Radiology

Perspective (graphical)

Neuroscience

Perception

Prison

Mathematics

Criminology

Blood pressure

Mathematical analysis

Artificial intelligence

Psychology

Heart rate

Closeness

Empathy

Computer science

Medicine

Social psychology

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

We explore the potential for expressive biosignals, or displays of sensed physiological data as social cues, to influence perceptions of a member of a stigmatized group. In a between-subjects experiment (N=62) participants read a fictional interview with a drug addict in prison, and rated their empathy and closeness with the interviewee. Participants were randomly assigned to read either 1) the transcript of the interview by itself, 2) the transcript with a text description of the interviewee's heart rate, or 3) the transcript with a graph of the interviewee's heart rate. Results demonstrate that providing information about heart rate can increase empathy in terms of emotional perspective-taking. Additionally, visualizing the heart rate as a graph, as opposed to text, can increase closeness. We discuss the implications of these results and present suggestions for future directions.

The Effect of Expressive Biosignals on Empathy and Closeness for a Stigmatized Group Member