While both are used interchangeably, empathy and sympathy are different. A fine line between the two significantly affects how we relate to others.
Empathy
It is the ability to see and experience situations from another person’s perspective. Putting yourself in another person’s shoes can make you more compassionate towards the person you are relating with. In doing so, you can better assist the person in their troubles and significantly help reduce your and their level of distress. Usually, being in the other person’s shoes enables you to provide a comfortable space for the person to express their concerns however they want.
Empathy is not just about hardships. It can be experienced in situations of joy, too. Empathy allows you to deepen your relationships as you connect with friends and loved ones’ thoughts and feelings more clearly and openly, encouraging them to do the same. This understanding of the importance of empathy in various situations can enlighten and inform your approach to relationships, empowering you to navigate a wide range of emotional experiences. Empathy is a universal human experience that can extend to people you may not know. It helps you be more kind and companionate to people with different relationships with you or people you may know, fostering a sense of shared humanity and connection.
Sympathy
Sympathy (empathic concern) is mainly understood as a feeling for another and is often contrasted with empathy—a feeling with another that involves emotional sharing and perspective-taking. Sympathy is a reaction from a caring third-person perspective.
A growing body of research in psychology suggests that sympathy, rather than empathy, directly motivates altruistic behaviour. It involves feeling happy for another when something good happens to her and sad for her when something terrible happens. If a friend is going wingsuit flying, for instance, empathising with her might include putting ourselves in her shoes and feeling her thrill about doing it, while sympathising with her might make us worry because wingsuit flying looks very dangerous.
