Great post, Maha–as always. I think empathy skills are mostly developed through enculturation. Wikipedia defines enculturation as “the process by which people learn the requirements of their surrounding culture and acquire values and behaviours appropriate or necessary in that culture.” So, for example, it may be possible for someone to ignore one’s feelings because he/she might think that it is the right/conventional thing to do. I’m thinking about women’s rights in Turkey as I’m writing this. Can’t men put themselves into women’s shoes? Of course they can, but why should they do that when the society in which they live in encourages the exact opposite?