Empathy is considered a key factor in excellent performance in the field of professional communication (Fuller, et al., 2018). Despite this, training empathy competence is not a current focus for many professional programs. This may be because there is no known model of empathy competence applied to professional communication contexts. Furthermore, how exactly empathy plays a role in the success or failure of communication projects is not known.
Empathy competence is considered a key aspect of excellent performancein communication professions. But we lack an overview of the specificknowledge, attitudes, and skills required to develop such competence inprofessional communication. Through interviews with 35 seasoned communication professionals, this article explores the role and nature ofempathy competence in professional interactions. The analysis resulted in aframework that details the skills, knowledge, and attitudinal aspects ofempathy; distinguishes five actions through which empathy manifests itself;and sketches relationships of empathy with several auxiliary factors. Theframework can be used for professional development, recruitment, and thedesign of communication education programs.
Socially aware persuasive games that use immersive technologies often appeal to empathy, prompting users to feel and understand the struggles of another. However, the often sought-after standing in another's shoes' experience, in which users virtually inhabit another in distress, may complicate other-oriented empathy. Following a Research through Design approach, we designed for other-oriented empathy - focusing on a partaker-perspective and diegetic reflection - which resulted in Permanent; a virtual reality game designed to foster empathy towards evacuees from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. We deployed Permanent 'in the wild' and carried out a qualitative study with 78 participants in the Netherlands and Japan to capture user experiences. Content Analysis of the data showed a predominance of other-oriented empathy across countries, and in our Thematic Analysis, we identified the themes of 'Spatial, Other, and Self -Awareness', 'Personal Accounts', 'Ambivalence', and 'Transdiegetic Items', resulting in design insights for fostering other-oriented empathy through virtual reality.
Creating Cultures of Care beoogt vanuit een kunstenaarsperspectief en ontwerpende aanpak nieuwe handelingen, praktijken en scenario’s te ontwikkelen binnen zorg- en welzijnscontexten. Dit doen we door kennis uit transdisciplinaire co-creatieve (onderzoeks)praktijken uit de regio’s Utrecht, Groningen en Tilburg samen te brengen en uit te bouwen naar een landelijk expertisenetwerk. Met deze SPRONG-groep dragen we bij aan de KIA Maatschappelijk Verdienvermogen: missiegedreven innovaties versnellen en gelijktijdig sociale en economische impact genereren. De context waarin we werken is die van de KIA Gezondheid en Zorg. Het kabinet benadrukt: ‘de samenleving moet voorbereid worden op schaarste in de zorg. Dit kan alleen door samen keuzes te maken, inwoners hun stem te laten horen en samen nieuwe perspectieven te genereren’. In Creating Cultures of Care worden deze stemmen en perspectieven door middel van transdisciplinaire co-creatie onderzocht in regionale CARE-labs. Kunstenaars, zorg- en welzijnsprofessionals, beleidsmakers, patiënten/inwoners en studenten onderzoeken samen eigen drijfveren en gezamenlijke missies om te kunnen bijdragen aan (radicale) transities in zorg en welzijn. Hierbij verschuift de focus van zorgverrichtingen (sturen op efficiency en effectiviteit) naar beleving en welzijn (empathy). In deze CARE-labs werken we aan nieuwe werkwijzen en vormen van waardecreatie, om deze vervolgens te vertalen naar een gezamenlijke kennis- en innovatie agenda en netwerk- en leeractiviteiten. De eerste vier jaar wordt er met publieke en private partijen, lectoraten en het onderwijs integraal samengewerkt aan het opzetten, en valideren van transdisciplinaire co-creatie. We ontwikkelen een concept framework, synthese en publicatie met beschreven praktijken. Deze bieden alle samenwerkpartners handvatten om transdisciplinaire co-creatie in zorg- en welzijnsopgaven, te begrijpen, op te zetten en uit te voeren. Hieruit ontstaat input voor nieuwe verbindende CARE-labs. We werken in vijf werkpakketten: Programmaontwerp en Zichtbaarheid; Onderzoek en Praktijk Ontwerp; Educatie Ontwerp; Synthese en Transitie Ontwerp en aan het Lerend en Onderzoekend Vermogen van de SPRONG-groep.
-Chatbots are being used at an increasing rate, for instance, for simple Q&A conversations, flight reservations, online shopping and news aggregation. However, users expect to be served as effective and reliable as they were with human-based systems and are unforgiving once the system fails to understand them, engage them or show them human empathy. This problem is more prominent when the technology is used in domains such as health care, where empathy and the ability to give emotional support are most essential during interaction with the person. Empathy, however, is a unique human skill, and conversational agents such as chatbots cannot yet express empathy in nuanced ways to account for its complex nature and quality. This project focuses on designing emotionally supportive conversational agents within the mental health domain. We take a user-centered co-creation approach to focus on the mental health problems of sexual assault victims. This group is chosen specifically, because of the high rate of the sexual assault incidents and its lifetime destructive effects on the victim and the fact that although early intervention and treatment is necessary to prevent future mental health problems, these incidents largely go unreported due to the stigma attached to sexual assault. On the other hand, research shows that people feel more comfortable talking to chatbots about intimate topics since they feel no fear of judgment. We think an emotionally supportive and empathic chatbot specifically designed to encourage self-disclosure among sexual assault victims could help those who remain silent in fear of negative evaluation and empower them to process their experience better and take the necessary steps towards treatment early on.
"My PD-trajectory aims to contribute to knowledge development in the domains of artacademic institutions, the queer/drag/HIV community, and advocacy as context for queer safety. Emphasis will be placed on how to write, document, design, and archive elements in order to shape language to actively comprehend each other’s affinities, aspirations, and propel visibility for emancipatory realities by creating empathy among differences. Incorporating the theorization of new terms such as “gift dragonomy” and “dragging as grafting” based on drag mothering knowledge will play an active role in preserving subcultural language while avoiding ‘representational fixity.”
