A Change of Heart: Exploring the Effects of Varied Heart Rate on Empathy and Social Presence

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session III
  In Interactive Paper Session: Communication and Technology Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Research shows that perceiving someone else’s heartbeat can be an intimate experience that evokes emotions in an observer. Previous heartbeat communication studies have used consistent heart rates. To our knowledge, the effects of a target’s varied heart rate on an observer’s emotions, level of empathy with the target, and perception of social presence have not been explored. In this paper, we present the results of an investigation using varied heart rates to increase empathy when the variation is paired with narrative changes within a target’s speech. Forty-four participants watched a recording of a virtual human telling an emotional story about being adopted. For two-thirds of the participants, the recording was accompanied by visual and audio representations of the heartbeat of the virtual human, which was either of a consistent rate (one third of participants) or varied rate (one third of participants). For the final third of participants the recording was not accompanied by any heartbeat representation. Results demonstrated that the most empathy occurred in the varied heart rate condition, and that this effect is a result of cognitive empathy as opposed to emotional empathy. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

Authors

• Benjamin J. Li, Nanyang Technological University

• Elise Ogle, Stanford U

• Joris H. Janssen, Phillips Research

• Erika Weisz, Stanford U

• Jamil Zaki, Stanford U

• Jeremy Bailenson, Stanford U