look at it, both.

- taught because can explain what it is through examples.  (taught to reconize empathy)

- learned because life experience will give the ability to relate to others in similar situations.  (learn to feel empathy)

Personally, I feel it needs to be learned...you can be taught  something from a book, but you truly understand when learned through experience .

Answer 5

I believe its learned over time....but it could be taught, with out knowing that is.

Answer 6

Both.  In many Character Education classes, empathy is a major topic to be discussed.  You can certainly make students more aware of their feelings and the feelings of others.