Published on
July 23, 2024
by
Tom Challenger, BA
Revised on
November 5, 2025
The nounsempathy and sympathy overlap in meaning because they are both used to describe how we share another person’s feelings or emotions.
Empathy is the ability to understand how another person feels because you can imagine how you would feel if you were in the same situation. In other words, you are able to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
Sympathy is the feeling that you understand another person’s emotions, especially when you feel sorry for someone who is in a sad or unpleasant situation.
Empathy in a sentence examples
Sympathy in a sentence examples
As a former refugee, she is able to write about displaced persons with real empathy.
His insensitive comments displayed a total lack of empathy for the victims’ suffering.
She thanked the nurses and doctors for the compassion and empathy they had shown throughout her husband’s illness.
He wrote to Paul’s widow to express his sympathy.
There was a lot of public sympathy for the workers, who have been on strike for almost two months.
It’s his own fault, so I don’t really have much sympathy for him.
Published on
July 18, 2024
by
Tom Challenger, BA
Revised on
November 11, 2025
As of yet and as yet are adverbial phrases meaning “yet.” You use them to say something has not happened up to now, but you expect it to happen at some point.
In formal or academic writing, it is generally best to reduce as of yet or as yet to “yet,” or use an alternative formulation such as “has/have yet to.”
Examples: As of yet in a sentence
We cannot provide you with any further information as of yet.
We cannot provide you with any further information yet.
According to the CEO, a decision has not been taken as of yet.
According to the CEO, a decision has yet to be taken.
Published on
July 12, 2024
by
Tom Challenger, BA
Revised on
October 29, 2025
The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut we use to decide the probability of something based on how typical we think it is. We assign this thing to a category and decide how similar we think it is to an “average” representative of that category.
Representativeness heuristic exampleYou are on the train with a friend, and a woman sits down opposite you.
She is dressed in colorful, flamboyant clothes and is reading the arts section of The New York Times.
When she gets out at the next stop, your friend says, “Do you think she was a famous artist?”
You reply, “Well, she definitely wasn’t a lawyer!”
Although there is a much greater proportion of lawyers in the population than artists, you think that the woman is more likely to be an artist because her appearance and choice of reading material match your perception of a typical artist.
The representativeness heuristic allows us to make quick and efficient decisions, but it can cause us to arrive at false conclusions and disregard relevant information.
Hindsight bias is our tendency to overestimate how predictable we thought an event was after it has happened. This can lead to overconfidence about our powers of judgment and cause us to make risky decisions or unfairly criticize the actions of others.
Hindsight bias exampleMartin is a soccer fan and goes to watch his favorite team play on the weekend.
The coach of the team has decided to include a young player in the starting lineup.
Martin discusses this decision with his friend before the match. They agree that it is a bit risky because the young player is inexperienced, but it is good that he will be replacing a player who did not play well in the last match.
Martin’s team loses the match. At work on Monday, he discusses the result with one of his colleagues. Martin says that he knew his team would lose because the young player was too inexperienced.
Hindsight bias has made Martin think that he was certain that his team would lose. But in truth, he did not predict this with confidence.
Hindsight bias is also known as the “knew-it-all-along phenomenon.” It can lead us to wrongly believe that an outcome, such as a sports score, election result, or medical error, was more certain than it actually was.
Published on
July 2, 2024
by
Tom Challenger, BA
Revised on
February 11, 2026
Who functions as the subject of a sentence or clause, but whom functions as an object.
The subjectpronoun “who” is correct if you can recast the sentence or clause with “she,” “he,” or “they.”
The objectpronoun “whom” is correct if you can recast with “her,” “him” or “them.”
Who vs whom in sentences examples
Sentence or clause with who/whom
Recast
Who was responsible?
She was responsible.
With whom does the responsibility lie?
The responsibility lies with her.
The question is who is responsible for the crime.
…he is responsible for the crime.
The question of to whom we can apportion the blame remains unanswered.
We can apportion the blame to him.
The suspects, who were already known to the authorities, were arrested yesterday.
…they were already known to the authorities…
The suspects, whom the authorities have been monitoring, were arrested yesterday.
…the authorities have been monitoring them…
Whom has a very formal stylistic effect, which you may want to avoid. In informal contexts such as everyday conversations and emails, we normally use who as both a subject and an object pronoun.
Published on
June 27, 2024
by
Tom Challenger, BA
Revised on
October 29, 2025
The halo effect describes the psychological phenomenon of allowing an overall initial impression of something, based on a single desirable characteristic, to positively influence future decisions we make about it, even though this characteristic is not relevant to these decisions.
The halo effect can influence choices we make about people, products and brands.
Halo effect exampleMaria is a manager and has to complete performance reviews of Lidia and Henri, two employees in her team who do the same job.
Henri is always very enthusiastic about his work, whereas Lidia has a more reserved character.
Maria gives Henri a better appraisal than Lidia, even though they are both performing at the same level.
The positive “halo” around Henri, formed on the basis of a single, very noticeable positive trait, has unconsciously influenced Maria’s decision making and clouded her judgment.
The halo effect can lead to decision-making errors as it impairs our critical thinking. We need to be aware of it in situations such as job interviews and when making important purchases.
Published on
June 24, 2024
by
Tom Challenger, BA
Revised on
November 11, 2025
To touch base means to briefly communicate with a person or a group of people such as a team of employees in order to stay in contact with them or check something.
It is an informal idiom that comes from the sport of baseball. It is often used in work and business contexts but is not generally used in formal or academic writing.
Examples: Touch base in a sentenceI’m going to touch base with Maria at the event tomorrow, so I’ll ask her about it then.
Have you got a minute to talk? I just wanted to touch base before the meeting later.
Let’s touch base about the arrangements again later in the week.
