SYMPATHY vs EMPATHY

SYMPATHY vs EMPATHY( Meaning and definitions )

Recently I have been thinking about the meanings of these two words SYMPATHY and EMPATHY. According to the internet;

 ‘’These words are often confused, and with good reason. As both of the words deal with the relationship a person has to the feelings and experiences of another person’’.

So, let’s explore the differences between these terms and how they are most commonly used. Both sympathy and empathy have roots in the Greek term páthos meaning “suffering, feeling. “The difference between the most commonly used meanings of these two terms is: Sympathy is feeling compassion, sorrow, or pity for the hardships that another person encounters. Empathy is putting yourself in the shoes of another, which is why actors often talk about it. In other words we can say that the difference in meaning is usually explained with some variation of the following: empathy is when you share the feelings of another; sympathy is when you understand the feelings of another but do not necessarily share them.

In mid-1500s people started using the term Sympathy with a very broad meaning of “agreement or harmony in qualities between things or people.” Since then, the term has come to be used in a more specific way. But in recent time sympathy is largely used to convey commiseration, pity, or feelings of sorrow for someone else who is experiencing misfortune. This sense is often seen in the category of greeting cards labeled “sympathy” that specialize in messages of support and sorrow for others in a time of need. You feel bad for them … but you don’t know what it is like to be in their shoes and actually go through what pain and hard time they are going and feeling. For example: "Trying to lose weight can often feel like an uphill battle."

On the other hand Empathy entered English a few centuries after sympathy—in the late 1800s—with a somewhat technical and now obsolete meaning from the field of psychology. Psychologists began using empathy as a translation for the German term Einfühlung and the concept that a person could project their own feelings onto a viewed object. Contrary to sympathy, empathy has come to be used in a broader way than it was when it was first introduced; the term is now most often used to refer to the capacity or ability to imagine oneself in the situation of another, experiencing the emotions, ideas, or opinions of that person in it’s true sense and intensity. For example: "I know it's not easy to lose weight because I have faced the same problems myself."

‘’ Sympathy is a characteristic trait of politicians and empathy an emotion of the masses.”― Amit Abraham

Talking about the emotional sides of the two, I can easily say that the feeling of sympathy emerges from the recognition that another person is suffering, in contrast to empathy, where the other person's pain or suffering is felt. A person expresses sympathy, but shares empathy. The empathic feeling may be brief, and the person feeling it is said to "put themselves in the other person's place." Clearly indicating that empathy is a deeper feeling, but sympathy can be just as honest and heartfelt. However, empathy can forge a deeper and more meaningful connection, thus serving as a bridge for greater communication between individuals or between a leader and his or her followers. As its human nature that one always appreciates and like if someone relates his or her past experience with one that the other person is going through rather than just feeling sorry in words.

Sympathy is towards someone else, versus empathy, which is feeling like someone else.

Both of these terms are fully based on compassion which highlight the spirit of “Me in You”, As both sympathy and empathy imply caring for another person, but with empathy, the caring is enhanced or expanded by being able to feel the other person's emotions and its more intense feeling than just sympathy. The duo terms enable human being to inculcate the ability to understand one's fellow humans and their problems. People who lack this capacity are often classified as narcissistic, sociopaths, or in extreme cases, psychopathic.

It is very critical to mention that by showing more sympathetic and empathetic responses in the workplace and business as a whole are very welcome. By exhibiting these traits and being more emotionally intelligent, products and services can be created in better ways that add more value to customers’ lives. If you can learn to live outside of your head and see other perspectives, your thoughts, ideas, and views can become even more vibrant, diverse and ultimately strengthened.

 Sympathy feels like a performative word, whereas empathy is human.

According to Social psychologist Brené Brown: “Empathy fuels connection, and sympathy drives disconnection.” The difference between the two terms feels narrow, but it is crucial: empathy focuses on a mutual and shared (albeit potentially asynchronous) emotional experience, whereas sympathy moves more swiftly from feeling with to feeling for.

Four Qualities of Empathy

1. Perspective taking

2. Staying out of judgment

3. Recognizing emotion in other people, and then communicating that

4. Feeling with

Characteristics of sympathy are:

1.    Physical Descriptions

2.    Altruism

3.    Active v. Passive

4.    Morality

5.    Drafted or a Volunteer.

6.    Promise Keeper.

7.    Intelligence.

8.    Flaws

9.    Loved by someone else.

The Head and the Heart Theory:

Concluding our discussion which can easily be sum up in the “head & heart theory” which is the easiest way to stop the confusion between sympathy and empathy is to remember this: sympathy is a feeling you share with another person; empathy is the ability to understand the emotions of another person. To put it another way, it's a difference between the head (sympathy) and the heart (empathy).

By: ovais asad khan