Not only is spontaneous empathy not necessary to make moral decisions and be a good person, in fact, the majority of morality is learning how to treat people well even when you don’t have empathy for them.

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This is just one example, and it’s very Christian, because that’s how I was raised, but:

The story of the good Samaritan: When you see someone who might be in trouble, and instead of thinking “Oh, that poor person! I’ll help them!” you think “Ew.” … you should still help them.

We tend to think of this as teaching people to have more empathy, but I don’t think that’s what it is. No matter how many times you train your subconscious to stop going “ew” at a particular group of people, there are always more people out there who you’re going to feel that way about. What we need to teach people, ideally, is to even try to care in the first place. To reconsider their gut reaction. To not assume that who they happen to feel empathy for is an accurate guide to who deserves their regard. To make a habit of thinking “What if I should care?” when their subconscious doesn’t care.