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A definition of empathy

The German word for empathy is "Einfühlung" and was coined in the late 1800s. It means "feeling into."

Empathy is about understanding other people's feelings. Some think empathy means the ability to read fellow human beings or simply feeling connected to people. Others see it as a moral stance about showing concern for others.

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created an idea from a article:

BBC

The surprising downsides of empathy

bbc.com

MORE IDEAS FROM THE SAME ARTICLE

The identifiable victim effect

Psychologists point out that defining empathy as the act of stepping into someone's mind to experience their feeling can lead to some tricky moral dilemmas.

The difference between empathy and compassion

Empathy is about stepping into someone's shoes.
Compassion is a feeling of concern for another person's suffering, which moves the person to help.

Misplaced empathy

In recent years, researchers have found that misplaced empathy can lead to exhaustion and apathy, and prevent you from helping the people who need you.

Extending empathy to abstract strangers

We naturally have more empathy for people closer to us. Our empathy and affinity for others decline the further people are from us.

Empathy's incapacitating emotional impact

While shared happiness is a very pleasant state, sharing someone's suffering, such as a loved one, can be very difficult.