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Measuring emotional response and emotion sharing- Quantitative assessment of empathic communication -Abstract
Empathy is the basis of people's social lives. However, the mechanism has not yet been fully elucidated because
it is a complex phenomenon consisting of subjectivity, physiology, and behavior. The purpose of this study is toquantify empathy from a multifaceted point of view considering individual differences. We examined how
physiology, behavior and cognition are related in an individual, and how they are shared with other individuals. In
order to deal with the large individual difference in the subjective judgment, we built a computational model that
explains the individual difference from their personality traits, exploiting the wisdom of the group approach which
aggregates the judgment of multiple individuals. This kind of framework for quantitative measurement of empathy
including individual differences will make it possible to assess and predict the effects of interventions that promote
empathy tailored to individuals. We believe this is an essential step toward improving human well-being.
Empathy involves a variety of phenomena,from the low-level phenomenon (e.g.
physiological synchronization) to the higherlevel phenomenon (e.g. cognitive sharing). We
try to understand these from various aspects.

Individual’s physiology and behavior [1]* joint research with Tsukuba University

In the task of distinguishing between posed andspontaneous faces, we directly comparedhumans with machines using video or EMG signal
in terms of accuracy.

Accuracy: human < Video ≒ EMG

Cognition and personality trait on
emotion sharing [2]The higher Systemizing
Quotient, the more accurately
people answer the degree ofemotional similarity with others.
Self

Emotiondimension

People with a higher (lower)
Empathizing Quotient (EQ)
are less (more) likely tohave similar emotions.

High EQ
SelfLong

Short
Opponent→ Dissimilar→ SimilarLong

Low EQ

We found that the physiological response is
synchronized during cooperative work, and that thehigher the physiological synchrony, the more consistent
the impression of the interaction.
Person 1

Person 2

Emotiondimension
Short
Opponent

Physiological synchrony

Based on the similarity judgment theory, we clarified whichtypes of people tend to have emotion similar to others andto recognize their emotional similarities accurately.

Physiological synchrony andcognitive sharing

Time

Finger plethysmogram (amplitude value)
synchronized between a pair of people

Degree of consistency ofimpression among people

References[1] M. Perusquia-Hernandez, S. Ayabe-Kanamura, K. Suzuki, S. Kumano, “The Invisible Potential of Facial Electromyography: a Comparison ofEMG and Computer Vision when Distinguishing Posed from Spontaneous Smiles,” in Proc. Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems(CHI), 2019.
[2] L. Antaket, M. Matsuda, K. Otsuka, S. Kumano, “Analyzing Generation and Cognition of Emotional Congruence using EmpathizingSystemizing Quotient,” International Journal of Affective Engineering, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 183-192, 2018.

Contact
Shiro Kumano Email: cs-liaison-ml at hco.ntt.co.jp
Sensory Resonance Research Group, Human Information Science Laboratory
Open House 2019
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