Measuring the cognitive and emotional components of empathy : a multimodal experimental study using thermography and self-report assessments

Abstract

Although empathy has been of great interest to numerous philosophers and psychologists, empirical scientific research about this fundamental phenomenon is still rather limited. In this current research, a multimodal approach was adopted in studying the possibility of priming empathy as a human characteristic. The complex nature of both the cognitive and affective aspects of empathy has been explored through an emerging technique in cognitive science: infrared thermography. By looking at the physiological characteristic of change in facial skin temperature, this research aimed to compare the more traditional results acquired through self-report assessments with nasal temperature changes in participants who viewed pre-validated empathy-eliciting video stimuli. An average decrease of 0.21 degrees Celsius was observed in the nasal temperature of participants while viewing empathy-eliciting videos whereas an average increase of 0.22 degrees Celsius was observed while viewing emotionally-neutral videos; this result only approached statistical significance. Priming by the use of an informative video about empathy was not found to make a difference in the levels of empathy experienced when viewing empathy-eliciting video clips. This research has led to further questions about priming empathy and encouraged new possibilities for the use of infrared thermography as a tool in the research of emotion in cognitive science.