Digital Empathy May Outperform Humans
Digital Empathy May Outperform Humans
Blog Article
Empathy is considered by many to be a cornerstone of effective mental health treatment. American psychologist Carl Rogers achieved fame with his claim that empathy was the “necessary and sufficient condition” for change in therapy, and many experts agree that empathy creates feelings of trust, reduces negative feelings, and boosts self-esteem.
Can digital devices do the same thing?
Digital mental health apps are enjoying a true breakthrough moment, and AI shows great promise in mimicking human conversation. But can digital empathy compete with human empathy in terms of healing?
And for that matter, how important is empathy to begin with, and does it even matter where it comes from?
Digital Empathy Outperforms Expectations
As part of an ongoing venture, I recently had the opportunity to put these questions to the test by measuring the impact of computer-generated responses in a newly designed application on individuals seeking relief from negative thoughts and feelings.
A team of developers and I questioned—and sought to measure in a meaningful way—whether people would benefit from so-called “digital empathy.” After all, a computer can’t feel anything, much less empathy for a human.
As it turns out, it doesn’t appear to matter.
We surveyed 290 beta testers who used the app in the winter of 2023-24. At the initial evaluation, we asked them to rate the level of warmth and understanding they experienced with friends and loved ones on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 100 (perfect). Then, we asked them to predict how much warmth and understanding they’d receive from the app.
Sadly, most beta testers didn’t report much warmth and empathy from friends and loved ones, and they didn’t expect much warmth and understanding from the app, either. Perhaps this reflected the long-held belief that technology is inherently impersonal and “less than” human.
Participants then used the app, which was designed to respond just as I would if I were meeting with them 1-on-1. The app expressed understanding, offered warmth, and proposed many new ways of challenging the distorted thoughts that triggered their negative feelings.
Once they began interacting with the app, their perceptions of digital empathy changed dramatically. In fact, after three days, and at the end of the four-week beta test, they rated the digital warmth and understanding nearly twice as high as the human variety and far higher than they had predicted. Report this page