Jun 7, 2016 Blog, Health & Wellness. One afternoon in nursing school, I remember a professor spending nearly an hour exploring the difference between sympathy and empathy. To me, the inexperienced novice, those words were the same—synonyms, surely, both meaning some form of caring. But in reality, as many nurses know.
Sympathy is usually communicated around adverse scenarios and can be shown through commiseration and pity. So, for example, you’ll see lots of cards for when someone has passed away labeled as 'with sympathy' on the front.
With the concept of sympathy, as the Greek prefix highlights, it is about being “close to or with,” and this demonstrates a distance between someone feeling sympathy and the situation they’re connecting with. Compassion allows you to think about a situation but remain at a safe distance, so your emotional state of mind probably isn’t profoundly compromised.
Businesses can express sympathy by looking at customer service inquiries on an individual basis and being flexible toward a customer’s unique requirements. Sympathetic pricing and marketing have become a universal approach by companies that take customer needs and circumstances into account when pricing, instead of being solely profit-driven.
Sympathy is primarily about observation and an acceptance that someone else is going through challenging experiences. It can amount to 'feeling sorry' for someone, which is an acknowledgment of a situation. It’s not a concept that requires someone to experience the emotion that another person is going through deeply. Sympathy is 'feeling with,' instead of deeply feeling for them. With this, there’s a natural detachment from the situation.
Sympathy is still a valuable and integral trait to think with, but it might not lead to substantial action. Instead of a sympathy-led statement of observation like “That must be frustrating,” an empathetic one can resonate with a customer or employee more — i.e., “I understand how you’re feeling.”
What Is Empathy?
Being an empathetic person and feeling empathy is a much broader, more intense emotional reaction to a situation someone else or a group of people is going through. Having a genuinely empathetic response can be a bewildering range of emotions to manage because you’re taking on the feelings of the person or people that you’re connecting with.
![Empathy Empathy](https://www.grammarly.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/empathy-vs-sympathy-examples.jpg)
This is the critical difference between empathy and sympathy – instead of feeling with someone, you’re feeling for them. You’re experiencing a fraction of their emotions and feelings because you see things from their perspective.
So what makes it more natural for one person to feel more empathetic than sympathetic in a situation? Often, this can be derived from the personal experience of a similar scenario. Having lived through and struggled with a similar situation can enhance someone’s empathetic qualities and help them to connect more deeply with an individual going through the same experiences.
Practicing Empathy
Empathy is about acknowledging biases and genuinely imagining and trying to feel what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. You’re putting yourself right there, in the thick of the emotion. This can be incredibly difficult to do time and time again, but it gives a unique perspective that can lead to positive action-taking.
![Sympathy Sympathy](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125815494/226773362.jpg)
Here’s a fantastic example from the National Autistic Society in the U.K. This marketing campaign aimed to get people watching to truly experience an everyday situation through the eyes of someone living with autism. From the first-person perspective and an overall VR-driven campaign, encouraging people to empathize was a key objective.
Sympathy can be an expression of 'That’s bad, and I know it’s bad,' but empathy encourages you to double down on why and how a scenario is negative, which can lead to more intuitive and innovative solutions.
Feeling empathy comes more naturally to some people, but mostly, it can be a choice. You can choose to start seeing things from other perspectives and seeing things with their eyes. This gives individuals a chance to experience real growth by allowing themselves to feel new emotions and take on new and unique viewpoints.
Actively listen, ask questions, be curious.
Final Thoughts
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.
Instead of third-party emotion, put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
Sympathy is usually communicated around adverse scenarios and can be shown through commiseration and pity. So, for example, you’ll see lots of cards for when someone has passed away labeled as 'with sympathy' on the front.
With the concept of sympathy, as the Greek prefix highlights, it is about being “close to or with,” and this demonstrates a distance between someone feeling sympathy and the situation they’re connecting with. Compassion allows you to think about a situation but remain at a safe distance, so your emotional state of mind probably isn’t profoundly compromised.
Businesses can express sympathy by looking at customer service inquiries on an individual basis and being flexible toward a customer’s unique requirements. Sympathetic pricing and marketing have become a universal approach by companies that take customer needs and circumstances into account when pricing, instead of being solely profit-driven.
Sympathy is primarily about observation and an acceptance that someone else is going through challenging experiences. It can amount to 'feeling sorry' for someone, which is an acknowledgment of a situation. It’s not a concept that requires someone to experience the emotion that another person is going through deeply. Sympathy is 'feeling with,' instead of deeply feeling for them. With this, there’s a natural detachment from the situation.
Sympathy is still a valuable and integral trait to think with, but it might not lead to substantial action. Instead of a sympathy-led statement of observation like “That must be frustrating,” an empathetic one can resonate with a customer or employee more — i.e., “I understand how you’re feeling.”
What Is Empathy?
Being an empathetic person and feeling empathy is a much broader, more intense emotional reaction to a situation someone else or a group of people is going through. Having a genuinely empathetic response can be a bewildering range of emotions to manage because you’re taking on the feelings of the person or people that you’re connecting with.
This is the critical difference between empathy and sympathy – instead of feeling with someone, you’re feeling for them. You’re experiencing a fraction of their emotions and feelings because you see things from their perspective.
So what makes it more natural for one person to feel more empathetic than sympathetic in a situation? Often, this can be derived from the personal experience of a similar scenario. Having lived through and struggled with a similar situation can enhance someone’s empathetic qualities and help them to connect more deeply with an individual going through the same experiences.
Practicing Empathy
Empathy is about acknowledging biases and genuinely imagining and trying to feel what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. You’re putting yourself right there, in the thick of the emotion. This can be incredibly difficult to do time and time again, but it gives a unique perspective that can lead to positive action-taking.
Here’s a fantastic example from the National Autistic Society in the U.K. This marketing campaign aimed to get people watching to truly experience an everyday situation through the eyes of someone living with autism. From the first-person perspective and an overall VR-driven campaign, encouraging people to empathize was a key objective.
Sympathy can be an expression of 'That’s bad, and I know it’s bad,' but empathy encourages you to double down on why and how a scenario is negative, which can lead to more intuitive and innovative solutions.
Feeling empathy comes more naturally to some people, but mostly, it can be a choice. You can choose to start seeing things from other perspectives and seeing things with their eyes. This gives individuals a chance to experience real growth by allowing themselves to feel new emotions and take on new and unique viewpoints.
Actively listen, ask questions, be curious.
Final Thoughts
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.
Instead of third-party emotion, put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?