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.
Highlights
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is increasingly ubiquitous, yet we still have much to learn about its relationship with humans' psychological processes, which evolved over millennia in the absence of technology
We found that participants reported empathy in their interactions, and the observed pattern matched our predictions that cognitive empathy would be experienced most often, followed by affective and compassionate empathy
We present evidence that empathy in digital interactions is strongly determined by a range of situational variables, with the majority of variance in empathic responses explained by within-persons differences
Summary
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is increasingly ubiquitous, yet we still have much to learn about its relationship with humans' psychological processes, which evolved over millennia in the absence of technology. We focus on empathy, defined as a multidimensional capacity to recognise, feel, and/or react compassionately to others' emotional states (Ekman, 2003). Recent analyses of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook indicate that digital posts are often emotive (Bollen, Pepe, & Mao, 2011; Coviello et al, 2014), and people develop meaningful, empathic relationships online While “digital empathy” is apparent, the situational determinants of empathy in CMC are not well understood, nor are the different empathic experiences people may have digitally.
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