A network science approach to modelling and predicting empathy

Abstract

In this paper we adopt a network science approach to investigate empathy and its implications for online social networks. We demonstrate that empathy is closely linked to social capital - the findings suggest that individuals higher on cognitive empathic skill are overall likely to report both higher bridging and higher bonding social capital. On the other hand, attributes of network structure around the individual, quantified through networks analysis metrics, were related to cognitive empathy. Further, an examination of the interplay between network structure, social capital and empathy suggests that empathy facilitates the relation between network structure and social capital previously reported in literature. We discuss the implications of our findings for the understanding of empathy in the context of online social networks and for the design of these systems.