Empathy is a personality attribute involving the capacity to respond emotionally, cognitively, and communicatively to other persons without loss of objectivity and identity. Empathy is linked with helping behavior and with more effective professional functioning. The aim of this study was to investigate relations between empathy and personality dimensions in special educators in comparison to the teachers of primary and secondary schools, the mechanisms underlying these phenomena, and connections between loneliness and burnout syndrome. Participants were 98 teachers, ages 25 to 56 years, including 25 men and 73 women. Thirty teachers worked with disabled children, 30 teachers taught in primary schools, and 38 teachers worked in secondary schools. The survey results showed differences in the level of empathy between special educators and other groups of teachers. Empathy seemed to be connected with personality. The mechanisms underlying the development of empathetic components and dimensions of personality could be both physiological and social in character. Empathy could protect the teachers against feelings of loneliness and burnout syndrome. It is concluded that empathy should be specially included in teachers' training. (Contains 17 references.) (Author/ND)