Can Facebook Aid Sustainability? An Investigation of Empathy Expression within the Humans of New York Blog

Abstract

This qualitative study offers a novel exploration of the links between social media, virtual intergroup contact, and empathy by examining how empathy is expressed through interactions on a popular social media blog. Global leaders are encouraging individuals to engage in behaviors and support policies that provide basic social foundations. It is difficult to motivate people to undertake such actions. However, research shows that empathy intensifies motivation to help others. It can cause individuals to see the world from the perspective of stigmatized group members and increase positive feelings. Social media offers a new pathway for virtual intergroup contact, providing opportunities to increase conversation about disadvantaged others and empathy. We examined expressions of empathy within a popular blog, Humans of New York (HONY), and engaged in purposeful case selection by focusing on (1) events where specific prosocial action was taken corresponding to interactions on the HONY blog and (2) presentation of people in countries other than the United States. Nine overarching themes; (1) perspective taking, (2) fantasy, (3) empathic concern, (4) personal distress, (5) relatability, (6) prosocial action, (7) community appreciation, (8) anti-empathy, and (9) rejection of anti-empathy, exemplify how the HONY community expresses and shares empathic thoughts and feelings.

Empathy Cultivation through (Pro)Social Media: A Counter to Compassion Fatigue

“…An exploratory study by Wheeler and Quinn (2017) found evidence for empathetic expressions in audience responses to a small sample of HONY posts. They suggested that HONY "provides a distinct opportunity to examine empathetic expression and virtual intergroup contact as the HONY community is a rare social media-based vehicle for connecting with strangers on an unprecedented worldwide scale" (Wheeler and Quinn 2017). This study aimed to build on that, to determine whether HONY might promote prosocial reactions without provoking compassion fatigue.…”

“…Previous research about the HONY feed has suggested that the creator changed his approach over the first few years of the project, evolving to use captions that feature the subject speaking directly to the audience, an approach in line with the public service value of journalism (Roberts 2019). An analysis by Wheeler and Quinn (2017) found evidence for empathy in a sample of comments on HONY posts, suggesting that members of the HONY audience expressed empathy for the people featured in the feed.…”

“…This study analyzes a selection of comments by social media users in response to HONY posts (always an image with a caption featuring a quotation from the subject pictured in the image) over the course of one year and attempts to identify emotional tone and content. This study seeks to expand on the preliminary findings of Wheeler and Quinn (2017), to consider a broader sample of comments and to apply a more widely applied tool for linguistic analysis to more comprehensively assess the reactions to HONY posts. Understanding the emotional responses of the audience can help journalists to more effectively represent the constituent members of society, which may foster empathy for those citizens and thus contribute to a healthier and more functional democracy.…”

Empatía y percepción del riesgo del cambio climático en estudiantes de Ciencias de la Salud

“…Desde la evidencia científica se puede definir un perfil de las personas con mayor empatía y comprensión de los efectos del cambio climático: son mujeres, con niveles avanzados de educación, con conexión afectiva por la naturaleza, y políticamente liberales [27][28][29] . Los análisis desde otras perspectivas como la Orientación de la Dominancia Social (ODS), en donde se define que los individuos con alta dominancia social son los que aceptan la inequidad social entre los grupos, la jerarquía entre los grupos, como algo natural y que es moralmente aceptable 30 ; así desde esta perspectiva se ha evidenciado que las personas que tienen bajos niveles de empatía y altos niveles de ODS tienen menos valores medioambientales (preservación de la naturaleza) [20][21][22] .…”