Empathy Is not Evidence
4 Traps of Commodified Empathy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5948746 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rachel Robertson (0000-0001-9636-587X, UxLeadAtShopifyFocusedOnCreatingQualityProductExperiencesAtTheIntersectionOfTechnologyAndCommerce), Rachel E Robertson (0000-0002-9777-4875, corresponding author), Penny Allen (0000-0003-1945-8049, Senior UX Research Lead at Shopify, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 2018 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 104-124 |
| Publication date | 2018-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings (CONFERENCE) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1559-890X • E-ISSN: 1559-8918 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1559-8918.2018.01199 |
| OpenAlex | W2914237138 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 12 |
Product teams, including our own, often interpret empathy as evidence. However, in practice, empathy is actually something that drives us to seek evidence. By observing and evaluating various examples within Shopify, we have identified 4 traps that are common in the way empathy is manifested. We modelled the relationship between empathy, problems, evidence, and decisions to provide strategies for how to use empathy effectively while being sympathetic to its limitations. Since empathy drives us to seek evidence, and thus cannot be considered evidence itself, empathy must be used at an appropriate level of abstraction throughout the product decision-making process in order to influence good decisions
Business · Cognitive psychology · Commodification · Economics · Empathy · Order (exchange · Process (computing · Product (mathematics · Simulation theory of empathy · Computer Science · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification · Design Education and Practice · Psychology · Service and Product Innovation · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2023 (4) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |