Empathy and Sympathy, the difference
Empathy is feeling what another person feels inside yourself. Sympathy is understanding and caring about their pain from your own place.
Each in a line
Empathy
Empathy is feeling what another person feels inside yourself. Their sadness registers as sadness in you. Their fear raises a version of the fear in your body. Research shows it is powerful in some conditions and corrosive in others.
Social family
Sympathy
Sympathy is felt understanding that someone is suffering, with genuine care about their pain. The chest softens and the face responds. You are with them, even from a distance. Unlike empathy, it does not require feeling what they feel.
Social family
Pleasantness and energy
Where each lives in the body
Empathy
Chest
Tightness or warmth
Face
Slight warmth
Stomach
A gentle stir
Head
Lightness
Sympathy
Chest
A faint pull
Face
Slight warmth
How long they last
Duration has not been measured for these words.
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