The empathy factor

[J a c k]

Mirror neurons.
Some have more active than others.

There is more to it than that. And yes, it can be learned to a certain extent,  or controlled to acertain extent. I don't think you can control the initial reaction, ever. People who need to learn empathy will never spontaneously feel the way others do, they need to see the situation and think about what it means and how to apply what they have learned. Someone who has a great deal of empathy will always feel the pain of others, but you can learn to apply concious control of your reactions so you dont just burts into uncontrolled tears. You still feel it though, you just learn to temporarily mask it.

There is some neuroscience that backs this up, but don't have time to find a link right now.

Thank you so much for responding. I'll look up mirror neurons when I get home.