ayearlivedintheheart

What is sympathy?

A feeling of concern for another person, or sympathy, is based on a comprehension of the unfortunate situation and emotional state of another. It often accompanies feelings of pity for the distressed other.

Sympathy is different from empathy, which is more of an “emotional contagion.” If you feel like crying when you see someone else cry, you are experiencing empathy. You might even be overwhelmed by that person’s distress.

And unlike empathy, sympathy involves some distance. So, rather than being overwhelmed, feelings of sympathy might allow individuals to engage in prosocial behaviours, such as helping or sharing.

We start to show concern for others from very early on. For example, babies show basic signs of concern for others in their distressed responses to another infant’s cry, although in the case of babies, it might also be possible that they do not fully understand the self as a separate entity from others. So, their cry might simply be a case of emotional contagion.

Either way, these are early forms of how we show concern. Later in our lives, these advance into more sympathy experiences. Rather than just crying for the other crying baby, children begin to think about ways to alleviate the baby’s distress.

This sympathetic response becomes possible because they start to incorporate cognitive understanding of the situation the other person is in. Sympathy goes beyond mere feelings of sadness for others’ distress. Rather, it guides our actions.