Morality and Empathy

[game_byrd]

I was doing some "research" this morning on Peter Petrelli and what makes him such a nice guy. Where does a person's empathy come from? Why do they feel it? Is it selective? What other emotions are commonly paired with empathy?

I came across this TEDtalk: Paul Zak: Trust, morality and oxycotin. It starts slow, but is very good. Oxycotin creates

Comments

[asmodesgold]

This would explain why Gabriel lacks empathy, no?

Also, I can't help but think that this shows how Peter, naively, trusts other people, and why I can't help but nudge him towards Gabe, who needs someone like that.

This may sound sarcastic or something, it's not meant to, but I didn't know that your job was high stress. 0-0

[game_byrd]

Yes, it allows me to be more certain that he was abused as a child and/or early teen. I've been part of discussions about the nature of his childhood. What we see in canon is proof that Virginia was rather weird, judgmental and perhaps unstable, but those traits don't guarantee child abuse. His lack of empathy is there from the start in canon; actually he gets *more* empathetic as the series goes on

[means2bhuman]

Thank you for sharing this! So freaking cool

[means2bhuman]

And I'm very glad your stress is decreasing and your happy chemicals increasing! :) Always a good thing.

[game_byrd]

Does Peter have less testosterone than Sylar? Yeah, probably. I don't see that as anything to 'oh no!' over. Everyone exists on a range from archetypically male to archetypically female. I don't think there's any special virtue to being way over on the ends (or in the middle, as far as that goes). Sylar has more testosterone poisoning, so sad for him

[game_byrd]

Oh, and woops! about the huge and consistent misspelling on my part.

Oxytocin. Got it!