Anger in general reduces empathy Perceiving outgroups as not human reduces empathy, e.g. fascist propaganda Compassion to a person or animal who is suffering can cause severe anger toward a person or group we believe causes them to suffer, which reduces empathy
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen
I don't think that empathy (as a sense for the emotional state of another person) is as important as positive identification; some sociopaths are highly empathetic
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Replying to @Plinz
I think some psychological words are poorly defined. I use empathy to mean giving a damn about others feelings, which is missing in psychopathy and sociopathy. The ability to perceive and understand others emotions is actually theory of mind, which is an autistic difficulty
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen @Plinz
You are completely correct that most sociopaths have normal to good theory of mind, but by definition most are callous and uncaring toward others. In contrast, most people on the autistic spectrum really care about others feelings, but many struggle to accurately perceive them
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen @Plinz
Even many psychologists use these words a little interchangeably but empathy and theory of mind are distinct in the literature. I spent a long time studying these constructs and the brain networks critical to them in relation to traumatic brain injury
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen @Plinz
Psychological words are very often more poorly defined than words for physical behaviour. None of us confuse running and jumping etc... You using empathy to mean theory of mind would be totally fine if we had another word to commonly use for what the sociopath primarily lacks
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen @Plinz
An interesting finding in psychopaths is a reduced uncinate fasciculus connection between the amygdala (critical to fear and other emotions) and the orbitofrontal cortex (critical to decision making)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19506560/
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen @Plinz
This implies that psychopaths brains receive less information from emotional areas to decision making areas. I could geek out forever on this but will stop now
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen
When we notice that sociopaths tend to disproportionally occupy the upper strata of society, we should consider their deviations as adaptive, not maladaptive. I wonder if the non-sociopathic majority (to which I belong) may the result of breeding for domestication.
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Replying to @Plinz
Yes, there’s a view that both narcissism and psychopathy may have evolved as a parasitic personality to ruthlessly exploit others. Parasitic lifestyle is literally an item on the Hare Psychopathy checklist
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I suspect that narcissism is a self modeling defect that leads to prioritizing social strategies that lead to constant dissatisfaction, which is compensated by using these strategies even more.
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Replying to @Plinz
I think you may well be right, but a superficial self confidence could also be sexually selected for. I suspect it’s a combination of evolved neuropsychology and environmental personality. Many narcissists are highly successful too
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