I am in my early 50's, watching TNG when it was first out on Sky in the UK - I was always drawm towards Deanna Troi as being a kind an empathic individual with those superpowers.
The MBTI of Deanna Troi is INFJ - also known as the Counsellor (Google it).
If you don't know what MBTI is, then it is a culmination of Carl Jung's work in psychology. There are 16 different types of people (yes everyone is unique) the codes are:
Introverted (I) or Extroverted (E)
Intuitive (N) or Sensing (S)
Feeling (F) or Thinking (T)
Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)
I am an ENFJ. My wife of almost two and a half decades is an INFJ.
A bestie is an INFJ.
ENFJ/INFJ only make up 2.35% of the population: https://www.psychologyjunkie.com/how-rare-is-your-myers-briggs-personality-type/#h-the-enfj-the-second-rarest-mbti-type
Are Empaths real? Yes they are. About 15% of the population are Empaths, and most of them, over 95% are female. A male Empath is rare.
Generally Empaths keep it to themselves, and don't share that they are different.
If you don't believe in Empaths, go Google it, look at books on Amazon, or check our Discord or Reddit.
Did I believe in this, nope not at all till a 2 years ago after leaving a toxic job despite many signs. Was also a bit of a surprise to my wife.
Hope everyone is doing well!
I think women are more often empathic because most care for others. I'm not necessarily talking about caring for others as in motherhood, for one can be empathic without being a mother. It's just women are more sensitive to other people's emotional state because of their genetic makeup. That's my opinion at least. I have no scientific studies backing this idea though.