Virtual Reality CAN teach Empathy
Occupational training requires two threads to be effective, technical skill development and empathic practices. Like most content training organizations, our priority focus has been ensuring strong technical skill retention. However, the more we research positive employment, the more critical empathetic teaming and collegial working relationships are equally important and need to be embedded in the training approach. Three types of empathy can be taught exceptionally effectively through Virtual Reality (VR) training. VR provides authentic working environments and simulates working scenarios where the user is asked to make technical skill decisions while working with a team guided by empathy. According to psychologist Daniel Goleman, the three types of empathy are:
Cognitive Empathy: the ability to understand another's perspective. This requires leaders to think about their feelings rather than feel them directly. Emotionally intelligent and effective leaders know their feelings and can explain them.
Emotional Empathy: the ability to physically feel another person’s feelings. This type of empathy helps people feel attuned to another person’s emotions and provides the ability to feel others’ emotions quickly without thinking deeply.
Empathic Concern: the ability to sense what another need from you. Empathic concern is “other-oriented” in that it involves feeling for the other person, such as feeling sorry for, sympathy for, respect for, and so on. Excellent leaders have a keen sense of being present with others.
Virtual Reality can teach empathy across various scenarios so that the user can walk in others’ shoes, including workplace teaming, customer relations, health and social services providers, understanding cultural sensitivity, and the level of environmental impact. When researchers at Stoney Brook compared the effect of a virtual experience versus a real-life experience, they found no significant difference between the two.
At Virtual Apprentice, we believe that VR is the future of training. We are committed to designing training that combines technical and empathetic training to enhance sustainable employment and vital career pathways.