Insensitive people: what are they like?

Insensitive people are like figures who look at the world with a blindfold over their eyes and an iceberg in their hearts. While most of us connect with the emotional realities of others, there are those who do not react to the misfortune of others and often do not even care about anyone but themselves. What is behind these men and women?

The truth is that there are those who say that this is an evil of our times. Disinterest and emotional coldness seem to dominate many everyday situations. Morbid curiosity or that social indifference that makes us turn our faces and shift the attention of those who are having a bad time to the placid universe of our cell phones prevails.

Not wanting to see, avoiding responsibilities and prioritizing one’s own well-being over that of others is also a form of insensitivity.. It is a typology of hidden selfishness that is difficult to see, because in a way our lifestyle tends to narcotize and numb feelings of solidarity.

We see it in the neighbors who do not always care about that old man who lives alone. We see it in the companions of children who suffer bullying, in people who do not stop to ask their friends or co-workers why their expression of sadness and apathy is due. Life presses us and it always seems that there are more important things to do…

What are insensitive people like?

Elie Wiesel, a Romanian writer who survived the concentration camps, once described what insensitivity and indifference in human beings meant to him. “What is indifference ? -He said-. A strange and unnatural state in which the lines between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil, merge.

Insensitive people bring unhappiness and also suffering. Because Those who do not see and do not act on the needs and feelings of others frequently lead to harmful and humiliating behaviors.. By not connecting with the realities of the other, he does not hesitate to treat him in a cold and intimidating manner.

Let’s see what characteristics define them.

They practice harmful assertiveness

In a study conducted by Dr. David Watson et al. from the University of Notre Dame. (2019) something interesting was revealed. There are personalities with a type of pathological extroversion that show an obvious pattern of insensitivity. This behavior manifests itself primarily through harmful frankness.

Insensitive people apply a type of harmful assertiveness, in which they do not hesitate to tell others everything they think about them. They are the classics that tell us that “I don’t keep quiet about anything and I will always tell you the truth” (even if that truth comes from your own point of view and is harmful).

They show a lack of affection or instrumental empathy

It doesn’t matter whether insensitive people have a partner, family or friends: the lack of affection also manifests itself in those close to them. It is very common for them to apply what we know as instrumental empathy, that is, they connect with the needs of others only when they are interested.. Only when they can get something in return.

Research work, such as those carried out in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, also tells us that this characteristic is common in narcissistic personality disorder.

They tend to mock and intimidate

When a person does not identify with who is in front of them and does not feel their reality first hand, it is very easy to use mockery, irony and sarcasm that hurts. It’s more, Intimidation is a common behavior in this insensitive profile that also likes to reinforce its ego..

This often causes them to take jokes too far or touch on sensitive topics and exceed limits and ethical principles.

They have a lack of social responsibility

Insensitivity manifests itself in many ways and one is in the lack of social responsibility. Now, what does this mean? It means that it is common to see men and women who do not react to injustices, to discrimination in all its forms, in the face of manipulation, violence in any of its faces.

There are many insensitive people who don’t really know they are insensitive. We may even be this way by not reacting to those injustices that we see in our work, on the street or near us.

They are not open to opinions different from their own.

Insensitive people do not tolerate a vision different from their own., any opposing perspective or contrary voice is interpreted as a threat. This makes them profiles that are very difficult to live with and even maintain a conversation with.

They rarely think before they speak

The insensitive mind rarely meditates on what it says. He does not reflect, he does not choose the right words to do no harm, to be respectful and to enrich the dialogue. making him productive and empathetic. Quite the opposite. As we have pointed out, he usually uses harmful frankness that is accompanied by unfiltered and impulsive communication.

They have exclusive behavior

This nuance is still striking in people who are not very sensitive. They are defined by their lack of emotional awareness: not only do they not connect with other people’s feelings, but they also do not understand their own.

This means that, when they see a friend or another figure who is having a hard time, they feel annoyance and contradiction. They don’t know how to react, they don’t know what to do and in the end they choose to avoid contact, to let it pass and not react. Better to keep away those who come to you with “their problems” in order to keep your personal territory safe. Excluding others is a way to make your life more comfortable.

As we can see, insensitivity is a social scourge that highlights that darkest part of the human being.

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