Search Results (204)

Distance higher education places increased demands on instructors’ emotional and communicative competencies, as teaching and interaction occur in technologically mediated environments. This study examines the role of teachers’ emotional intelligence, empathy, and communication-related competencies in distance higher education, with particular emphasis on emotional management and instructor well-being. A quantitative research design was employed, using self-report instruments administered to higher education instructors engaged in distance teaching. Non-parametric statistical analyses revealed strong internal coherence among emotional intelligence dimensions and a pattern of functional empathy characterized by high perspective taking and low personal distress. Self-perceived communication was found to be consistent across interactional contexts, indicating a stable communicative disposition. Most notably, emotional management emerged as a key factor associated with positive work-related emotions among instructors. The findings highlight emotional management as a critical mechanism supporting both teaching effectiveness and emotional sustainability in online learning environments. The study contributes to the literature by integrating emotional intelligence, empathy, and self-perceived communication within a unified empirical framework and offers practical implications for professional development and institutional support in distance higher education. Full article

Background/Objectives: Cancer places emotional and psychosocial demands on healthcare professionals; therefore, this study aimed to examine sociodemographic and psychosocial determinants, including emotional competence, empathy, and stigma, and to assess their interrelationships with mental health, attitudes towards cancer, and cancer-related stigma among healthcare professionals involved in cancer care. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2025 to January 2026 via a self-administered questionnaire among 264 hospital and primary care healthcare professionals in Osijek, Croatia (69 men and 195 women; median age 37 years, IQR 31–47, age range 20–64 years), all directly involved in providing healthcare to cancer patients in Croatia. Results: Significant differences were observed by gender, age, occupation, and workplace. Men were more frequently physicians and had higher education levels and socioeconomic status, whereas women achieved higher scores in emotional competence and empathy. Physicians more often had shorter overall work experience and reported greater perceived controllability of cancer. Age-related differences were found in perceived discrimination, stigma, and controllability of cancer. Primary healthcare professionals showed a higher level of empathy and proactivity and a lower perception of cancer as an incurable disease. Higher empathy was associated with lower stigma, while negative emotions and greater proactivity were associated with higher stigma, and emotional competence was a strong predictor of empathy. Conclusions: The study identified notable sociodemographic and psychosocial differences among healthcare professionals. Emotional competence strongly predicted empathy, which was inversely associated with cancer-related stigma, suggesting potential targets for interventions to improve attitudes towards cancer care. Furthermore, women exhibited significantly higher emotional competence and empathy than men, highlighting the importance of incorporating gender-specific perspectives into developing educational and support strategies for cancer healthcare professionals. Full article

Conversational agents increasingly incorporate socio-emotional cues to support more natural and socially engaging digital interactions. Prior research has shown that anthropomorphism and artificial empathy influence user evaluations; however, these dimensions are typically examined as static design features and often in isolation, leaving limited evidence on how users perceive socio-emotional behavior that adapts dynamically during real-time interaction. This study investigates the perception-based evaluation of adaptive socio-emotional behavior in conversational agents using a controlled Wizard-of-Oz design. In total, 72 participants (N = 72) interacted with a simulated agent across four digital communication channels under conditions of high versus low anthropomorphism and artificial empathy, enabling systematic variation in socio-emotional expression while preserving participants’ perception of autonomous system operation. User evaluations were assessed using established perceptual constructs, including trust, perceived reliability, satisfaction, service quality, perceived empathy, and anthropomorphism. The findings demonstrate that conversational agents exhibiting dynamically adaptive anthropomorphic and empathic behavior elicit consistently more positive user evaluations across all measured constructs compared to non-adaptive interaction. Validation analysis using the Godspeed scale confirmed clear differentiation between experimental conditions, highlighting the role of interaction-contingent adaptation relative to static socio-emotional cues in perceived human likeness and positive user responses. These results indicate that user perception can function as a human-centered evaluation layer for assessing adaptive conversational systems, enabling systematic measurement of socio-emotional performance under controlled conditions. More broadly, this study supports the design of adaptive AI systems that leverage real-time socio-emotional feedback to enhance trust, perceived service quality, and behavioral acceptance in digital service environments within a controlled Wizard-of-Oz evaluation context. Full article

Caring for adult children with disabilities represents a prolonged and emotionally demanding experience for family caregivers, frequently associated with psychological distress and reduced well-being. This study examined the effects of a group-based parent training program on key psychological dimensions in caregivers of adults with disabilities. One hundred and nine caregivers participated in a psychoeducational intervention and completed measures of self-compassion, perceived self-efficacy, emotional maturity, empathy, and adult attachment. Results showed significant improvements in self-compassion and self-efficacy, with trends toward more secure attachment patterns, while empathy remained stable. Overall, findings suggest that parent training can foster emotional regulation and caregiving processes. Full article

Background: Depression remains a major global health burden, yet fragmented care often leads to waiting times and unmet needs. Therefore, the Belgian collaborative Integrated Depression Care (IDECA) project strengthened primary care depression management by introducing a Reference Person Mental Wellbeing (RPMW) who functions as a case manager, supported by shared-care tools, structured psychoeducation modules, and targeted training for general practitioners (GPs). This study examines normalization in primary care practice. Methods: A single-arm, mixed-method study was implemented over 18 months in two Flemish Primary Care Zones (PCZ). Implementation outcomes were assessed every four months using the NoMAD questionnaire and analyzed using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Peer review sessions with professionals and interviews with patients were analyzed thematically. Caseload and service delivery were assessed using process evaluation logs. Results: Twenty-two professionals (17 GPs, two RPMWs, and three PCZ staff members) completed the NoMAD questionnaire. Intervention familiarity increased during the first eight months (T0–T1: p < 0.001; T1–T2: p = 0.022) and continued to rise thereafter (T3–T4: p = 0.008). Integration into daily practice and perceived impact on professional work improved progressively, reaching near-ceiling scores. Peer review sessions highlighted the RPMW’s central role in trust-building and care coordination. Over 12 months, one full-time equivalent RPMW supported 175 patients (mean age 40.7 years; 75% female), with an average of five consultations per patient. Patients reported high satisfaction, emphasizing accessibility, empathy, and practical support. Conclusions: Sustained results suggest successful normalization and support the potential of collaborative, low-threshold depression care. Future work will assess clinical and economic outcomes. Full article

This study examines how digital technologies are reshaping customer–brand relationships and contributing to social change in the hospitality sector by humanizing brands in the digital age. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory (SET), the research investigates how brand anthropomorphism—enabled and amplified through digital interfaces—fosters perceived empathy and customer engagement, ultimately driving hotel brand evangelism. Using survey data from 466 customers of five-star hotels in Egypt, the study employs PLS-SEM with WarpPLS v.8 to test the proposed framework. The findings demonstrate that brand anthropomorphism significantly enhances perceived empathy and customer engagement, with perceived empathy partially mediating the relationship between anthropomorphism and engagement. Customer engagement, in turn, partially mediates the effect of anthropomorphism on brand evangelism. Crucially, perceived technological empowerment strengthens both the impact of brand anthropomorphism on customer engagement and the influence of engagement on brand evangelism. These results highlight the pivotal role of digital technologies in transforming customer–brand exchanges from transactional interactions into socially embedded, trust-based relationships. By integrating emotional, relational, and technological dimensions, the study extends SET to digitally mediated service contexts and contributes to broader debates on technology-driven social change. Managerially, the findings offer guidance for hospitality organizations seeking to design empathetic, human-like, and technologically empowering service experiences that foster customer advocacy in the digital era. By conceptualizing brand evangelism as a form of digitally mediated social influence, this study advances understanding of how micro-level customer behaviors contribute to social change in contemporary hospitality service ecosystems. Full article

This study examines the intercultural competence of Greek primary school teachers and early childhood educators enrolled in the Joint Master’s Program Intercultural Education & Mediation at the University of Patras. Using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), the study assessed both perceived and developmental orientations of intercultural competence. The results reveal a significant gap between teachers’ self-assessed and actual competence, with most participants positioned in a minimization orientation—emphasizing commonalities while overlooking the educational value of cultural differences. Such an orientation limits teachers’ ability to fully engage with diversity, often resulting in superficial approaches to multicultural classrooms. The findings underscore the urgent need for systematic professional development in intercultural competence, diversity education, and critical self-reflection. Within this framework, the practicum of the Master’s program emerges as a key mechanism for transformation: through immersive experiences in schools, NGOs, and community organizations, coupled with structured reflective practices, teachers confront real intercultural challenges and develop adaptability, empathy, and resilience. By bridging theory with practice, the practicum fosters meaningful growth in intercultural mindset, enabling educators to acknowledge their biases, embrace cultural diversity as an asset, and design inclusive learning environments. Overall, the study contributes to the literature on intercultural competence and teacher education, offering insights into the challenges Greek educators face and the role of practicum-based learning in fostering culturally responsive teaching. Full article

Background: Service quality and patient satisfaction are key indicators of healthcare performance, yet disparities remain between public hospitals and private clinics in Peru. Understanding these differences is essential for improving patient-centered care and advancing Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-Being). The study examined how perceived service quality relates to user satisfaction in Trujillo’s private and public institutions. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 480 users from public and private healthcare institutions. Service quality was assessed using the SERVQUAL model, and user satisfaction was measured with a validated Likert-scale instrument. Data did not follow a normal distribution (Kolmogorov–Smirnov test); thus, nonparametric statistics were applied. A two-step cluster analysis was additionally performed to identify user profiles based on the five quality dimensions of quality. Results: Participants from both health centers exhibited a range of sociodemographic profiles with regard to age, gender and income. Private clinics reported high levels of perceived service quality (95.8%) and user satisfaction (89.3%), whereas the public hospital showed moderate ratings in both dimensions. In the public setting, empathy and tangible elements emerged as significant predictors of satisfaction, while in private clinics, these same dimensions exhibited negative associations. The cluster analysis identified two distinct user profiles, with tangibles and reliability being the most influential predictors. Conclusions: Significant differences were observed between private and public institutions. Although service quality was positively associated with satisfaction, its explanatory power was limited, suggesting the influence of additional unmeasured factors. This study opens avenues for future research on how differentiated strategies can be scaled and adapted to strengthen public healthcare delivery in Peru, ensuring alignment with equitable and patient-centered care principles promoted by SDG 3. Full article

This study aims to examine the impact of empathetic leadership in corporate communication, focusing on its role in enhancing employee well-being and fostering a positive workplace culture. It explores how empathetic communication contributes to trust, engagement, and long-term organizational success. Based on an international survey conducted among communication professionals in Canada and the United States (n = 1055), our analyses revealed significant gender disparities in the perception of empathy among senior communication leaders, with male professionals reporting higher perceived empathy compared to female professionals. Additionally, hierarchical position influenced perceptions, with higher-ranking employees reporting stronger empathic leadership. Perceptions of increased empathic communication over the past year were notably higher among men, older employees, and those with more experience. Empathetic leadership demonstrated a strong positive correlation with employee engagement and organizational commitment but did not significantly impact burnout. Findings from this study contribute to a broader understanding of how leadership empathy varies across professional environments and demographic groups, underscoring the complex dynamics of gender and organizational structure in shaping workplace experiences. Findings in our study contribute to both the advancement of leadership theory and the improvement of corporate communication practice. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges, requiring compliance with public health measures. Notably, guilt is a powerful motivator for rule adherence; however, different types of guilt could have fueled the decision to stay home. This study investigated how guilt propensity influenced Italians’ self-reported motivations for adhering to containment rules. The propensity to different types of guilt, namely deontological and altruistic, was assessed in a total of 393 participants (261 females, 66.4%; 132 males, 33.6%; M age = 34.4, SD = 12.6) in May 2020, between the first and the second phases of Italian lockdown. The survey assessed four guilt dispositions—Moral Norm Violation (MNV), Moral Dirtiness (MODI), Harm-based guilt (HARM), and Empathy-based guilt (EMPATHY)—alongside fear of COVID-19, trust in authorities, and motivations for rule compliance (e.g., protecting one’s own and others’ well-being, respecting authorities, and avoiding sanctions). MNV emerged as a positive predictor of prosocial, authority-based and personal motivations, whereas MODI predicted lower prosocial motivation. HARM selectively predicted prosocial motivation and was negatively associated with authority-based motivations, while EMPATHY negatively predicted self-focused motivations. Moderation analyses revealed small but significant interaction effects, indicating that fear of COVID-19 slightly amplified the influence of EMPATHY and attenuated the effect of HARM, whereas trust in authorities strengthened the link between EMPATHY and prosocial compliance and reduced the association between MNV and prosocial motivations. These findings suggest that compliance during the pandemic was shaped by distinct emotional–moral pathways and that the motivational impact of guilt depends on perceived threat and institutional trust, highlighting the relevance of specific guilt profiles in promoting cooperative and health-protective behaviors. Full article

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into healthcare systems worldwide, including mental health services. While AI holds promise for improving efficiency and addressing workforce shortages, its role in psychiatry remains complex due to the central importance of empathy, clinical judgment, and ethical responsibility. Understanding clinicians’ perceptions is essential for guiding responsible AI implementation, particularly in culturally specific settings such as Saudi Arabia. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among psychiatrists and family medicine physicians in Saudi Arabia between October and December 2025. The survey questionnaire was adapted from previously published instruments to assess perceptions of AI’s impact on mental health professions, the likelihood that AI could fully replace clinicians in ten core psychiatric tasks, expected timelines for replacement, and views on the balance between AI’s benefits and risks. Descriptive statistics, subgroup comparisons, and multivariable linear regression were used to analyze factors associated with higher perceived AI replacement likelihood. Results: A total of 100 physicians participated (mean age, 43.3 ± 8.9 years; 47% female). Most respondents anticipated that AI would lead to slight (45.0%) or substantial (43.0%) changes in professional roles. Perceptions varied by task: administrative tasks were most replaceable (clinical documentation, 4.03 ± 0.95; 79% likely), diagnostic/assessment tasks showed mixed perceptions (40–58%), high-risk diagnostics (suicidal/homicidal thoughts) were largely resistant (2.73–2.82; 8–30%), and relational tasks including empathetic care were least replaceable (24% likely). Physicians currently using AI tools reported significantly higher AI replacement likelihood scores, a finding that remained significant after adjustment. Overall, 64.0% of participants believed that the benefits of AI in mental health care outweighed its potential risks. Conclusions: Mental health professionals in Saudi Arabia largely view AI as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for clinicians. Clear boundaries remain around tasks requiring empathy and ethical judgment. These findings underscore the need for culturally sensitive, clinician-led, and ethically grounded AI integration strategies that strengthen, rather than undermine, the human foundations of mental health care. Full article

The rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems has transformed health information seeking, raising questions about their role as intermediaries in non-professional health self-consultation. This study compares Google Search and ChatGPT as paradigmatic models of algorithmic mediation of health information, focusing on accuracy, biases, information quality and potential harms. A scoping review was conducted following the PRISMA-ScR framework. Empirical studies published between 2023 and 2025 were retrieved from PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. After screening and eligibility assessment, 63 original empirical studies were included. The results indicate that ChatGPT consistently outperforms Google Search in terms of factual accuracy and information quality, achieving moderate to high DISCERN scores (4–5 out of 5) and showing moderate to strong correlations with expert clinical evaluations. Users also tend to value ChatGPT responses positively due to their clarity, coherence and perceived empathy. However, these advantages coexist with significant structural limitations. Hallucinations are reported in an estimated 31–45% of references, source provenance remains opaque, linguistic complexity is high, and actionability is limited, with only around 40% of responses providing clearly actionable guidance. In contrast, Google Search offers greater source traceability and verifiability, but at the cost of fragmented information and higher exposure to commercial content. The review identifies critical research gaps related to behavioural impacts, critical health literacy, equity of access, professional integration and vulnerable contexts. Overall, the findings highlight the need for hybrid human–AI models, professional mediation and critical AI literacy to ensure safe, equitable and trustworthy use of generative AI in public health communication. Full article

AI-enabled technology (AI) has a transformational role in our modern society because it is increasingly used as an interaction partner, making anthropomorphism (tendency to ascribe human features to non-human agents) a central mechanism shaping how people evaluate, accept or resist AI systems. Existing technology acceptance models and anthropomorphism frameworks, however, offer limited guidance on how human-like attributes of AI translate into perceptions of usefulness, perceived control, perceived opportunity or threats, particularly across different levels of AI autonomy. Building on the theory of planned behavior, the technology acceptance model and threat rigidity model, this paper develops a mid-range conceptual framework of AI anthropomorphism grounded in universal social perception dimensions of warmth and competence. We integrate fragmented research to derive three core propositions and four corollaries that specify how warmth and competence attributions shape evaluative cognitions in relation to AI. The framework further identifies AI autonomy as a boundary condition under which anthropomorphic cues may either facilitate acceptance or trigger perceptions of pseudo-empathy, cognitive superiority and identity threat. By offering a parsimonious, theoretically informed model, this paper clarifies when anthropomorphism fosters acceptance versus resistance in human–AI interaction and provides a structured agenda for future empirical research and AI design aimed at fostering synergies and resilience in human–AI ecosystems. Full article

The purpose of this study is to explore how adolescents in self-contained classrooms or schools for students with autism or ADHD, with no prior involvement in criminality, perceive and interpret different forms of early offending behavior through fictional case stories. The study specifically aims to examine their ability to discern what constitutes offending behavior, based on the double empathy problem. In total, 13 participants currently receiving secondary-level education (grades 10–12, aged 16–20 years) in self-contained classes at schools for adolescents with autism or ADHD participated. No student had cognitive disabilities or had been involved in any criminal act or criminal justice issues. The students were individually given three fictional written cases of offending behavior (theft, physical assault, and sexual assault). Audio-recorded stimulated recall interviews were obtained while the students solved tasks in relation to the cases, and these were analyzed to capture whether and what aspects of early offending were discerned. Overall, the results indicated limited awareness and enhanced social vulnerability, risking unwitting engagement in early offending behavior. Adapting social science education to students’ special educational needs to understand social interactions might be used to prevent and enhance their awareness of early offending behavior. Full article

Virtual live streaming enables consumers to engage with virtual anchors, facilitating product information acquisition and online transactions. Despite its promising prospects, the field currently grapples with insufficient purchase intention. Anthropomorphizing virtual anchors in such contexts is common, yet the uncanny valley effect can undermine consumer acceptance. Drawing on mind perception and anthropomorphism theories, we explore factors influencing purchase intention in virtual live streaming. Analyzing data from 197 Taobao virtual live streaming consumers, we find that utility and responsiveness positively affect perceived agency, while friendliness and empathy enhance perceived experience. Moreover, perceived agency and experience positively affect purchase intention. Anthropomorphism strengthens the link between utility/responsiveness and perceived agency but weakens the association between friendliness and perceived experience. Our findings offer insights for both research and practice, though limitations are acknowledged and discussed. Full article