Researchers identified a personality profile that combines high empathy with high levels of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, in a finding that has complicated the standard scientific pic

The popular assumption about empathy, repeated across most of contemporary psychology, ethics, education, and public discourse, is that it is one of the unambiguously good human capacities. The empathic person feels what other people feel, understands their suffering, and is for that reason motivated to act in ways that reduce suffering rather than cause it. […]