同理心 (empathy) 和同情心 (sympathy) 的差別, 以下這則短片 "RSA Shorts - The Power of Empathy" 有清晰的說明.
Empathy fuels connection. Sympathy drives disconnection.
4 qualities of empathy:
Perspective taking - ability to take the perspective of another person or recognize their perspective as their truth
Staying out of judgement
Recognizing emotion in other people
Communicating the emotion in other people.
Empathy is feeling WITH people.
當人們遇到挫折或困境時, empathy 的反應是同理對方的痛苦 (從自己的經驗找出類似的情境以同理對方的痛苦), 讓對方知道自己不是孤獨的:
Hey! I know what it's like down here. And you're not alone.
I don't even know what to say. I'm just glad you told me.
Sympathy 的反應是試圖鼓勵對方正面思考:
At least,...
Try to silver-lining the bad situation.
但事實上這些鼓勵經常是於事無補, 讓事情好轉通常是藉由給予對方心理上的支持 (讓對方有 connection, 有後援).
re:Work 對於 sympathy, empathy, compassion 的說明:
Sympathy is the awareness of another’s feelings and experiences and understanding that one might help by easing those feelings.
Empathy takes the feelings and experiences of others and internalizes them, a vicarious experience of another’s emotions and situation.
Compassion takes it a step further so that empathy then leads to a desire to take action to help alleviate the suffering of another person.
Sympathy: 認知到對方的情緒.
Empathy: 體驗到對方的情緒, 活躍的腦區和對方一致.
Compassion: 體驗到對方的情緒後, 進一步想要幫助對方減少痛苦.
根據神經科學的研究, 過多的 empathy 會導致 empathizer 壓力過大; 而 compassion 則會產生關心、溫暖的感受, 以及幫助對方的動機. 如此會降低壓力賀爾蒙, 提升免疫力, 甚至降低心臟疾病的風險.
