Jakarta, ThedailyID — In everyday interactions, you may meet people who seem distant or indifferent. However, being quiet or aloof does not automatically mean someone lacks empathy.
Empathy involves understanding another person’s experiences, feelings and perspective. It also includes how someone responds emotionally when others face difficult situations.
A person with low empathy may struggle to understand why the same situation can affect people differently. Their responses can sometimes make others feel ignored, dismissed or overly sensitive.
Here are seven signs that may point to a pattern of low empathy.
1. Struggling to See Things From Other People’s Perspective
One important part of empathy is the ability to see a situation from another person’s point of view.
Someone with low empathy may struggle with this. When another person shares something painful, they may quickly shift the conversation back to their own experiences.
The issue is not simply having a different opinion. It is difficulty understanding why the same situation may feel different to someone else.
2. Dismissing or Ignoring Other People’s Feelings
Have you ever shared a problem only to be told that you were being too sensitive?
People with low empathy may recognize that someone is upset but fail to respond to those feelings. They may describe others as overly sensitive or suggest that they should not feel that way.
Understanding someone’s emotions involves more than simply noticing that they are sad or angry. Empathy also involves responding to their experience.
3. Showing Little Emotional Response to Other People’s Problems
Empathy is not only about understanding. It also has an emotional side.
Some people may show very little emotional response when they see someone else suffering. Research cited in the source links certain callous-affective traits with lower affective empathy.
This means a person may understand that someone is struggling but show limited emotional concern in response.
4. Giving Solutions Before Understanding the Feelings
Not everyone who shares a problem wants advice right away. Sometimes, people simply want someone to listen.
Someone with low empathy may fail to notice what kind of support another person needs at that moment. They may immediately offer solutions instead of first acknowledging the person’s feelings.
5. Acting Without Considering Other People’s Feelings
Empathy can also appear through someone’s actions.
A person may continue doing something they know makes another person uncomfortable because they consider their own interests more important.
Knowing how someone feels should ideally influence how a person responds to them.
6. Repeating Behavior That They Know Hurts Others
Another sign can appear when someone continues behavior after being told that it makes another person uncomfortable.
At that point, the issue is no longer simply a lack of awareness. The person already knows how their behavior affects others, but that knowledge does not appear to change what they do.
7. Understanding Other People’s Feelings Logically
This may sound contradictory, but someone with low empathy can still understand emotions logically.
In psychology, cognitive empathy refers to understanding what another person may think or feel. Affective empathy, meanwhile, involves an emotional response to that person’s experience.
So, someone may correctly recognize that another person is hurt without actually responding with much emotional concern.
Empathy can also vary depending on the situation, motivation and willingness to understand another person’s experience.
For that reason, one cold response does not automatically mean someone has low empathy. It is more useful to look for repeated patterns, such as consistently dismissing feelings, ignoring other people’s perspectives or continuing behavior after learning that it causes harm.
