Editing Sympathy (section)

==Child development==
[[File:Baby yelling.jpg|thumb|right|alt=|A baby will often cry at the sound of another baby's cries.]]

Sympathy is a stage in social and [[moral development]]. It typically arises when a child is between two and three years old, although some instances of empathic emotion can be seen as early as 18 months. Basic sharing of emotions, a precursor for sympathy, can be seen in infants. For example, babies will often begin to cry when they hear another baby crying nearby.<ref name="Decety 2010 886–899"/> This suggests the infant can recognize emotional cues in its environment, even if it cannot fully comprehend the emotion. Another milestone in child development is the ability to mimic facial expressions. Both of these processes act on sensory and perceptual pathways; executive functioning for empathic emotions does not begin during these early stages. Because of this, children and young adults experience another person's pain differently: Young children tend to be negatively aroused more often in comparison to the older subjects.<ref name='Decety'/>

Sympathy can elicit [[prosocial]] and [[altruistic]] behaviour. Altruistic behaviour happens when people who experience emotional reactions consistent with the state of another person feel "other-oriented" (inclined to help other people in need or distressed).

People are more inclined to help those in need when they cannot easily escape the situation. If exit is easy, an individual may instead reduce their own distress (distress caused by sympathy: feeling bad for the other) by avoiding contact with the other(s) in need. However sympathy is still experienced when it is easy to escape the situation, suggesting that humans are "other oriented" and altruistic.<ref name="Nancy Eisenberg 1989">{{cite journal|first=Nancy|last=Eisenberg|year=1989|title=Relation of Sympathy and Personal Distress to Prosocial Behavior: A Multimethod Study|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|volume=57 |issue=1 |pages=55–64|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.57.1.55 |pmid=2754604 }}</ref>

Sympathy can be used{{clarify|reason=by whom? used how?|date=August 2023}} in altruistic situations. This can apply when the sympathy would benefit {{clarify|reason=who are "others" and how are they different from "another individual"?|text=others at a cost to another individual|date=August 2023}}.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kerr|first1=B.|last2=Godfrey-Smith|first2=P.|last3=Feldman|first3=M. W.|year=2004|title=What is altruism?|journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution|volume=19|number=3|pages=135–140|doi=10.1016/j.tree.2003.10.004 |pmid=16701244 }}</ref> This can be the case in parenting. Parenting styles (specifically, the level of affection) can influence the development of sympathy.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wispé|first=Lauren|title=The distinction between sympathy and empathy: To call forth a concept, a word is needed|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|year=1986|volume=50|issue=2|pages=314–321|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.50.2.314}}</ref>

Prosocial and moral development extends into adolescence and early adulthood as humans learn to better assess and interpret the emotions of others. Prosocial behaviours have been observed in children between one and two years old. It is difficult to measure emotional responses in children that young by means of self-report methods as they are not as able to articulate such responses as well as adults can.<ref name="Nancy Eisenberg 1989"/>

===Theory of mind===
The development of [[theory of mind]]—the ability to view the world from perspectives of other people—is correlated with the development of sympathy and other complex emotions.<ref name="Decety 2010 886–899"/> These emotions are called "complex" because they involve more than just one's own emotional states; complex emotions involve the interplay of multiple people's varying and fluctuating thoughts and emotions within given contexts. The ability to experience vicarious emotion, or to imagine how another person feels, is essential for empathic concern. Moral development is similarly tied to the understanding of outside perspectives and emotions.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Weele|first=Cor|title=Empathy's purity, sympathy's complexities; De Waal, Darwin and Adam Smith|journal=Biology & Philosophy|year=2011|volume=26|issue=4|pages=583–593|doi=10.1007/s10539-011-9248-4|pmid=21765569|pmc=3106151}}</ref> Moral reasoning has been divided{{By whom|date=August 2023}} into five categories, beginning with a hedonistic self-orientation and ending with an internalized sense of needs of others, including empathic emotions.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Eisenberg|first1=Nancy |last2=Carlo|first2=Gustavo |last3=Murphy|first3=Bridget |last4=Court|first4=Patricia|title=Prosocial Development in Late Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study|journal=Child Development|date=1 August 1995|volume=66|issue=4|pages=1179–1197|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8624.1995.tb00930.x|pmid=7671655 }}</ref>

===Innate feature===
One study sought to determine whether sympathy demonstrated by children was solely for personal benefit, or if the emotion was an innate part of development.{{clarify|reason=this is expressed as a dichotomy, but it's not clear why these are mutually-exclusive options|date=March 2022}} Parents, teachers, and 1,300 children (aged six and seven) were interviewed regarding each child's behavior.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Buchmann|first1=Marlis|first2=Michaela|last2=Gummerum|first3=Monika|last3=Keller|first4=Tina|last4=Malti|title=Child's Moral Motivation, Sympathy, and Prosocial Behaviour|journal=Child Development|volume=80|year=2009|issue=2 |pages=442–60|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01271.x |pmid=19467003 }}</ref> Over the course of one year, questionnaires were filled out regarding the progress and behavior of each child. This was followed by an interview. The study concluded that children develop sympathy and empathy independently of parental guidance. The study also found that girls are more sympathetic, prosocial, and morally motivated than boys. [[Prosocial behavior]] has been noted in children as young as twelve months when showing and giving toys to their parents, without promoting or being reinforced by praise. {{clarify|text=Levels of prosocial behavior increased with sympathy in children with low moral motivation, as it reflects the link between innate abilities and honing them with the guidance of parents and teachers.|reason=confusing run-on sentence|date=March 2022}}