Dan Pink- Empathy

In Dan Pink’s talk with Oprah, he talked about how empathy and how people grow with it. But in the interview Pink said one thing I disagreed with, which is that empathy can be taught. I believe that after a certain age  a person’s empathy will stay about the same.   I took an empathy test where I scored 47 out of 80.  This score seems low but it is actually the average for women, 5 points higher than the average man at 42.  I did expect to be higher on the scale, though, as I think of myself as a more empathetic person.  But this made me think about others and where they would be on the scale. One person I know would be almost all the way at the top in my standards; he will always ask you about issues in your life and really try to help you out with them. Even better than that, he always knows when to stop asking questions and start cheering you up. On the contrary there are those who will put others down and be hurtful as long as it will but them ahead or make someone else feel bad for their own benefit.  In life, I believe it is necessary to try to avoid being the one who puts others down and to try to be the one who uplifts others for the ultimate benefit of ourselves and those around us.