0 the quality of being vicarious (= experienced through the activities of other people, rather than by doing something yourself):
One of the most harmful kinds of vicariousness is a parent's living out fantasies through a child.
Art can offer vicariousness (the illusion of direct experience).
The vicariousness of activity, often seen in group-living animals, is also symptomatic of the innate response to emotion in others.
Finally, this vicariousness even appears at cell level.
