The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts Presents: The Battle Between Empathy VS. Sympathy #

Empathy vs. sympathy

When you understand and feel another’s feelings for yourself, you have empathy. It’s often spoken of as a character attribute that people have to varying degrees. For example, if hearing a tragic news story makes you feel almost as if the story concerns you personally, you have the ability to empathize.

When you sympathize with someone, you have compassion for that person, but you don’t necessarily feel her feelings. For instance, if your feelings toward someone who is experiencing hardship are limited to sympathy, then you might have a sense of regret for that person’s difficulty but are not feeling her feelings as if they’re your own. Meanwhile, sympathy has broader applications that don’t necessarily have to do with one person’s feelings for another. You can sympathize with a cause, for instance, or with a point of view that resonates with you. (infomation obtain from:http://grammarist.com/)

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts (the RSA) is an enlightenment organisation committed to finding innovative practical solutions to today’s social challenges. Through its ideas, research and 27,000-strong Fellowship it seeks to understand and enhance human capability so we can close the gap between today’s reality and people’s hopes for a better world. As part of that mission, the RSA public events programme has launched RSA Shorts (thersa.org/events/rsashorts). This new series provides a snapshot of a big idea, blending voices from the RSA public events programme and the creative talents of illustrators and animators from around the world. It responds to the ever-increasing need for new ideas and inspiration in our busy lives and acts as a shot of 'mental espresso' to awaken the curiosity in all of us. The audio of this RSA short is of Dr Brené Brown who spoke at the RSA on The Power of Vulnerability (thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2013/the-power-of-vulnerability). She talks about the difference between sympathy and empathy and argues that to be truly empathetic you have to be vulnerable by connecting with someone’s pain in yourself.

Animated and directed by Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne).

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