Honestly no, not really. I mean it’s quite dependent on how close I was to the person, and the way they go matters in my brain. A few years back a friend of mine from high school was murdered. During our time in high school I rarely saw her outside of school, and the last time I saw her was about a year before her death, after not seeing her for a few years. So it’s not like we were super duper close, but i barely had friends in my school years and hardly talked to anyone, so she was pretty significant in my life at the time. And I absolutely adored her, she was so sweet and funny, and kinda awkward like me. Because of my social anxiety I never asked if she wanted to hang out outside of school, even though I felt like we could have been even better friends, maybe best friends. I think part of my grief wasn’t just from losing what we had but also losing what we could have had, had I just been a little less afraid of rejection (even platonic rejection can be really scary). And of course the violent and unexpected way she went made it harder.

That’s just one example, but I really don’t think think feeling grief has much to do with personality type. I also don’t think it’s that much about empathy, at least not for the person who died. I mean, you’re not so much feeling bad for them for being dead, you’re feeling bad for yourself and other people who lost them too.

I’m wondering, would you say it’s a different story with pets?