sympathy: > oh, your mother died, im so sorry the sympathetic trigger is "mom died" and the response is a feeling of sorrow empathy: > oh, your mother died, i'll leave you to grieve the understanding is that the person will be upset that their mother died and therefore probably want to be left alone a sociopath doesnt understand other peoples emotions due to lack of empathy, when someone is upset, they might see it as an opportunity to use the persons grief to get something they want (and not see anything evil about it)
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