The word ‘sympathy’ has been around for a long time now, while empathy is amongst the newer words in the English language. We often hear people say sentences like “I sympathize with you” or “I empathize with you’. Somehow, it has become a part of our language.
Unfortunately, not many know that both these words have different meanings even though they sound like they could mean the same. Of course, both are very warm words that offer comfort to the opposite person. But, they don’t suggest the same feeling.
So then, let us understand the words sympathy and empathy and know what is the difference.
Sympathy
Imagine someone tells you, “I lost my younger brother to an accident two weeks ago.” The person is in grief and pain owing to the loss of his brother. As a fellow human, you tend to feel bad for other individuals. That is when you say “I’m so sorry for your loss. I sympathize with you.”
Sympathy simply means, to feel pity or bad for someone else’s pain. Every time you hear someone talk about an unfortunate event, incident or feeling, and you feel bad for them, it is sympathy.
Furthermore, when one person is sympathetic towards another person, it showcases warmth and concern. According to psychology, that is one positive human attribute because it allows you to be kind to another human.
People use sympathy when they want to let the opposite person know that they are feeling bad about what happened. This enables the person in pain to believe that someone feels for him/her. Correspondingly, while sympathy is a comforting emotion, there isn’t anything more to it. You feel bad, you say it, and that’s it.
Other alternate meanings
As far as emotions are concerned, we can fathom the meaning of sympathy from the above explanation. But, sympathy also has different meanings. It also means to extend support or to have a mutual understanding.
For example, The entire party has sympathy for this particular MLA. (Extending support) or Both the companies agreed to have sympathy to maintain a harmonious working environment. (to have a mutual understanding)
Empathy
One primary reason why people confuse empathy with sympathy is that they both offer comfort to someone in pain. The most significant difference between these two words is that empathy is more personal a feeling. When you say, “I empathize with you” it means, you aren’t just feeling bad for them, but can feel their pain.
An empathetic person or situation is when one individual can put himself/herself in the grieving person’s place and actually feel their pain. Usually, one can feel this when he/she has also been in a similar situation.
For example, someone says, “I had the worst week. My daughter has been so unwell that I am juggling between work and the hospital. I am so tired.” If the listener feels terrible for this individual, he/she can say, “Aww, that’s bad! My sympathies to you.”
On the other hand, if the listener has been in a similar situation, or is also a mother who worries about her child, the response will be different. “Oh, my God! This must my so hard for you. Something similar happened to me last month. I empathize with you.”
If this mother hasn’t faced the same situation, she will still be able to empathize because she will imagine her daughter unwell, and herself running around. This is exactly what putting yourself in another person’s place means. If you feel that way, then replace ‘sympathy’ with ’empathy’, and you’ll know that you are using it right!
Sympathy V/S Empathy
Another striking difference in these words is that, while you can have sympathy for someone when they go through a hard phase, empathy is not limited to that. No matter the feeling is positive or negative, you can be empathetic towards someone if you feel that way.
Remember, empathy allows you to connect deeper with another person and their feelings than sympathy. That said, it doesn’t mean that sympathy is a less important word. After all, one cannot force emotions. If you don’t feel a connection to put yourself in another person’s place, it still makes you an amazing person for feeling the sympathy! Just, use the words correctly 🙂
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