Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Degrees of Empathy: Humans’ Empathy Toward Humans, Animals, Robots and Objects

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Ambient Assisted Living (ForItAAL 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 540))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present an experiment in which we compare the degree of empathy that a convenience sample of students expressed with humans, animals, robots and objects. The present study broadens the spectrum of the elements eliciting empathy that previous research has so far explored separately. Our research questions are: does the continuum represented by this set of elements elicit empathy? Is it possible to observe a linear decrease of empathy according to different features of the selected elements? More broadly, does empathy, as a construct, resist in front of the diversification of the element eliciting it? Results show that participants expressed empathy differently when exposed to three clusters of social actors being mistreated: they felt more sad, sorry, aroused and out of control for animals than for humans, but showed little to no empathy for objects. Interestingly, robots that looked more human-like evoked emotions similar to those evoked by humans, while robots that looked more animal-like evoked emotions half-way between those evoked by humans and objects. Implications are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The first sequence of videoclips had the following order: mammal robot, Rubik cube, anthropomorphic robot, mechanical robot, cat, smartphone, and human. The second sequence of videoclips had this order: anthropomorphic robot, mammal robot, mechanical robot, Rubik cube, human, smartphone, and cat. The third sequence had the following order: mechanical robot, anthropomorphic robot, human, smartphone, cat, Rubik cube, and mammal robot.

References

  1. Gray, H. M., Gray, K., & Wegner, D. M. (2007). Dimensions of mind perceptions. Science, 315, 619.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Riek, L. D., Rabinowitch, T., Chakrabarti, B., & Robinson, P. (2009). How An-thropomorphism Affects Empathy Toward Robots. In Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE international conference on Human robot interaction. (pp. 245–246).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Pinotti, A. (2011). Empatia: Storia di un’idea da Platone al postumano. Bari-Roma: Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Freud, S. (1919). The uncanny [das unheimliche] (D. McLintock, Trans.). New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Simmel, G. (1892). G. Simmel, I problemi fondamentali della filosofia, Laterza, Bari 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Dilthey, W. (1961). Gesammelte Schriften, 15 Vols. Leipzig: Teubner Ver-lagsgesellschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Geertz, C. (1983). Local knowledge. Further Essays in Interpretative Anthropology. New York: v.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hoffman, M. L. (1990). Empathy and justice motivation. Motivation and emotion, 14(2), 151–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Rizzolatti, G., Fadiga, L., Gallese, V., & Fogassi, L. (1996). Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions. Cognitive Brain Research, 3(2), 131–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Gallese, V. (2005). Embodied simulation: From neurons to phenomenal experience. Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences, 4(1), 23–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Gallese, V., Migone, P., & Eagle, M. N. (2006). La simulazione incarnata: i neuroni specchio, le basi neurofisiologiche dell’intersoggettività e alcune impli-cazioni per la psicoanalisi. Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Decety, J., Jackson, P. L., & Jackson, P. L. (2004). The functional architecture of human empathy. Behavioraland Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 3(2), 71–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Barthes, R. (1957). Mythologies. Paris: Seuil.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Douglas, M., & Isherwood, B. (1979). The World of Goods. Towards an Antropology of Consumption. New York: Basic Book.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Appadurai, A. (Ed.). (1986). The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Latour, B. (1994). Une sociologie sans objet? Note théorique sur l’interobjec- tivité, Sociologie du travail (Vol. XXXIV(4), pp. 587–607) (It. Transl. Una socio- logia senza oggetto? Note sull’interoggettività. In E. Landowski and G. Marrone (Eds.), La società degli oggetti. Problemi di interoggetività (pp. 203–232). Roma: Meltemi.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Cetina, K. K. (1997). Sociality with objects. Social relations in postsocial knowledge societies. Theory, Culture and Society, 14(4), 1–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Taylor, N., & Signal, T. D. (2005). Empathy and attitudes to animals. Anthro-zoös, 18(1), 18–27.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Rosenthal-Von Der Pütten, A. M., Schulte, F. P., Eimler, S. C., Sobieraj, S., Hoffmann, L., Maderwald, S., … Krämer, N. C. (2014). Investigations on empathy towards humans and robots using fMRI. Computers in Human Behavior, 33, 201–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Cruz, J., & Gordon, R. M. (2003). Simulation theory. Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Fortunati, L. (2013). Afterword: Robot conceptualizations between continuity and innovation. Intervalla, 1, 116–129.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Turing, A. M. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59(236), 433–460.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  23. Bartneck, C., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., & Hagita, N. (2007). Is The Uncanny Valley An Uncanny Cliff? In 16th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (pp. 368–373). Jeju, Korea.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Mori, M. (1970). The uncanny valley. Energy, 7(4), 33–35.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Seyama, J. I., & Nagayama, R. S. (2007). The uncanny valley: Effect of realism on the impression of artificial human faces. Presence: Teleoperators and virtual environments, 16(4), 337–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. O’Connell, S. M. (1995). Empathy in chimpanzees: Evidence for theory of mind? Primates, 36(3), 397–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Angantyr, M., Eklund, J., & Hansen, E. M. (2011). A comparison of empathy for humans and empathy for animals. Anthrozoos, 24(4), 369–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Paul, E. S. (2000). Empathy with animals and with humans: Are they linked? Anthrozoös, 13(4) 194–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Misselhorn, C. (2009). Empathy with inanimate objects and the uncanny Valley. Minds and Machines, 9, 345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Crozier, W. R., & Greenhalgh, P. (1992). The empathy principle: Towards a model for the psychology of art. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 22(1), 63–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Titchner, E. (1924). A textbook of Psychology. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Phillipps, C. (2009). The Welfare of Animals. The Silent Majority. Berlin: Springer.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  33. Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The empathy quotient: an investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 34(2), 163–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Lang, P. J. (1980). Self-assessment manikin. Gainesville, FL: The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Ferrari, F., Paladino, M. P., & Jetten, J. (2016). Blurring human-machine distinctions: anthropomorphic appearance in social robots as a threat to human distinctiveness. International Journal of Social Robotics, 8, 287–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. “Marco Biagi” Department of Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Alan D. A. Mattiassi

  2. Department of Communication and Social Research, Sapienza, University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Mauro Sarrica

  3. The Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy

    Filippo Cavallo

  4. Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics, University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Leopoldina Fortunati

Authors
  1. Alan D. A. Mattiassi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mauro Sarrica
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Filippo Cavallo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Leopoldina Fortunati
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alan D. A. Mattiassi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Niccolò Casiddu

  2. University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Claudia Porfirione

  3. Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    Andrea Monteriù

  4. The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pontedera, Pisa, Italy

    Filippo Cavallo

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Mattiassi, A.D.A., Sarrica, M., Cavallo, F., Fortunati, L. (2019). Degrees of Empathy: Humans’ Empathy Toward Humans, Animals, Robots and Objects. In: Casiddu, N., Porfirione, C., Monteriù, A., Cavallo, F. (eds) Ambient Assisted Living. ForItAAL 2017. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 540. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04672-9_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04672-9_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04671-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04672-9

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation