What's the difference between "empathy" and "sympathy"?

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Empathy is the capacity to understand another's point of view or emotional state while sympathy is the feeling of Pity or sorrow for the suffering of another

  • Empathy is when you can feel the energy state of others and understand them deeply. Sympathy is when you feel sad or sorry for someone and their situation.

  • Empathy is when you take the feelings someone else is going through as your own so you can relate to what they’re experiencing. Sympathy is when you acknowledge someone is feeling something even though you can not relate to it.

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  • Empathy is shown in how much compassion and understanding we can give to another while sympathy is more of a feeling of pity for someone. Empathy is our ability to understand how someone feels while Sympathy is our relief in not having the same problem.

  • Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another ,for example; he has a total lack of empathy for anybody. Whereas sympathy is the feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. For example; they had great sympathy for the flood victims.

  • The difference in meaning is usually explained with some variation of the following: sympathy is when you share the feelings of another; empathy is when you understand the feelings of another but do not necessarily share them

  • Empathy means to actually understand how someone is feeling and how much compassion we can give to another. Sympathy, on the other hand, means that you acknowledge that someone is feeling distressed and you feel pity towards them.

  • Empathy is shown in how much compassion and understanding we can give to each other. While Sympathy is a pity feeling for the other person.

  • Empathy, means experiencing someone else’s feelings. Sympathy means understanding someone else’s suffering.

  • Dear Shahenda, I think that the big difference between empathy and sympathy is specification. Empathy is general understanding of another person’s circumstances and feelings while sympathy is specifically feeling sorry for somebody.

  • Empathy is the ability to understand someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like if you were in his shoes, while sympathy is an expression of understanding and care about someone else's suffering and showing support and agreement.

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