Do you suffer from sympathetic embarrassment?

[Tayasaurus]

Have you ever been embarrassed for someone you don't even know or care about on a personal level? And is there a proper diagnosis for this? Because more than once I've been unable to watch or even READ about something if its bad enough.

[Ad Bot]

[Pacha-]

its called cringing

[TristanLuigi]

Happens to me when watchmaking movies with characters I really like.

[Starzy]

That's exactly my problem too, though it's never really happened in real life that much, more on T.V shows and crap.

[Tayasaurus]

its called cringing

Are there people who have the ability to not cringe at bad things?

[ßlöükfáce]

Are there people who have the ability to cringe at bad things?

Definitely not me

[Bacon Pancakes]

Sort of

[AlsoSulfate]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron

tl;dr you see someone in a situation, you feel like it's happening to you, you get embarassed (or, whatever feeling)

[Caribou]

It happens to all of us. If I watch a movie and I see something terrible happening to a character I like I'd have this sympathetic embarassing feeling.

[Plastiware]

This is why I had to force myself to stop watching South Park.  Damn is it funny, but at least once an episode there's some kind of cringe-inducingly awkward scene that just makes me feel embarrassed.

[Alteration]

That's the reason I stopped watching Doctor Who. I would literally get frustrated because people have the net worth of dirt on that show. Eventually all those innocent people getting eaten up and violently ripped apart atom by atom and losing children and crap like that gets old.

[-Pablo-]

yes I do, I have this weird thing when I'm playing sports and the play is nowhere near me I will act like the person who's about to get the ball, like jumping up and down and stuff it's really weird. And when something bad happens on a movie I have to hide under something :(

[BlockoBlocko]

Well, sometimes I get embarrassed because of my friends. Other than that, no.

[Nevermind]

I felt this feeling for Miley Cyrus during the VMA.

[Yosher]

but at least once an episode there's some kind of cringe-inducingly awkward scene that just makes me feel embarrassed.

aka any scene/episode with butters in it.