It’s difficult to deal with someone who lacks empathy, especially if this person is your parent, sibling, or romantic partner. They don’t understand how your actions make you feel, so be careful around someone who shows a few of these 17 unempathetic traits.
Highly Judgmental
A person who lacks empathy doesn’t consider how difficult it is to complete a task or how impossible it is to avoid a mistake. They never give you the benefit of the doubt, rush to critical conclusions, and will have harsh, unfavorable opinions about others, even when it’s unnecessary.
Ignoring The Effects of Their Actions
Unempathetic people don’t care about how their words or actions make you feel, as they don’t know how to put themselves in other people’s shoes. For example, a person who lacks empathy might use your clothes as surface cleaners without feeling remorse, regardless of whether it was a mistake.
Calling Others Sensitive
Downplaying your emotions by calling you sensitive is a classic move from someone with no empathy. They gaslight you into thinking you exaggerated your reaction, especially if it’s something they’ve done to you. Time explains that this is manipulation to “cause confusion and sow seeds of doubt.”
They’re Unforgiving
You never want to offend unempathetic people because they’ll hold grudges against you for the longest time. When you make mistakes around them, they will judge you harshly, and you’ll never hear the end of it for years to come. They don’t believe that anyone is above mistakes.
Closed-Mindedness
People who lack empathy don’t recognize that humans are different in how they think and act, and they’ll never agree with different opinions. They see their own perspectives as the only valid views to be followed—it’s either things are done how they wish, or you’re doing them poorly.
Impatience and Poor Timekeeping
If someone doesn’t care if they inconvenience you just to save time, they have no empathy. They leave you hanging at difficult moments because they “have somewhere to be” without considering how much you need them. Despite your patience, they’ll never reciprocate it, and they’ll become angry if you’re late.
They Always Misinterpret People
People with no empathy also misinterpret your actions because they are unable to understand emotions, impatient to hear explanations, and close-minded to recognize exceptional cases. This makes them difficult to deal with and, hence, becomes a catalyst for constant conflict in the relationship.
Immense Selfishness
Business Insider reports that “self-centered people usually lack empathy… they struggle to put themselves in others’ shoes.” It’s a common trait of the unempathetic to be extremely self-centered, especially at the expense of others. They never see how their greed affects a group of people as long as they benefit from it.
Never Apologizing
When they do something wrong, unempathetic people do it without considering how you’ll feel, and when you complain to them, they don’t care. Even if they know how you feel, they’re not remorseful for it and will never apologize, only making excuses to justify themselves instead.
Redirecting Blame
Unempathetic people don’t just deny their involvement in their faults. They also choose to blame someone else, ignoring how it could stain that person’s personality. Sometimes, they even flip complaints and blame you despite them being the bad guy.
Poor Listening Skills
Whether consciously or unconsciously, someone with no empathy will never give you a listening ear about your grievances, especially if it’s about them. Anytime you bring up issues that bother you, they will instead choose to talk about how they feel instead of responding thoughtfully.
Inappropriate Responses
Tell them you just lost a friend or your dear dog, and they’ll reply, “Oh, that’s bad. It happens,” instead of showing empathy. They don’t know how much weight their words hold or even how their words have different meanings in different contexts. They smile at your painful revelations.
Emotional Dysregulation
A study published by the NLM shows that emotional dysregulation directly correlates with reduced empathy. This describes the difficulty of managing emotions, whether good or bad. For example, you can never predict how this person will react to your actions, or they may experience a change of mood without any necessary trigger.
Disrespecting Boundaries
Unempathetic people don’t mind disrespecting boundaries that hurt you. For instance, they might smoke around you despite your making it known that you don’t like it. Of course, they will make sure you respect their own boundaries, even if these boundaries are overbearing.
They’re Condescending
Being condescending is another clear trait of someone who has little empathy. This may be masked through backbiting or gossip, but they still won’t shy away from making condescending remarks directly to your face or to anyone else around them.
They’re Dishonest
Research shared by Notre Dame explains that there’s a direct correlation between dishonesty and a lack of empathy. People who lie or cheat separate themselves from others and how they may feel while making decisions. This emotional detachment makes it easier for them to be dishonest without remorse.
Narcissistic Tendencies
In the worst case, people with no empathy will show straight-up narcissistic tendencies. He or she suffers from a personality disorder that gives them an overinflated sense of self-importance. They seek undeserved admiration, they’re envious, and they’re entitled to everything you’d love to have for yourself.
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