Empathy in Design Thinking Part 1: What is Empathy?

An Article by Laker Nancy, 19/06/2019

Empathy is very critical when it comes to application of designing thinking when designing solutions for people’s problems. It is when we are empathetic than we can grasp well the pains or feelings of others. When any design is centered on our empathetic abilities to understand, feel and even exhibit people’s feelings and pain, we call it ‘people-centered designing’ and EMPATHY makes it possible. In this first part, we will simply explore the meaning of empathy and ways of empathy measurement. In our other articles, we will explore the practical application of empathy in design thinking or how best can we be empathetic. Stay tuned!

What is empathy? How is it different from Sympathy?

Empathy is the ability to experience the feelings of another person. It goes beyond Sympathy, which is caring and understanding for the sufferings of others. Both words are used similarly and often interchangeably (incorrectly so) but differ subtly in their emotional meaning.

Empathy is understanding what others are feeling because you have experienced it yourself or can put yourself in their shoes while Sympathy is acknowledging another person’s emotional hardships and providing comfort and assurance. Empathy is a personal understanding whereas Sympathy is understanding the experience of others.

Emotionally, the feeling of Sympathy emerges from the recognition that another person is suffering. In contrast to Empathy, where the other persons pain or suffering is felt. A person expresses sympathy but shares empathy.

Of the two, empathy is a deeper feeling, but sympathy can be just as honest and heartfelt. However, empathy can forge a deeper and meaningful connection, thus serving as a bridge for greater communication between individuals or between a leader and his or her followers.

The basis for both empathy and sympathy is compassion, a blending of understanding and acceptance of others that can be seen as being derived or enhanced by knowledge and wisdom. Compassion recognizes the “me” in “you” the shared commonality of feelings between individuals. Both empathy and sympathy imply caring for another person but with empathy, the caring is enhanced or expanded by being able to feel the other person’s emotions.

Empathy and sympathy are not mutually exclusive, nor are they always felt in tandem. For example, people who lose a loved one can receive sympathy from many, but only those who have experienced a similar loss are able to empathize truly.

A case where there could be sympathy, but no empathy, could include someone who files for bankruptcy. Most people who care about that person would feel sympathetic to their situation and maybe pity them, a feeling sometimes closely related to sympathy but relatively few would be capable of empathizing, as only a minority of people ever go through the experience of filing for bankruptcy themselves.

Can we measure empathy? Yes, empathy can be measured!

Measurement of Empathy!

Empathy can be measured using various questionnaires and tools that have been developed over time. According to Neumann et al. (2015), researchers have used various approaches to measure empathy since 1940s. Some approaches assess more the social practices as self-reported by those taking the test (for example, Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale, EQ and Toronto Empathy Questionnaire), others focus on behavioral measures (for example, picture viewing paradigms or Kids Empathetic Development Scale) and others currently go ahead and the neuroscientific behaviors of an individual using MRI, Facial electromyography and many more.

A tool known as Empathy quotient (EQ), a 40 or more (60) item questionnaire was developed by Simon Baron Cohen at ARC (The Autism Research Centre) at the University of Cambridge and has been in use since 2004. As already noted, there is no single tool that has been accepted as a trustworthy complete measure. However, most of them are believed to give a hint of empathetic quotients of individuals, especially when more than one tools are employed for synergy.

Clinically, the empathy measurements provided by the EQ are used by mental professionals in assessing the level of social impairment in certain disorders like Autism. However, since levels of empathy vary significantly between individuals, even between those without any mental health disorders, it is also suitable for use as a casual measure of temperamental empathy by and for the general population.

QUESTION: Do you wanna know how empathetic you are? Download the tool here now and assess yourself. If you have scored less than 30, you are in shit!