Considering the fact that empathy towards out-groups plays very important role in intergroup relations, the purpose of this paper is to describe in detail and explain this phenomenon and its characteristics. Substantial number of research is suggesting that people are less empathic towards members of out-groups. In order to understand this phenomenon better, the constructs of compassion and empathy are clarified and social categorization, classification into in-groups and out-groups and the in-group bias, underlying process of the decreased empathy towards members of out-groups, are explained. Furthermore, relevant scientific findings connected to the neural basis of empathy are presented in the paper. Brain scans are conclusively showing that observing someone else’s pain causes an activation of mirror neurons and an increased activity of the anterior cingulate cortex and insula, parts of the brain which are also responsible for the experience of our own pain. The influence of empathy deficit on the decreased readiness to help, i.e. reduced prosocial behaviour, is also discussed in the paper. Finally, considering the fact that empathy deficit can cause serious and severe consequences such as prejudice, discrimination and insensitivity to others' pain, ways to help increase empathy towards out-group members are also presented. Some of these are positive experiences with members of out-groups or their personalization and interventions of reducing salience of out-group membership.