Empathy is often confused with sympathy, and the term “ empathic concern” captures this perfectly. It’s all about perspective.

With sympathy and compassion, I am seeing the situation from my perspective. If you are suffering in some way, I imagine what it would be like for me to suffer like that. This is not particularly helpful in my understanding why you are suffering, and as such, the solution that I offer may not be what you need or want. It’s what I think you need.

With empathy, particularly cognitive empathy, I can get more information to better understand your perspective of the situation. I can learn how, or even if, I might help.

Because sympathy, compassion, and empathy are confused all the time, advice on how to navigate these is often not helpful.

Getting back to your original example, sympathy is often linked with guilt, and so avoiding the donation table with a picture of a suffering person suggests one’s guilt is being triggered.