Misery and Company: Sympathy in Everyday Life

In a kind of social tour of sympathy, Candace Clark reveals that the emotional experience we call sympathy has a history, logic, and life of its own. Although sympathy may seem to be a natural, reflexive reaction, people are not born knowing when, for whom, and in what circumstances sympathy is appropriate. Rather, they learn elaborate, highly specific rules-different rules for men than for women-that guide when to feel or display sympathy, when to claim it, and how to accept it. Using exte...