Written by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 examโขWritten by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Definition
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person, essentially putting oneself in their shoes.
Related terms
Sympathy: This involves feeling compassion or concern for another person's well-being without necessarily understanding their emotional state from their perspective.
This refers to one's ability to recognize, understand, and manage both their own emotions and those of others.
Perspective-taking: This is the act of perceiving a situation or understanding a concept from an alternative point of view, such as that belonging to another individual.