Digital Personhood: Creating and Exploring Digital Empathy

Empathy involves the inner experience of sharing in and comprehending the momentary psychological state of another person (Schafer, 1959).

Creating and Exploring Digital Empathy (CEDE) unlocks the digital communication of empathy, one of the core elements missing from how we currently communicate online. There are few ways to show a friend, a loved one, a group or a community as a whole that you feel empathetic towards their situation. We are able to express emotions in the digital space via text or iconography but this is limited in scope and fails to include any indication of understanding or depth of feeling. In short, there is a need in the research space, known as 'digital personhood' to understand what it means to be digitally human and in particular to investigate new methods to feel/express empathy via the network.

The Oxford English Dictionary definition of empathy is "...the power of projecting one's personality into (and so fully comprehending) an object of contemplation". This lacks somewhat the nature of empathy as enacted between two people, and this feature seems crucial to empathy broadly and digital empathy in particular. As a result we will use a working definition of empathy as an intuitive act in which we give complete attention to someone else's experience in a way that allows the other to realize that we both share and understand the essential quality of that experience. It is to understand how the other person feels and to be able to communicate this understanding in a way that is uniquely 'human'.

In the science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Dick, 1968), and the subsequent 1982 film, Blade Runner, a machine is used to test whether an individual is human or an artificial replicant. Known as the Voight-Kampff, it measures bodily functions such as respiration, "blush response", heart rate, and eye movement in response to emotionally provocative questions (Sammon, 1996). As replicants are unable to communicate the feeling of empathy for which these responses are indicative, the Voight-Kampff test is asking the fundamental question of the story - what does it mean to be human in that future world? While a work of fiction, this idea reflects the present day failure of digital devices and online communications to facilitate the expression of empathy between people. We believe that this leaves the notion of digital personhood, devoid of a key component, and it is this component that we aim to address in CEDE.

Based at The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London, The Institute for Economic Analysis of Decision Making at the University of Sheffield and Imagination at the Institute for the Contemporary Arts, The University of Lancaster, the cross disciplinary project is divided up into 6 core stages over 24 months, working with two unique focus groups. Firstly research explorations will be carried out using three groups of 30 students over an initial 18-month period. Using a variety of techniques from brain imaging technologies such as electroencephalography and networked devices, a series of prototypes will be developed to enable and measure levels of remote empathic communication. The later stages of the project will work with patients, family members and practitioners involved in women's cancer. With the core aim to increase levels of well being via digital personhood it will open up techniques, methods and technologies across sectors of society and industry.

Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil. Involuntary dilation of the iris.. We call it Voight-Kampff for short (Fancher, 1980).

Dick, P.K (1968), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Doubleday.
Fancher, (1980) - Blade Runner: Screenplay, New York : Scott Meredith Literary Agency.
Schafer R (1959), Generative empathy in the treatment situation. Psych Quarterly, 28,:342-373.
Sammon P (1996), Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, It Books.

CEDEs impacts span societal, health and well being, economic and the public understanding of science sectors via the creation of a new domain relating to empathy within digital personhood. From the impact on an individual's life through to enhanced group dynamics and a new understanding of empathic engagement CEDE's focus is on tangible impacts and beneficiaries. One key tangible impact is via the potential for enhancing well being based around the ability to transmit and share empathetic feeling. Digital empathy can transform the Q in the QALY index in particular to improve our understanding and how we might measure the quality of life of digitally engaged citizens. Our focus groups have been selected on these grounds by both establishing our understanding of digital empathy and then to move into challenging areas to achieve an increase in quality of life, well-being, a reduction in feelings of isolation and an increased understanding of an individual's circumstances on multiple levels. This theme runs throughout CEDE with impact established via the case studies and extended via take up of the objectives from wider sectors.

The impact of digital empathy works on a number of levels. From localised benefits, such as increasing family ties and patient/health worker relationships, through to a highly personal level of patients and an increase in their wellbeing by enabling them to share and release empathic feelings. Impact could be as simple as being able to make an empathic connection between individuals through to developing new ways of designing digital services that promote and support empathy between participants. With the move of society towards a digital personhood there is a need to achieve such impacts and beneficiaries, CEDE has the potential to achieve this across a wide variety of sectors.

As part of a wider view on impact the multi-platform online presence of CEDE will allow a discussion and understanding of digital empathy between different user groups. With the ability to communicate digitally we aim to create the ability to impact beyond the case studies. Respite care, for example, could benefit from a remote, discrete way to communicate an understanding and remote presence. CEDE will allow impact in these sectors as well as ones yet to be envisaged via developing and communicating the research to a wide audience. We have ensured that the project includes flexibility to quickly adapt and respond to requests for talks, trial installations, staff exchange and training in the field of digital personhood and empathy.

We view CEDE as having potential for notable impact in terms of UK competitiveness and innovation. Across the design, health, digital communications and media industries we envisage such impact through new capabilities, products and procedures to benefit society as a whole. Via the use of open standards we expect small enterprises to emerge into the sector, adding a new field in the digital economy and contributing to the impact and legacy of CEDE. As such we expect to attract industry buy-in and potential future inward investment as the direct result of CEDE.

On a wider economic basis, any business that relies on digital communities or networks for generating demand can benefit from a fuller understanding of digital empathy. The same can be said of any policy where there are positive externalities from influencing communities over and above individuals.

From impact on an individuals well being in a time of need through to communication within the family unit, healthcare support efficiency and the creation of a new way to transmit empathetic feelings CEDE has a strong potential for impact.