What's the Difference Between Empathy, Sympathy, and Compassion?
I just finished teaching a class this morning and this came up during a design thinking segment. It&#x27;s a male-heavy class and when these terms come up, they tend to laugh it off as some kind of esotherical side-quest. When I ask if anyone feels comfortable explaining the difference, it always ends in a beautiful disaster because that one person feeling brave enough to go for it, usually completely derails, only to be taken over by another student taking it into a similar dead-end. It almost always ends with them agreeing that this is a complex topic and therefore impossible to pin down.<p>I then bring up the scenario of someone who lost their dog (in a tragic freak accident) a while back...<p>A sympathic friend asks them how they cope, or feel, they acknowledge the fact that there is a process of grief happening. They show sympathy by observing your state from the outside.<p>The empathic friend stops by to check how they can help and then leaves with the rest of the dog food. They&#x27;re able to walk a moment in your shoes and see the problems you&#x27;re facing.<p>Which, I think, should be a fundamental quality of a good product manager, planner or user researcher.<p>Anyways, dumb teaching stuff, but I kinda like the example.