Powell, P.A. orcid.org/0000-0003-1169-3431 and Roberts, J. (2017) Situational determinants of cognitive, affective, and compassionate empathy in naturalistic digital interactions. Computers in Human Behavior, 68. pp. 137-148. ISSN 0747-5632
Abstract
Empathy is apparent in computer-mediated communication (CMC), yet little is known about the situational predictors of empathic responses when interacting digitally. We used a diary methodology to explore: (1) the degree three types of empathy (cognitive, affective, and compassionate) are experienced in students' everyday (text- and image-based) dyadic digital interactions; (2) which situational factors are important for (different types of) empathy in CMC; and (3) how empathy reported in everyday CMC affects participants' perceptions of their empathy in CMC and face-to-face (FtF) contexts. One hundred student volunteers (50 women, Mage = 22.57 years) completed a “digital interaction diary” for three consecutive days, yielding 1939 observations. Participants reported significantly more cognitive than affective empathy, and significantly greater affective than compassionate empathy. Several situational variables (e.g., number of communications, recipient) were related to empathy overall, while others (e.g., subject, mood) contributed to discrete contextual profiles for the empathy subtypes. Empathy reported in the diaries predicted a more favourable ratio of perceived CMC to FtF empathy, particularly for those lower in baseline trait empathy. These findings help elucidate the multidimensional experience of empathy in CMC interactions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | affective empathy; cognitive empathy; compassionate empathy; computer-mediated communication; diary methodology; emotion |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Economics (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 Nov 2016 15:47 |
Last Modified: | 25 Nov 2016 15:33 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.024 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.024 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:107612 |