Empathy, a new genetic disease

A French-British study showed that empathy, which is the human ability to understand others and pay attention to their feelings, is a product of life experience, but it is also somewhat linked to genes.
These findings represent a further step in understanding autism, which prevents the patient from interacting with his surroundings.

The Pasteur Institute, which contributed to the study, which was published Monday in the journal "Translational Psychiatry," said it is "the largest genetic study on empathy, using data from more than 46" people.
There are no precise criteria for measuring empathy, but the researchers were based on a set of questions prepared by the University of Cambridge in 2004.

The results of the questionnaire were compared with the genome (genetic map) for each person.
The researchers found that “a part of empathy is hereditary, and at least one-tenth of this trait is due to genetic causes.”
The study also showed that women "are more empathetic than men, on average, but this difference has nothing to do with DNA," according to the University of Cambridge.
The difference in empathy between men and women is due to “biological rather than genetic factors” such as hormones, or “non-biological factors” such as social factors.
Simon Cohen, one of the study's authors, said that referring to genetics in empathy "helps us understand people, such as autistic people, who have a hard time visualizing other people's feelings, and this difficulty in reading other people's feelings can become a stronger barrier than any other disability."