[ShepherdKing]

Compassion is supposed to be the key reason for mankind becoming the dominant species on our planet, and with intelligence being key to survival, it would follow that compassion would be a key marker for intelligence. A lot of scientists generally fit this characterization, a classical example being Einstein. As a counter-example, a lot of people regarded as poor leaders would probably also rank low for perceived compassion.

[krzat]

Compassion towards enemies is especially interesting, it takes a lot of mental effort to go against the gut feeling.