{"id":491,"date":"2017-03-04T12:21:18","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T01:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/?p=491"},"modified":"2017-03-04T12:24:37","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T01:24:37","slug":"the-difference-between-sympathise-and-empathise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/journal\/notes\/the-difference-between-sympathise-and-empathise\/","title":{"rendered":"The difference between sympathise and empathise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n TLDR: Sympathise<\/em> means to feel sorry for someone, empathise<\/em> means to understand and agree with them.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though only a few different letters separate the two, there\u2019s actually quite a significant difference between the words sympathy<\/em> and empathy<\/em>, or sympathise<\/em> and empathise<\/em>. As you may have guessed, however, they do share the ending \u2018-pathy\u2019 or ‘-pathise’, which is derived from the Greek word pathos<\/em> meaning ‘feeling’. So we\u2019re looking at two words which involve emotions, but what\u2019s the difference?<\/p>\n

sympathise (verb)\u2014to feel or express feelings of sorrow for another\u2019s misfortune or situation<\/p>\n

\n \u2019It\u2019s not hard to sympathise with such a tragic character. If there was only something we could do for him.\u2019<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

empathise (verb)\u2014to understand and share the feelings or opinions that others also have<\/p>\n

\n \u2019While I empathise with your situation, constable, I must also do my duty.\u2019<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One way to explain the difference is to imagine yourself watching a movie. The screenwriter creates a character so realistic and relatable that the viewer empathises<\/em> with them when they must make a tough decision. The level of empathy dished out to the character is a reflection of the viewer\u2019s experiences and character, in many ways\u2014for if the character in the film is a policeman forced to decide whether to chase down a mass murderer (leaving his latest victim to die) or help the victim (and let the murderer get away to potentially kill another person), a policeman viewing the film is more likely to understand the predicament and empathise<\/em> more acutely.<\/p>\n

In contrast, sympathy is expressed more readily by a broader range of people. If you see a distressed child crying for her mother in a supermarket, you will feel sorry for her (hopefully) and try to reunite her with mum. Similarly, if your friend just lost his job or your son is getting bullied at school, causing them to feel sad, then you will most likely sympathise with them (as well as potentially empathising with them)\u2014give them a hug and talk them through their woes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I might sympathise with a crying child, I would be less likely to empathise with her if she was crying over the fact her gelato had plopped on the floor. (I don’t like gelato. Sorry, guys.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[17,16],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}