Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

anna
Lv 7
anna asked in Social SciencePsychology · 5 years ago

Is there a difference between sympathy and compassion, or are they the same?

If a person is really obnoxious, and someone feels bad that they're obviously not a happy person inside, and need to project that on others--would you call that feeling sympathy for them, or having compassion on them?

3 Answers

Relevance
  • 5 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Sympathy is a feeling, compassion is an action. The situation you present means you have sympathy for that person.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    sympathy is when you can related to or feel what the other person is feeling, therefore you feel bad that they are sad. Compassion is when you do not know exactly how the other person is feeling but given the reason they are sad, you believe it would be something that would make you sad as well if it happened to you.

    Hence, it wouldn't be any of those two, but compassion would be closer than sympathy

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    It'd be sympathy. Sympathy is feeling bad for other people. Compassion can actually be shown, through showing that you care.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.