Empathy

It may be said against assertions of human egoism that, cruelty and sadism apart, humans are sincerely distressed by the suffering of others.

And it is obvious this motivates a great deal of charity and at least plays a role in the heroic rescues we so often hear about that are so much praised.

But it more commonly motivates avoidance.

Particularly but by no means only when one is unable to help - more usually when we are unwilling to incur the costs or run the risks - , one mentally or physically averts one's gaze.

Unable to effectively ignore, avoid, escape, or blot out the spectacle, people not infrequently become angry at the source of their distress and sometimes end their discomfort in another way.

We read of parents killing infants they could not quiet or lull to sleep.

And of mercy killings.

Too, the cruelty and sadism we set aside are far from nothing and, together with cool indifference to the fate of others, explain far more of human conduct and affairs than sympathy, empathy, benevolence, or all of them at once.

In all these things, women differ from men, physical strength aside, only by being greater and more shameless hypocrites.

And perhaps more susceptible.