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Originally Posted by CanadianCowboysFan
Similar is the "my prayers for X, my condolences to X" etc, the person will never see them so why post them?
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That is a very interesting question.
It is because mankind has empathy. We actually care about other people and it doesn't have to be some person you know. We do so because we can see ourselves in that situation and it resonates. We want to them to know they aren't alone and they face their problems with others. We want them to know we care about them. It is the equivalent of reaching out and touching a shoulder or hand in comfort.
Let me get scientific with you since I'm a scientist. There was a recent study of the behaviors of baboons. There was some interesting results that were unexpected. The animals who were 'nice' had greater survival rates than others. It was not dependent on their social hierarchy in the group. So the social interactions of animals capable of being helpful, nice, and compassionate reflected in greater survival rates and how they were treated by others.
Did you know there are only 5000 Snow Leopards in the wild now and they are confined to Central Asia? However, the effective global population (those likely to reproduce) is less than half that number.