I don't have much to add, as so much has already been covered, but I do think that empathy is earned.

Pain is something you have to sit with to get through, and only those who have sat through enough of it can sit with others who experience it in the now.

I'm sitting with you. We haven't met, but I am sitting with you. If you need more than that, message me. I can sit with a lot.

You lost someone and can not be replaced. But the hole continue to be there, never to be filled again. I am trying to convince my widowed sister we are going to hit three dance parties during an 8 days period starting next weekend. Every lost is different. Yours is unbearable, don't fight the tears... heal at your own pace. You will know when ready and prepare yourself because there will always be something that will remind you of your loss for the rest of your life.

ive never felt so much love ,compassion, and empathy from written words on a screen..........you are all beautiful ,thoughtful people im blown away.........what an amazing group.......
PEACE!

Wow that was a great kinda insight or whatever! I can't add nothing just wanna say that was good!

It is my sense that people's response to others pain (crying et al.) is conditioned response by and large. We are trained to some sort of compassion (from the Latin meaning "to bear pain with" ) through our upbringing. Some empathy is highly likely biological; i.e. it has apparent/real biological value.

Oh geeze... I want be able to understand untill its happened to me.... I am deeply sorry that you lost your son...

2 more movies involving parents of a dead child: PARADISE McClellanville S Carolina Melanie Griffiths Don Johnson (divorcing in real life during filming) Elijah Wood age ten comforts both parents. .....Accidental Tourist William Hurt needs help with his dead sons dog from Geena Davis. .....pouring lots of words into his travel books don't help as much as a cute dog trainer with pure love to give to HURT. ...cinema is not always escapism when a good screenplay and director bring out pure human emotion for the audience from the actors

Movie scenes often come to mind and Michelle Pfeiffer tears and red faced spouts at AL Pacino in Frankie and Johnny about her abused past a mis-carriage and infertility then deBussey Claire de Lune plays on the radio pianist with strings. ...he gets the radio to play an encore by begging : she's a waitress he's a cook (out of prison) and love can heal that ought to last

Absolutely societal/cultural. Ignorance doesn't help, certainly. There likely is some biological drive to hide it a little, though, because crying is going to take up your attention amd your mental functioning and all that. But mainly the first.

After my cousin died, I saw my aunt crying, and I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. I just hugged her and let her cry. It's hard to see someone you care about in pain and not be able to help. You ache for them, but there are no words with saying. All you have is "I'm sorry for your loss". As long as it's honest, I stick with that.

I think some people become uncomfortable because it's raw emotion, and emotions are messy. A lot of people avoid them so seeing someone publicly display pain makes them uncomfortable. I don't think it's biology. A lot of cultures embrace crying. In this country, we adopted the stiff upper lip philosophy. For some people, crying is weakness. Public displays of weakness are bad in their eyes. They may even resent you for it.

But all of that is about other people. It's your life. Cry when want. If someone doesn't like it, especially a random stranger, who cares? Only your opinion should matter in your life, as long as you aren't hurting anyone.