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Empathy vs. Sympathy: Know the Difference

Shumaila Saeed
By Shumaila Saeed || Updated on December 25, 2023
Empathy is feeling with someone by vicariously experiencing their emotions; sympathy is feeling compassion for someone without shared emotions.
Empathy vs. Sympathy

Key Differences

Empathy involves stepping into the shoes of another to experience their feelings and perspectives. It is a deeper emotional connection that allows one to understand another person's emotional state on a personal level. Sympathy, conversely, is acknowledging another person's emotional hardships and providing comfort and concern. It does not involve sharing the emotional experience but rather recognizing and responding to the pain or sorrow of others.
Shumaila Saeed
Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023
Empathy is the ability to internally mirror the emotions of another, such as feeling sadness when seeing someone else's distress. It is an emotional skill that fosters deep interpersonal connections and understanding. Sympathy, while still a form of emotional connection, maintains a certain emotional distance; it is feeling for someone rather than feeling with them. Sympathy is often expressed through words of consolation, without necessarily engaging in the emotional depth the other person is experiencing.
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Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023
Empathy is an engaged, often visceral understanding of what another is going through. It is personal and requires a certain level of emotional intelligence to authentically relate to the experiences of others. Sympathy, however, can be seen as more detached, a general feeling of pity or sorrow for someone else’s misfortune. While empathy can lead to a shared emotional experience, sympathy remains a supportive yet separate acknowledgment of another's difficulty.
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Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023
While empathy can forge strong bonds because it involves shared emotional experiences, sympathy does not necessarily create a shared emotional state but can still provide comfort. Empathy requires one to be vulnerable and open to experiencing the full spectrum of another's feelings, whereas sympathy can be offered from a safe emotional distance. Empathetic responses are often imperative in therapeutic or close personal relationships, while sympathetic responses can be appropriate in more formal or less intimate interactions.
Shumaila Saeed
Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023
Empathy can often lead to taking action to help relieve the pain or discomfort of others because of the shared emotional experience. In contrast, sympathy may lead to actions driven by a sense of duty or desire to comfort, rather than from shared understanding. Both empathy and sympathy are valuable in social interactions, providing different levels of emotional support and connection.
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Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023
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Comparison Chart

Emotional Process

Experiencing another's feelings alongside them
Acknowledging another's feelings from afar
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Nov 08, 2023

Perspective

First-person perspective of another's experience
Third-person perspective on another's situation
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Connection Depth

Deep, personal connection
Supportive, but less personal connection
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Emotional Engagement

High emotional engagement
Emotional concern without engagement
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Action Motivation

Motivated by shared feelings to relieve others' pain
Motivated by concern to offer comfort
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Empathy and Sympathy Definitions

Empathy

The capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another
His empathy for the students made him a favorite teacher.
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Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023

Sympathy

Feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune
They sent a card in sympathy to their bereaved neighbors.
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Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023

Empathy

Emotional resonance with someone's specific situation
She felt a strong empathy with the victims of the disaster.
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Sympathy

Understanding between people; common feeling
The sympathy among the team members made the workplace pleasant.
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Empathy

Understanding another's feelings as if they were one's own
Empathy allowed him to connect deeply with his friend's grief.
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Nov 08, 2023
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Sympathy

A relation between people in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other
The twins felt a natural sympathy in their shared experiences.
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Empathy

The psychological identification with the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of others
Her empathy for the homeless moved her to volunteer at the shelter.
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Nov 08, 2023

Sympathy

A feeling of pity or sorrow for the distress of another; commiseration.
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Oct 19, 2023

Empathy

Directly feeling the emotions of another person
Empathy made her tears flow at the sight of the couple's reunion.
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Nov 08, 2023

Sympathy

Often sympathies An expression of such feeling
Offered her sympathies to the mourning family.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Empathy

The ability to identify with or understand the perspective, experiences, or motivations of another individual and to comprehend and share another individual's emotional state.
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Mutual understanding or feeling between people
"Like two frightened children, we sought at the same time to comfort one another, so quick was the sympathy between us" (Nicholas Meyer).
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Oct 19, 2023

Empathy

The projection of one's own feelings or thoughts onto something else, such as an object in a work of art or a character in a novel or film.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Agreement with or support for an opinion or position
The mayor is in sympathy with the proposal.
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Oct 19, 2023

Empathy

Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person.
She had a lot of empathy for her neighbor; she knew what it was like to lose a parent too.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Often sympathies A tendency to support a position or opinion
A politician of conservative sympathies.
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Oct 19, 2023

Empathy

Capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such understanding.
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

A relationship or affinity between things in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other
"Continuous measurements of ionospheric densities ... showed a variation of noon ionization in sympathy with sunspot activity" (E.V. Appelton).
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Empathy

A paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions.
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

(Physics) A relation between bodies such that vibrations in one body cause sympathetic vibrations in another.
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Oct 19, 2023

Empathy

MDMA.
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Sympathy

(Physiology) A relation between parts or organs by which a disease or disorder in one induces an effect in the other.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Empathy

Understanding and entering into another's feelings
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

(in plural) The formal expression of pity or sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

The ability to share the feelings of another.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Inclination to think or feel alike; emotional or intellectual accord; common feeling.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

(in plural) Support in the form of shared feelings or opinions.
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Feeling of loyalty; tendency towards, agreement with or approval of an opinion or aim; a favorable attitude.
Many people in Hollywood were blacklisted merely because they were suspected of Communist sympathies.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

An affinity, association or mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Mutual or parallel susceptibility or a condition brought about by it.
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

(art) Artistic harmony, as of shape or colour in a painting.
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Feeling corresponding to that which another feels; the quality of being affected by the affection of another, with feelings correspondent in kind, if not in degree; fellow-feeling.
They saw, but other sight instead - a crowdOf ugly serpents! Horror on them fell,And horrid sympathy.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

An agreement of affections or inclinations, or a conformity of natural temperament, which causes persons to be pleased, or in accord, with one another; as, there is perfect sympathy between them.
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Kindness of feeling toward one who suffers; pity; commiseration; compassion.
I value myself upon sympathy, I hate and despise myself for envy.
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

The reciprocal influence exercised by organs or parts on one another, as shown in the effects of a diseased condition of one part on another part or organ, as in the vomiting produced by a tumor of the brain.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

A tendency of inanimate things to unite, or to act on each other; as, the sympathy between the loadstone and iron.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Similarity of function, use office, or the like.
The adverb has most sympathy with the verb.
Fault,Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wroughtCommiseration.
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

An inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion;
His sympathies were always with the underdog
I knew I could count on his understanding
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Shumaila Saeed
Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

A relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other;
The two of them were in close sympathy
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Oct 19, 2023

Sympathy

Formal expression of pity or sorrow for someone else's loss
The president's letter of sympathy brought comfort to the grieving family.
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Nov 08, 2023

Sympathy

The fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, especially in sorrow or trouble
His sympathy was apparent when he spoke at the funeral.
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Nov 08, 2023

Repeatedly Asked Queries

Can empathy lead to emotional fatigue?

Yes, due to the deep emotional connection it entails.
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Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023

Is empathy the same as sympathy?

No, empathy involves shared feelings, while sympathy involves compassion.
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Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023

Is sympathy enough to comfort someone?

Often yes, sympathy can provide significant comfort.
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Nov 08, 2023

Can empathy be learned?

Yes, through practices like active listening and mindfulness.
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Nov 08, 2023

Can empathy be too intense?

Yes, excessive empathy can lead to emotional overwhelm.
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Nov 08, 2023

Which is more helpful in a crisis, empathy or sympathy?

Both can be helpful, but empathy can create a stronger bond.
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Nov 08, 2023

Is sending condolences a form of sympathy?

Yes, it's a common way to express sympathy.
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Nov 08, 2023

Can sympathy be seen as condescending?

Sometimes, if not expressed genuinely.
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Is empathy always positive?

Not always, it can be difficult in situations like trauma.
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Nov 08, 2023

Is sympathy always expressed verbally?

Not always, it can also be shown through actions like sending flowers.
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Do therapists need to show empathy or sympathy?

Therapists often use empathy to better understand their clients.
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Nov 08, 2023

Can animals show empathy?

Some research suggests they can, like elephants.
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Nov 08, 2023

Can sympathy be mistaken for pity?

Yes, if not communicated carefully.
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Nov 08, 2023

Should leaders show empathy, sympathy, or both?

Ideally both, to connect with and support others.
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Nov 08, 2023

Does empathy require emotional intelligence?

Yes, it relies on understanding and managing emotions.
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Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023

Do you need to agree with someone to sympathize with them?

No, sympathy can be offered despite differences.
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Nov 08, 2023

Can empathy improve relationships?

Yes, it fosters deeper understanding and connection.
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Nov 08, 2023

Can you feel sympathy for an enemy?

Yes, it's possible to feel sorry for someone you oppose.
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Nov 08, 2023

Does empathy involve problem-solving?

Not directly, but it can lead to a desire to help solve problems.
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Nov 08, 2023

Is saying "I'm sorry for your loss" empathy or sympathy?

It's a sympathetic expression of condolence.
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Shumaila Saeed
Nov 08, 2023

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About Author
Shumaila Saeed
Written by
Shumaila Saeed
Shumaila Saeed, an expert content creator with 6 years of experience, specializes in distilling complex topics into easily digestible comparisons, shining a light on the nuances that both inform and educate readers with clarity and accuracy.

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