Virtual empathy: Positive and negative impacts of going online upon empathy in young adults

Carrier, L. Mark; Spradlin, Alexander; Bunce, John; Rosen, Larry D.

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.026

Cited by 96 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Participants liked a stranger more and felt more compassionate empathy toward her after receiving her autobiographical story in person compared to via IM. The latter finding is in‐line with H2 and previous work (Carrier et al., ; Holtzman et al., ; Powell & Roberts, ), as in‐person autobiographical stories serve an empathy function (Bluck et al., ). However, our results contradicted H1.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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The Social Function of Autobiographical Stories in the Personal and Virtual World: An Initial Investigation

Alea

Bluck

Mroz

et al. 2018

Topics in Cognitive Science

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Receiving another's autobiographical story may serve to elicit feelings of liking and empathy for the story sharer. Research has mostly examined social functions of autobiographical stories for in-person communications. The current experiment (N = 60) examined whether levels of liking, closeness, and empathy felt for a stranger (female confederate) after receiving her story depended on if (a) the story was received in-person or through instant message (IM), and (b) the story was positive or negative. Liking and having empathy for the stranger was higher in the in-person conditions compared to IM conditions. This effect was mediated by how engaged participants were with the story. Participants liked the stranger more after receiving the positive autobiographical story, but they felt more empathy toward her after the negative autobiographical story. The discussion considers parameters of the communication platform and people's perceptions of stories as explanations for the results. Limitations are considered.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…For empathy, however, CMC may be less effective (Carrier, Spradlin, Bunce, & Rosen, 2015;Konrath, 2012;Powell & Roberts, 2017). Little work approaches the question from the viewpoint of a receiver who does not know the person disclosing.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Function of Autobiographical Stories in the Personal and Virtual World: An Initial Investigation

Alea

Bluck

Mroz

et al. 2018

Topics in Cognitive Science

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“…Likewise, the literature acknowledges the fact that a factor such as empathy can be perceived through a virtual environment in which there is no physical exchange of information. In this sense, studies such as those of Carrier et al (2015) show that it is possible to empathize (virtual empathy) through computer-mediated communication. Furthermore, it has been proposed that electronic communication environments, such as social networks, can facilitate empathy through easy and frequent access to other people in similar situations (Caplan and Turner, 2007;Guinalíu and Jordán, 2016).…”

Section: Perceived Empathymentioning

confidence: 99%

Antecedents and consequences of trust on a virtual team leader

Flavián

Guinalíu

Jordán

2019

EJMBE

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine, among the possible causes, whether trust in the leader is one of the most relevant factors on the success of a virtual work team by analyzing different antecedents of the trust and its consequences. Design/methodology/approach The influence that certain physical and behavioral characteristics of the leader (attractiveness, empathy and justice) exert on the degree of trust is evaluated. On the other hand, the influence of trust on the efficiency of the team, in terms of organizational citizenship behavior and commitment, is analyzed. To test the model, a survey was conducted on real work teams and the data were analyzed through a model of structural equations. Findings The results support the hypotheses and consequently, the relevance of trust in the leader. Specifically, the leader’s physical and behavioral characteristics have a significant effect on the trust in the leader. This trust results in greater organizational efficiency. Originality/value Despite the undisputable growth in the number of companies using virtual teams, it is also true that many of these teams fail to perform. In this sense, this paper analyzes if certain factors related to leadership can be relevant when influencing the efficiency of a virtual work team. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the internal processes within a virtual team in order to maximize the chances of success in this type of organizations.

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“…These growing divisions can diminish empathetic feelings towards members of particular groups [31], as evidenced by the increase in negativity towards people with different viewpoints [23] and the rise in the number of hate crimes over the last few years [25]. The decline in empathy may be exacerbated by the advent of technology-mediated communication [44], with some studies showing that technology use has a negative association with empathy [13]. For instance, sharing different views on social media can reduce empathy and deepen existing divisions [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Expressive Biosignals on Empathy and Closeness for a Stigmatized Group Member

Liu

Kaufman

Dabbish

2019

Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact.

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We explore the potential for expressive biosignals, or displays of sensed physiological data as social cues, to influence perceptions of a member of a stigmatized group. In a between-subjects experiment (N=62) participants read a fictional interview with a drug addict in prison, and rated their empathy and closeness with the interviewee. Participants were randomly assigned to read either 1) the transcript of the interview by itself, 2) the transcript with a text description of the interviewee's heart rate, or 3) the transcript with a graph of the interviewee's heart rate. Results demonstrate that providing information about heart rate can increase empathy in terms of emotional perspective-taking. Additionally, visualizing the heart rate as a graph, as opposed to text, can increase closeness. We discuss the implications of these results and present suggestions for future directions. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing.

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Virtual empathy: Positive and negative impacts of going online upon empathy in young adults

Cited by 96 publications

References 26 publications

The Social Function of Autobiographical Stories in the Personal and Virtual World: An Initial Investigation

The Social Function of Autobiographical Stories in the Personal and Virtual World: An Initial Investigation

Antecedents and consequences of trust on a virtual team leader

The Effect of Expressive Biosignals on Empathy and Closeness for a Stigmatized Group Member

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