What Is Sympathy?

• Sympathy forms an invisible link between people.
• Sympathy motivates us to help other people.
• A lack of sympathy could one day lead to the destruction of the human race.

In the dictionary sympathy is defined as the identification with, or the experiencing of, another persons feelings, thoughts or attitudes.

Put another way, sympathy is like having an invisible link with someone, which allows you to feel what they are feeling and experience what they are experiencing.

In this article we are going to be looking at why this is important, and how the level of sympathy you feel towards someone can have both a positive and negative influence on your behaviour.

So to begin, let’s start by examining some of the benefits sympathy has on us as individuals and society as a whole.

The Benefits Of Sympathy

When we feel sympathy and emotionally resonate (feel the same way) with another person, we become motivated to help them.

Sympathy therefore has a very beneficial effect on society, as it enables us to get along together whilst motivating us to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Infact this desire to help other people may actually be built into our DNA, as if we look at society as a whole, the only way it can survive is through its people working together and helping each other.

If we did not experience sympathy and were not motivated to help each other, we would live in a “free for all world” where everyone would have to fend for themselves and where the strong would prey on the weak.

So even though at times you may think you receive no direct benefit from displaying sympathy towards another person, the indirect benefit you receive is a relatively stable and peaceful society.

Levels Of Sympathy

Although sympathy seems to be a natural human reaction, we tend to feel more sympathy towards the people we care about the most, and less sympathy towards the people we care about the least.

For example, if we look at the relationship between a mother and her child, we can see that there exists a very strong bond between the two.

Should one member of this relationship experience pain or distress, the other is likely to also experience that pain or distress.

Once they experience this pain, they then become motivated to help the other person so that they can end that pain, and by doing so, end their own pain.

This example shows just how powerful sympathy can be in generating emotional resonance, as it can cause us to not only feel the emotional pain, but also the physical pain of people who we are close to.

Low Levels Of Sympathy

If we now look at relationships where no bond exists between two individuals (such as between two strangers), we can see just how dangerous of an effect lacking sympathy can have on human behaviour.

For example, if you hate another person or through social conditioning are made to hate a certain group of people, your lack of sympathy towards them can cause you to do the most terrible things.

One such example can be found during World War 2 where a lack of sympathy combined with a socially conditioned hatred, lead to the persecution and murder of millions of innocent Jews.

In today’s society we see something similar, only this time it’s terrorists, whose lack of sympathy towards people who do not agree with their beliefs allows them to kill innocent people throughout the world.

What Influences The Level Of Sympathy We Feel?

The level of sympathy you feel is generally determined by the level of love and caring you have for another person.

For example, you are more likely to empathise with your own child, than someone else’s child. You are more likely to emphasise with a close friend than a complete stranger, and you are more likely to emphasise with your neighbour than someone who lives in a different city or country.

So as a general rule just remember that the more you care about a person, the more likely you are to feel sympathy towards them and the more likely you are to help them out in times of need.

Similarity & Sympathy

Another factor which determines the level of sympathy we feel is how similar another person is to us.

The more we have in common with another person, whether it be their physical appearance, religious beliefs or nationality, the more likely we are to associate and empathise with them.

This natural tendency to emphasise with similar people seems to be hardwired into our DNA, as it allows us to form groups with similar people for safety and avoid dissimilar people who could potentially cause us harm.

Throughout history this sympathy from similarity has naturally lead to both wars and peace, as communities were pulled together or pulled apart depending on how similar they were to each other.

In today’s modern world things haven’t changed that much, as we see still wars occurring between dissimilar groups of people.

On a more localised scale, a lack of sympathy between dissimilar people can be found with different racial groups. For example, whites and blacks, whites and Asians or variations of all of these.

A lack of sympathy is also very evident between supporters of different sports teams. Football (soccer) violence is a very obvious example of this.

As these examples show, sympathy can have both positive and negative consequences on society. It can bring groups of similar people together for safety, but at the same time put them in danger as they fight against groups of dissimilar people.

It certainly is ironic that the very thing which has allowed humans to survive for so long, is also the very thing which could one day lead to our ultimate destruction.

Fear And Sympathy

Fear and sympathy are closely interrelated, because whenever someone else becomes afraid we also become afraid, either for our own safety, or for their safety.

The fear we experience then motivates us to help them out in some way, so that they can avoid or prepare for the danger they face.

For example, if a boy gets bullied at school and tells his older brother what’s happening to him, the sympathy generated by that fear will motivate the older brother to take action against the bully to protect his younger brother.

In exactly the same way sympathy can enable nations to bond together against a common enemy, so that an attack against one nation becomes an attack against all those nations. This is how World War 2 started.

In the next article we shall continue by looking at what sympathy is, and how you can respond appropriately to the feeling of sympathy.