Fan Casting Lack of Empathy in Sort by Tropes

A lack of empathy is a major character trait, one that drives many others. Real-world disorders with the same names inform this trope, but the relationship is very loose. These characters may feel fear, but not the fear of others, regardless of the situation. Note that a character who lacks empathy can still be perfectly capable of cognitive empathy; that is, the ability to recognise and identify an emotion — they might not be able to share in somebody's happiness or sadness, but they have learnt well enough what happiness or sadness looks like, and coupled with the lack of remorse, this tends to result in a ruthlessly effective Manipulative Bastard.