Empathy is a high-IQ trait. I’d would argue you probably need an IQ above 110 to feel it at all. Most of the world even today is not that high. Back then, with poor nutrition and such, even very few white people were that high.

Most people do not feel empathy. Most people do not care about others whatsoever. Like if they saw someone on fire, they’d panic, but that feeling of
>I can imagine how terrible that must be for that other person
Isn’t there because it’s too complex of an emotion for their unsophisticated brain. They’re just incapable of it.

I spent a long time caring about others, and the feeling was never reciprocated. Is started to realize that not only does nobody give a fuck, but they’re literally mentally incapable of giving a fuck. Like the story of the Good Samaritan. Most people who passed a dying man on the road would feel nothing at all.