Is empathy a natural emotion or learned.

[Lovelife090994]

Is empathy natural or learned? I feel it is natural because we all care somewhat. Emotionally I am extremely empathetic to the point of helping others first even when I myself am broken. Is empathy something some have to learn? Or is that compassion?

[Hudor]

I feel it is inherent in some but not all i guess. I am exactly the same as you described but i know people who aren't compassionate enough who can say/do hurtful things without realising.
i think compassion is natural for everyone because we all care to some degree but empathy is an entirely different matter because it is difficult to put oneself in another's place and think in that manner.

[Camazotz]

Natural: humans relied on empathy to survive thousands of years. It has allowed us to communicate and cooperate with one another, which has been advantageous to our survival and reproductive success.

Some people are better at empathizing than others, and some may be incapable for whatever reason, but generally we are an empathetic species.

[JamesSuperBoy]

I think its natural but we learn how to develop it.

[Miserabilia]

Well empathy itself isn't an emotion, it differs from emotion. It's rather a skill, or something else. In general people are born with (and in some cases completely without) empathy.
It is possible to feel less empathy after trauma or some kind of mental issues, but in general it's always able to be there in the brain unless you were born without it.

[Gamma Male]

Natural. It was necessary for our survival as hunter gatherer tribesmen.

[Elvalight]

I think probably learned. We pay close attention to our mother/father/siblings at a very young age and I we learn right from wrong, we learn what makes other sad, usually through body language. I usually can tell at a glance if one of my family members doesn't well.

[Cygnus]

It's natural but one has to learn how to enhance it. I'll compare it to muscles, you're born with muscles, but you have to enhance them if you want, I find the case to be the same in empathy. I, for example, have little to no empathy and while I have enhanced that a little, I didn't really come with much empathy at all.