This is fascinating. There are some indications that kindness and empathy may be based upon genetic markers related of the Double G phenotype associated with the body’s oxytocin receptor. Oxytocin, a hormone, is known to be linked with trust, love and social recognition.

The key study found that not only does there seem to be consistent self-evaluation of social kindness related to the presence of the genes but that outsiders were able to spot gene carriers based upon impression of kindness or social empathy, typically within twenty seconds.

It isn’t an either or proposition though as some folks with the GG combination still don’t come off as very empathetic and some without do. Of course, these could be learned masking behaviors.

I would suspect that sociopaths do not have the gene markers (the very nature of psychopathy is a lack of emotional empathy) but many learn to mimic social kindness as a manipulation tool (taking advantage of Cialdini’s principle of influence related to friends or rapport). Hmmm, methinks taking this research forward may some day result in a genetic test for psychopathy (other markers would have to be found that are unique though).

Obviously, this study only gets the ball rolling and a lot more work would have to be done to improve accuracy but I would imagine that such work could bear useful fruit.

See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/kindness-genes-caring-trustworthiness_n_1093483.html for an excellent resource post on the subject or the likes of http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/14/8801948-empathy-may-be-in-your-genes-and-on-your-face for a more typically newsy summary.

All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com