Sympathy: Concern and Sorrow for Another’s Plight
Sympathy is an emotion characterized by feelings of sorrow, concern, or sadness resulting from an awareness of another person’s suffering or misfortune (APA Dictionary of Psychology). Unlike empathy (feeling with another person), sympathy is most accurately defined as feeling for another person (Positive Psychology, 2024). It is an external expression of care that acknowledges a person’s difficult situation without requiring a deep internal sharing of their emotional state.
The term comes from the Greek words syn (together) and páthos (feeling or emotion), literally meaning “fellow feeling” or “community of feeling” (Merriam-Webster, 2024). Historically, sympathy was the common term used for all forms of shared feeling, but in modern psychology, it is distinctively separated from empathy to denote a more detached, other-oriented concern that may include elements of pity or sorrow.
Sympathy vs. Empathy: The Critical Distance
The core distinction in modern clinical and social psychology is the emotional distance maintained by the observer. While empathy involves stepping into another’s emotional shoes, sympathy involves recognizing their suffering from one’s own, separate perspective. This distance, while useful for maintaining objectivity and preventing emotional burnout (Compassion Fatigue), is also why sympathy is often received negatively, particularly when it morphs into pity (Abreu et al., 2017). Pity can imply a sense of superiority or judgment from the observer, making the recipient feel isolated or demoralized (Brené Brown, cited in Psychiatric Medical Care, 2023).
- Detached Response: Sympathy is a reaction to the plight of others, often resulting in socially appropriate gestures like sending a card or offering a detached statement like, “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
- Focus on Welfare: At its best, sympathy is the foundational component of Empathic Concern (Batson, 2011), often leading to a desire to help or improve the welfare of the distressed individual.
- Appropriate Context: Sympathy is generally an appropriate and necessary response in casual or professional relationships where maintaining boundaries is important, or when the suffering is immense (e.g., a distant natural disaster) and full affective sharing is not possible.
APA Dictionary of Psychology. (2018). Sympathy. [Source for general definition]
Positive Psychology. (2024). Understanding Empathy vs. Sympathy: What’s the Difference? [Source for “feeling for” distinction]
Merriam-Webster. (2024). What’s the difference between ‘sympathy’ and ’empathy’? [Source for etymology and historical context]
Abreu, R. D. M., et al. (2017). Sympathy, empathy, and compassion: A grounded theory study of palliative care patients’ understandings. Palliative Medicine, 31(8). [Source for patient perception of pity and detachment]
Psychiatric Medical Care. (2023). The Difference Between Empathy and Sympathy. [Source for Brene Brown/separation concept]
Batson, C. D. (2011). Altruism in humans. Oxford University Press. [Source for Empathic Concern]
