Sympathy and responses to suffering: Similarity and variation in China and the United States

Feeling sympathy in response to suffering appears to be a universal human experience, but we know very little about how it is experienced in non-Western cultures. In the present studies, we show that sympathy is a complex emotion that has a distinct appraisal theme of wanting to alleviate suffering and that cultural variation occurs in interpretations of suffering and behavioral responses. In particular, the present studies show that sympathy is conceptualized similarly in both the United States and China (Studies 1 and 2), and that it is elicited by undeserved suffering in both cultures (Study 2), is experienced as unpleasant (Study 2), and motivates a desire to help others (Studies 2, 3, and 4). Results also revealed cultural differences in attributions of suffering, perceptions of deservingness, and behavioral tendencies to help and punish individuals who are suffering. The present findings support sympathy as a distinct emotion that responds to suffering and open the door for cultural variation in interpretations and responses to suffering, including decisions to help. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).