A
sympathetic cougher is a
person who feels compelled to
cough upon
hearing another person cough. The name implies
sympathy -- as in, "I sure
feel bad for that
poor fellow doing all the coughing. Hey, I know, I'll cough too, and then they won't feel so all
alone!!"
But it's not like that. More likely, the sympathetic cougher is the sort of person who upon hearing the coughing of another starts to think -- at some
subconscious level -- about what the coughing person must be
physically feeling to compel them to cough. That
dryness of
palate and
scratchiness of
throat, perhaps some sort of
irritation. Therein may, in fact, lie the
evolutionary basis for the
phenomenon. If somebody around you is coughing, maybe there is some sort of
contaminant in the
air, and maybe you ought to be coughing too to fend it off.
With
awareness and
time and
practice, it is possible to overcome a sympathetic coughing tendency, and become the sort of person who only coughs with
indifference,
apathy, and the coldest of hearts.
188-ish words, including this one, for Brevity Quest 2024