Thanks for this article. I really love the picture. It reminds me of my sister comforting me when I am in severe distress, except that to really show that, the girl on the right would need to be sobbing instead of smiling in the picture. We also need to keep in mind that the article is written BY A PERSON from his perspective. It's a very good article, and I am glad he brings in the word compassion. But I do not agree with the author's premise here: "However, sympathy, unlike empathy, does not involve a shared perspective or shared emotions, and while the facial expressions of sympathy do convey caring and concern, they do not convey shared distress." As you've seen, the Merriam Webster definition disagrees with this notion, as do many other online definitions of sympathy. The root meaning of sympathy is sym (same) pathy (feeling). Or same emotion. Or at this link, together, pathos https://www.etymonline.com/word/sympathy, fellow-feeling, compassion. I also like it that sympathy is a historic word, and empathy is a made-up word by a German translator in 1909.