Design Thinking / Social Design

Inducing Empathy

Project Advisor Petra Müller-Csernetzky

Year 2019

Duration 3 Months

The project, conducted at Hochschule Anhalt, aims to demonstrate the methodology required to induce empathy about social issues in people. It does so by exploring several intervention methods involving six experiments to find out the psychological triggering points in a person which propels them to empathize.

TEAM INFO
Uneeb Ahmad / Judie Tabbakh / Aseem Lakhanpal

PROJECT GOALS

How to induce empathy towards a specific issue, such as people with disabilities by exposing the participant to the physical and mental conditions of the affected group?

The semester project revolved around the narratives of knowledge and wisdom and how to transfer one's expertise to other individuals. Each student group had to focus on the areas they were mutually knowledgeable about and explore that expertise via experiments and discussions. Since everyone in our group had a background in architecture and was familiar with the importance of empathizing with an individual when designing their space, we decided to dig deeper into the topic of empathy.

FIRST TWO EXPERIMENTS

Participants were asked to share their insights on some selected visual messages designed on social issues. Secondly, they were asked to share some of the visual mediums that made them reflect on social issues.

THIRD EXPERIMENT

To gain more insight into the process of empathy, this time participants from different academic and cultural backgrounds were asked to create posters on issues they'd want to speak about. Simultaneously, they were asked to share their thoughts on suicide victims via an empathy map canvas.

FOURTH PROTOYPE

How to induce empathy towards a specific social issue, such as depression by exposing the participant to the physical and emotional conditions related to depression?

Previous experiments made us realize that the most effective tool for inducing empathy and self-awareness is a 3D experience involving space, time, sound and all the senses of the participants rather than using static visuals.
The participant, our professor, volunteered for the task. The intervention went as follows.
Audio with voice-overs and interviews about depression played in the participant's headphones. They are also to wear weights on their back and feet, creating a feeling of heaviness while moving. They are to be visually impaired, by a plastic bag over their head, which makes them feel trapped and alters their vision. In this condition, they were asked to stroll around people for around 3 minutes.

Final
Prototypes

For the final prototypes, we used our learning from previous experiments but chose an issue that would be easier to work with in physical space, such as being disabled. The participants were to follow the instructions and move around the space and carry on tasks without using their limbs. In the end, they had to reflect on the experience and provide feedback.

LEARNINGS

The diagrams above summarize the documentation and the findings of the prototypes The results show an increase in qualitative learning about empathy as the experiments steered towards more specific goals with less abstract methods.

CONCLUSION

Our final perception was that we were on to something and went in the right direction to barely scratch the surface on a rather complex issue. However, it was interesting to find out how an immersive sensory experience proves effective to induce empathy in individuals. Having some pre-knowledge about a social issue, followed by an immersive experience and some self-reflection proved to make participants empathize more than when just shown static visuals.

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