Empathy is one of the main characteristics which need sharpening as a UX Designer. But often we misunderstand empathy with sympathy. In effort of practicing empathy, mistakenly we tend to go with sympathy. That’s why we need to clearly understand the difference between it.
Let’s say that you saw someone is in trouble. If you feel sorry for that person, it is called sympathy. But, if you can understand how that person feels in that situation, we call it empathy.
In the below video Brené Brown explains the difference of empathy and sympathy clearly.