All humans feel emotions, especially fear, anger, frustration, sexual desire, envy and loneliness. These are all hardwired into our psyche to improve our chances of survival as individuals and as a member of a species. However, the intensity of these emotions varies significantly across individuals
The term “empathy” is used to describe our emotional connection to the emotions of others. When watching a person on television, grieving over the death of their child, almost everyone feels a sadness. This happens, for almost all people, independent of their intellectual abilities. Even in movies or fictional stories, we weep and celebrate with the protagonist. Many of us, except possibly some avid hunters, cried when Bambi’s mother was shot. This natural empathy was embedded in our DNA as a survival advantage because it bonded together those within a “tribe” or community endowing them with strength through unity.
Yet, when someone outside our tribe is experiencing pain or suffering, many will have no empathy or may even feel joy, as when a soldier in an opposing army is killed. Some people are even happy to see a member of an opposing football team become injured, when it enhances the chances of their team winning the game. So it’s possible for people of all intellectual levels to understand that another person is suffering, to understand what it feels like, and yet not feel that emotion at the time.
Of course, we all have different levels of empathy and it doesn’t seem to correlate with intelligence. Many highly intelligent people may feel extreme depths of empathy, anger, fear or love. However, there are also highly intelligent people who suffer forms of autism (autism spectrum disorder–ASD) that reduce significantly their capacity for human connection through empathy or the expression of love. Such people may understand emotions at a cerebral level, recognizing when someone is happy, sad or angry by observing their facial expressions or tone of voice, but they may not know these emotions at a visceral level.
Serial killers like Ted Bundy are said to suffer from what is classified as antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Such people can experience emotions, yet they have little or no empathy for their victims and exploit human emotions to manipulate others. Similar antisocial personality behavior was seen in Ted Kaczynski, the “unabomber.” He was very intelligent, but seemed to lack empathy for those he killed and injured. Both Bundy and Kaczynski felt some emotion, and also understood emotion at the cerebral level, but they also exuded very low levels of empathy.
