ArticlePDF Available

Empathy for service: benefits, unintended consequences, and future research agenda

Authors:

Abstract

Purpose Empathy is a core characteristic of helping and caring interactions and thus is fundamental to service. Yet, to date, service marketing literature has focused on a restricted view of the value of empathy as it leads to improved service quality perceptions and successful sales outcomes. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the empathy literature and the dispositional and situational factors affecting it, so as to further explore its potential benefits and limitations for service. Design/methodology/approach A summative review of the empathy literature uncovers cause–effect relationships and their potential boundary conditions. Theoretical propositions set an agenda for future research on empathy for service that breaks new ground. Findings Empathy can reduce anti-social, revenge, discrimination and unethical behaviors in service settings. It can also improve value-in-context experiences for users of service innovations. Notwithstanding its potential benefits, empathy can diminish the objectivity and performance of service providers when experienced at extreme levels. Empathy can also serve as an ingratiation influence tactic and can be detrimental to the target in embarrassing service contexts. Originality/value This paper suggests propositions for future research to advance theory and managerial practice on the use of empathy to improve service outcomes for interacting actors. It also alludes to the potential dark side of empathy when experienced at excessive levels or when used to manipulate.
Journal of Services Marketing
Empathy for service: benefits, unintended consequences, and future research agenda
Liliana L. Bove,
Article information:
To cite this document:
Liliana L. Bove, (2019) "Empathy for service: benefits, unintended consequences, and future research agenda", Journal of
Services Marketing, Vol. 33 Issue: 1, pp.31-43, https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-10-2018-0289
Permanent link to this document:
https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-10-2018-0289
Downloaded on: 16 May 2019, At: 14:50 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 103 other documents.
To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 109 times since 2019*
Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:
(2019),"Introducing the transformative service mediator: value creation with vulnerable consumers", Journal of
Services Marketing, Vol. 33 Iss 1 pp. 5-15 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-10-2018-0282">https://doi.org/10.1108/
JSM-10-2018-0282</a>
(2019),"Triggers and motivators of privacy protection behavior on Facebook", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 33 Iss 1 pp.
57-72 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-10-2018-0287">https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-10-2018-0287</a>
Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:472570 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service
information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit
www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of
more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online
products and additional customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics
(COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.
*Related content and download information correct at time of download.
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
Empathy for service: benets, unintended
consequences, and future research agenda
Liliana L. Bove
Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
Purpose Empathy is a core characteristic of helping and caring interactions and thus is fundamental to service. Yet, to date, service marketing
literature has focused on a restricted view of the value of empathy as it leads to improved service quality perceptions and successful sales outcomes.
The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the empathy literature and the dispositional and situational factors affecting it, so as to further
explore its potential benets and limitations for service.
Design/methodology/approach A summative review of the empathy literature uncovers causeeffect relationships and their potential boundary
conditions. Theoretical propositions set an agenda for future research on empathy for service that breaks new ground.
Findings Empathy can reduce anti-social, revenge, discrimination and unethical behaviors in service settings. It can also improve value-in-context
experiences for users of service innovations. Notwithstanding its potential benets, empathy can diminish the objectivity and performance of service
providers when experienced at extreme levels. Empathy can also serve as an ingratiation inuence tactic and can be detrimental to the target in
embarrassing service contexts.
Originality/value This paper suggests propositions for future research to advance theory and managerial practice on the use of empathy to
improve service outcomes for interacting actors. It also alludes to the potential dark side of empathy when experienced at excessive levels or when
used to manipulate.
Keywords Conceptual, Service, Empathy, Helping behavior, Well-being, Service encounters, Perspective taking, Caring,
Frontline service employees, Customer care, Dysfunctional customers, Emphatic concern
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
Let me hold the door for you. I may have never walked in your shoes, but I
can see your soles are worn, your strength is torn under the weight of a story
I have never lived before. Let me hold the door for you. After all youve
walked through, Its the least I can do. (Morgan Harper Nichols)
Empathy is a tool for effective human interactions. Although it
can be dened and measured in many ways, it is typically
viewed as encompassing both a cognitive and an affective
component. Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand
other peoples perspectives, to see their point of view and to
anticipate their reactions (Devoldre et al., 2010). Affective
empathy is the ability to feel an emotional response congruent
with the perceived welfare of others (Davis, 1983;Batson et al.,
2002). Labeled empathic concern, this form of empathy
enables a person to sense and respond to anothers emotions
without experiencing the stimuli that prompted this emotion
(Davis, 1983).
Empathy is an important psychological phenomenon, and in
the service marketing literature, it has been shown to be a key
factor for successful interactions between customers and
frontline employees (FLEs) (Davis et al.,2017). For example,
empathy promotes helping behavior (Axtell et al.,2007), social
support (Devoldre et al.,2010), service quality perceptions
(Wieseke et al.,2012), sales performance (Drollinger and
Comer, 2013) and forgiveness following service failures
(Wieseke et al.,2012). Much of the service-related literature on
empathy is in health care, which is not surprising given
that empathy is a key skill for professional helpers and
caretakers, e.g. nurses, counsellors, therapists and physicians
(Reynolds and Scott, 2000), in managing vulnerable clients
who are anxious, in pain and uncertain (Ye et al.,2017).
However, not only the presence of empathy but also its notable
absence can negatively affect customersexperiences and hurt
service providers. Clients who need assistance will not be
satised with the service experience if they believe their
situation is not understood. For example, clients may view
service providers that fail to display empathy during times of
crises, bereavement or death as offensive (Turley and
ODonohoe, 2017).
A review of the empathy literature indicates that the value of
empathy can extend beyond the service encounter to improve
design thinking for service innovations (Windahl, 2017), to
guide ethical decision-making (Baker, 2017) and to offer brand
reputation protection (Allard et al.,2016). Thus, the aim of this
paper is to provide a review of empathy and explore its potential
benets and limitations for service. Several research
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0887-6045.htm
Journal of Services Marketing
33/1 (2019) 3143
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 0887-6045]
[DOI 10.1108/JSM-10-2018-0289]
The author greatly thanks Han Ung and Kristian Causovski for their
assistance with the literature search.
Received 14 October 2018
Revised 14 November 2018
27 November 2018
Accepted 28 November 2018
31
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
propositions set an agenda for the future exploration of
empathy in service.
This article begins with a concept analysis of empathy
(Section 2) before teasing out the many benets empathy offers
to the individual, organization and society (Section 3). This is
followed by an in-depth discussion on the different ways that
empathy can be evoked through the individuals predisposition,
context and skill (Section 4). Finally, the potential unintended
consequences of empathy are probed in Section 5, as well as the
future need for empathy given the increasing trend of replacing
FLEs with articial intelligence (AI).
2. The concept of empathy
Empathy broadly refers to the reactions of one individual to
the observed experiences of another(Davis, 1983, p.113). As
indicated, empathy has both cognitive and affective aspects in
its response. The cognitive component is synonymous with
perspective taking(Preston and de Waal, 2002)oractively
projecting oneself into the shoes of another person(Preston
et al.,2007, p. 254), and it enables a person to understand the
roles or viewpoints of others (Devoldre et al.,2010). It is also
referred to as theory of mindor mind reading(Baron-
Cohen, 2008). The affective component, also referred to as
empathic concern,involves an internal emotional reaction
that enables understanding of anothers feelings or trying on
the emotion of that person, e.g. feel their pain(Preston and
de Waal, 2002).
During empathizing, there is an appropriate emotional
reaction to the others emotional state (Baron-Cohen et al.,
2003). While the emotions expressed by an observer may be
identical or similar to those of the target (i.e. emotional
contagion; Miller and Eisenberg, 1988), empathy occurs when
the observer feels warmth, compassion and concern for the
other (Davis, 1983;Eisenberg and Lennon, 1983). Indeed, six
adjectives are commonly used to tap into feelings of empathy:
sympathetic, soft-hearted, warm, compassionate, tender and
moved (Cialdini et al., 1997;Batson et al.,2007). However,
empathy should not be confused with sympathy, which involves
feeling sorry for the target of misfortune or imaging how it
would feel to experience the negative event. Instead, empathy
involves imaging what it is like to be other individuals, adopt
their terms of reference and experience things as they do, not
as we would(Wiseman, 1996, p. 1164).
This paper examines four themes of empathy for their relevance
to service research (Figure 1).Thesearethebeneciaries of
empathy for service; how empathy can be aroused through
predisposition, context or training; the potential unintended
consequences of empathy; and the future of empathy, especially
with the rise of non-humanized services. For each theme, the
paper summarizes extant literature and introduces novel
propositions as applied to service.
3. Beneciaries of empathy
Empathy offers a broad range of benets at the micro, meso
and macro levels. To the target individual and even the in-
group to which the individual belongs, empathy motivates
helping behavior, facilitates social bonding and enhances social
support. Empathy benets the service organization by
improving perceptions of service quality, increasing consumer
compliance, promoting customer forgiveness after a service
failure, offering some protection of brand reputation and
enabling design thinking. Last, empathy contributes to a
kinder, gentler society by improving moral decision-making,
reducing prejudice and discouraging anti-social behavior in
service settings. Although the benets of empathy serve the
agent (individual, organization and society), the effects of
empathy spill over to each level.
3.1 Individual or in-group as beneciaries
3.1.1 Motivates helping behavior
Empathy increases prosocial behavior to the individual in need,
even when the behavior may entail a cost to the individual or is
to the detriment of the common good (Batson and Moran,
1999). This relationship between empathy and helping
Figure 1 Empathy framework for service
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
32
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
behavior has received strong empirical support in social
psychology literature. What remains unresolved, however, is
the mechanism by which empathy evokes helping behavior
toward the target or even individuals not the initial source of
concern (Barnett et al.,1981). Batson et al. (1997) argue that
empathic emotion (imagining how a person in need feels)
evokes altruistic motivation intended to benet the person for
whom empathy is felt. However, Cialdini et al. (1997) present a
strong opposing view of this altruistic motive. They argue that
when one takes the perspective of another, there is a merging of
conceptual identities of the self and the other. Thus, empathy-
associated helping is not seless but is rooted in the [...] desire
to help that part of the self that is located in the other
(Neuberg et al., 1997, p. 510). Other researchers argue that
heightened empathy for a target brings increased personal
distress (a self-focused, aversive affective reaction to the
apprehension of anothers emotion; e.g. discomfort, anxiety,
guilt, shame or sadness) (Barnett et al., 1981). Thus, the goal of
helping behavior is to relieve the negative state rather than to
relieve the sufferer, as this action is anticipated to enhance
mood (Cialdini et al., 1987). To resolve the differing
perspectives, Preston and de Waal (2002) suggest that all forms
of empathy involve some level of emotional contagion and
personal distress, and thus, helping is never entirely for the sake
of the recipient (altruistic motivation), as it provides some relief
to the negative state felt.
Helping behaviors that derive from empathy can take many
forms depending on the context of the service interaction. In a
call-center context, helping induced by empathy may entail a
service agent going beyond what is normally expected, showing
persistence to overcome obstacles, helping a customer solve a
problem even when it is personally inconvenient and
anticipating and preventing problems that may arise (Axtell
et al., 2007). In a hospitality context, empathy for a waiter who
works hard and earns a low wage can lead customers to tip
more than the norm (Azar, 2005;Davis et al.,2017). In a
manufacturing context, Parker and Axtell (2001) show that
empathy in the form of perspective taking facilitates considerate
and helpful acts toward personnel external to a team, including
internal suppliers.
Although research has validated the empathyhelping
behavior relationship in the customerFLE dyad, the boundary
conditions are yet to be dened. For example, a history of
unfair interactions can reduce motivations to empathetically
share anothers suffering and engage in helping behavior
(Paulus et al., 2018). That is, a service provider is unlikely to
assist a customer through discretionary helping behavior in
times of need if he or she perceives past interactions with the
customer as unjust, i.e. where the customer has typically
demanded a discount after receipt of the service:
P1. Poor justice perceptions are likely to attenuate the
relationship between empathy and discretionary helping
behavior.
Furthermore, the empathyhelping behavior relationship has
not been explored in customer-to-customer interactions, such
as online brand communities. In such contexts, anticipated
hedonic rewards (e.g. fun, enjoyment and entertainment) can
motivate helping behavior (Baldus et al., 2015). Even in
situations when brand community members indicate their need
or distress, the public setting, community norms or in-group
identity may overshadow the need for empathy to prompt
helping behavior:
P2. Empathy is not a salient driver of helping behavior in
brand communities.
3.1.2 Facilitates social bonding
Empathy strengthens social bonding through the development
of rapport (Norfolk et al.,2007) in three ways (Anderson and
Keltner, 2003). First, empathy coordinates the actions of
individuals in a rapid, automatic fashion, which allows them to
respond more effectively as a collective to potential
opportunities or threats. Second, empathy helps solve the
problem of second-guessing othersthoughts and intentions,
which is highly inefcient. When individuals feel similar
emotions, they are better able to understand each other, to take
each others perspective and, thus, to accurately perceive each
others motivations and intentions. Third, empathy signals
solidarity. When individuals feel similar emotions, they
communicate to each other that they are in unity, sharing a
common cause.
Empathy can facilitate and enhance commercial
relationships (Beatty et al.,1996) and contribute to rapport-
building behaviors between FLEs and customers (Gremler and
Gwinner, 2008). An empathetic salesperson can read what type
of relationship a customer expects and desires from a close
and personal to a distant but still functional relationship (Beatty
et al., 1996). Indeed, the practice of adaptive selling is
predicated on the salespersons ability to empathize with the
customer and to gather information to facilitate interaction
adaptation (Spiro and Weitz, 1990):
P3. Empathy facilitates social bonding and the practice of
adaptive selling.
3.1.3 Enhances social support
Empathy (especially with regard to perspective taking) offers
two types of social support: emotional and instrumental
(Devoldre et al.,2010). Emotional support involves providing
encouragement and assurance to the target individual. By
contrast, instrumental support attempts to directly address the
problem and involves making specic suggestions, giving
helpful advice or providing access to information about the
problem (Devoldre et al., 2010). Health needs, for example, are
frequently psychosocial in nature and are distinct from diseases
diagnosed and treated by physicians. Concerns about body
image, sexuality, immobility, pain and death require empathy
from clinical professionals to reduce the anxiety and depressive
state of affected clients, improve their self-concept and
minimize their likelihood to adopt maladaptive coping styles,
such as denial, alcohol and drug abuse, withdrawal or hostility
(Reynolds and Scott, 2000).
Not just do clients benet from empathy-induced social
support, but as Rosenbaum and Massiah (2007) show in a
commercial establishment (e.g. gym), recipients of social
support may also reciprocate by displaying customer care to the
service provider or other customers in the form of empathy and
an increased sense of personal responsibility:
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
33
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
P4. Empathy enhances social support and generalized
reciprocity in service relationships.
3.2 Service organization as beneciary
3.2.1 Contributes to service quality, consumer compliance and sales
performance
With the introduction of the SERVQUAL instrument to
measure customersperceptions of service quality in the early
1990s (Berry et al., 1990), empathy took a prominent position
in service literature as it was identied as one of the ve service
quality dimensions. In this application, empathy is dened in
terms of its manifestations, namely, a service providers display
of a caring attitude and individualized attention to customers.
Empathetic service personnel are more in tune with the
subtle social signals that indicate that customers are in need or
in distress, and it is their ability and willingness to take the
perspective of customers and respond to them in a sensitive
congruent way that leads to positive service quality perceptions
(Wieseke et al., 2012). For example, perceiving a health
professional as empathetic leads to greater adherence to
therapy (Pollak et al.,2007;Morse et al., 2008) and increased
protability (Ye et al.,2017) through satisfaction. Indeed,
cognitive empathy of FLEs increases their ability to accurately
identify customershierarchy of needs (Homburg et al., 2011).
Furthermore, empathy has a positive impact on sales
performance. For example, the relationship between
salespeoples customer-oriented attitudes and behavior (as
perceived by customers) is strengthened when their empathy is
high (Stock and Hoyer, 2005). Salespeople who practice
empathetic listening also achieve successful selling outcomes
(Drollinger and Comer, 2013). Delpechitre et al. (2018) nd
that a salespersons empathy strengthened the positive
association between perceiving and regulating emotions and
also customer participation, citizenship behavior and
commitment to the salesperson. Moreover, cognitive empathy
increases the quality of the relationship (assessed in terms of
trust, commitment, reciprocity and exchange efciency)
between business solution customers and their project manager
or consultant (Prior, 2016). Similarly, WeiBhaar and Huber
(2016) show that client perceptions of consulting agents
empathy contributed to their trustworthiness, (especially in
younger relationships) and identied a positive direct link
between agentsempathy (perspective taking) and their
objective sales performance.
In turn, when customers are induced to feel empathy for the
service provider, satisfaction with the service increases (Davis
et al., 2017). For example, athletesempathy for their coach
increased their satisfaction levels with the training they received
during the season (Jowett et al., 2012). This potential for
customersempathy to alter their perceptions of the service
providers performance is an angle worthy of further
exploration. For example, research suggests that customer
feelings of empathy for a service provider increase service
convenience perceptions (by lowering perceived time and
energy costs) (Berry et al., 2002):
P5. Evoking empathy in customers will improve their service
quality evaluations.
3.2.2 Promotes forgiveness
An individual will forgive another to the extent that he or she
experiences empathy. Forgiveness reduces the motivation to
seek revenge and/or remain estranged from the offending
individual and increases the motivation to pursue conciliatory
courses of action to help restore the damaged relationship
(McCullough et al.,1997). Findings in service literature
indicate that customer empathy attenuates the negative effects
of customer dissatisfaction on customer loyalty by enhancing
forgiveness (Wieseke et al., 2012). This is because empathetic
customers are likely to attribute situational factors rather than
personal dispositions to the causes of service failures (Wieseke
et al.,2012). Similarly, high empathy for customers attenuates
FLEsdesire to extract revenge for any uncivil behavior by
reducing blame attributions (Bedi and Schat, 2017). However,
if FLEs have already assigned blame to customers or the act of
empathizing fails to provide an excuse for their uncivil
behavior, empathy increases rather than decreases the
likelihood of enacted revenge (Bedi and Schat, 2017).
Relatedly, following a service failure, an empathy bias in
employees who are empowered to respond to customers who
voice their dissatisfaction can help restore customer trust. Van
Laer et al. (2013) demonstrate that individuals primed with an
empathy bias rather than a self-sufciency bias take greater
responsibility for customersservice failure and are more willing
to respond to the integrity violation. Similarly, Min et al. (2015)
show that the simple act of offering an empathetic statement in
response to a negative online review improved customers
rating of the response:
P6. Empathy for service providers or customers facilitates
forgiveness following a service failure by reducing
attribution of blame.
3.2.3 Protects brand reputation
Negative word-of-mouth expressed in brand online reviews
that consumers perceive as unfair trigger feelings of empathy
for the affected brand, especially when the brand is relatable
and person-like(Allard et al., 2016). This empathetic
concern activates positive consumer responses intended to
compensate the brand, such as liking of the brand, willingness
to pay, likelihood to recommend and patronage intentions. The
levels of positive consumer responses can even exceed those
resulting from a positive online review, especially under
conditions of high trait empathy (Allard et al.,2016):
P7. Empathy for a brand protects the brand from negative
word-of-mouth reputational damage.
3.2.4 Enables design thinking
Design thinking offers a structured methodology for generating
innovation, which begins by developing an understanding of
usersneeds and behavior by observing users in their natural
environments and developing empathy for them (Butler and
Roberto, 2018). Empathy leads to a deep understanding for
markets to berather than the rms technological capabilities
(Windahl, 2017). For example, the Hasso Plattner Institute of
Design at Stanford, which offers design-thinking education,
articulates a ve-stage model of design thinking in which
empathy is located in the center. An empathetic grasp of the
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
34
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
meaning of customersworlds not only informs design thinking
but is likely to improve value-in-context service experiences:
P8. Empathy is crucial for successful design thinking for
service innovations.
Not only is empathy a key component of design thinking but
also teaching design thinking in action can unblock empathy in
prison inmates, thereby reducing their chances of reoffending
(Gamman and Thorpe,2018):
P9. Design thinking can serve an intervention to improve the
empathy skills of transgressed populations.
3.3 Society as beneciary
3.3.1 Improves moral decision-making
The extent to which individuals empathize with those faced by
potential harm inuences their moral recognition and the
corresponding ethical decision-making process (Mencl and
May, 2009). For example, perspective taking can inhibit
salespeople from making a sale if it is likely to have negative
consequences for clients (McBane, 1995). Indeed, empathy is a
moral emotion, and its presence can enhance an individuals
moral recognition of an ethical situation, especially when one
or multiple stakeholders may suffer as a result of a decision
(Mencl and May, 2009;Baker, 2017). In addition to moral
recognition, empathy inuences moral judgment or evaluation,
as it is through the concern for others that individuals are better
able to evaluate the potential adverse effects of their decisions
and actions (Mencl and May, 2009). Furthermore, as empathic
responsiveness is positively correlated with proneness to guilt, it
can increase the sense of responsibility, which motivates
reparative action when harm has occurred (Tangney, 1991).
These ndings unpack a range of explorations around the
empathy of service managers and delineate how empathy
affects their decision-making regarding the exclusion of service
or pricing advantages from customers deemed unprotable,
ignorant, or vulnerable:
P10. Evoking empathy in service managers will improve their
ethical decision-making regarding service offerings.
3.3.2 Reduces prejudice
Empathy induced by valuing anothers welfare (Batson et al.,
2007) can reduce prejudice and discrimination toward out-
group members (Castano, 2012). For example, Batson et al.
(2002) nd that inducing empathy for a stigmatized group
(drug addicts) not only improved attitudes toward individuals
addicted to drugs but also increased the level of donations
directed to this group. Pervan and Bove (2015) translate these
ndings to a stigmatized service worker context (e.g. mental
health social worker and child protection ofcer) and show that
inducing consumer empathy is an effective technique for
prompting more positive responses by the public to those in
stigmatized service roles affected by a crisis:
P11. Evoking empathy in customers and FLEs will reduce
the level of prejudice and stigmatization directed to
certain groups (e.g., refugees) in service encounters.
3.3.3 Discourages anti-social behavior
Empathy reduces antisocial behavior such as aggression, theft
and bullying (Miller and Eisenberg, 1988, for a review).
Giancola (2003) shows that alcohol can lead to increased
aggression in men with low dispositional empathy (especially at
low levels of provocation) but not in high-empathy men.
Relatedly, Sergeant et al. (2006) nd that trait empathy
correlated negatively with physical and verbal aggression, as
well as with anger and hostility, in both heterosexual and
homosexual men. Similarly, both male and female adolescents
who committed violent offences or had a high rate of offending
had low levels of empathy, especially affective empathy (Jolliffe
and Farrington, 2007). In a similar vein, a longitudinal study
showed that boys with a persistent trajectory in direct
aggression (physical assault and vandalism) but not indirect
aggression (theft) had lower levels of trait empathy (Carrasco
et al.,2006).
Empathy can also hinder bullying behavior, which unlike
aggression (which can involve a random incidence) typically
involves repeated incidents. For example, in a study of middle-
school students, Mayberry and Espelage (2007) show that
students involved in bullying others reported lower levels of
trait empathy than those not involved. Conversely, Nickerson
et al. (2008) nd that middle-school students classied as
defenders of the victim from their responses (e.g. stops the
bullying by telling the teacher) scored higher on empathy than
those classied as observers. Jolliffe and Farrington (2011)
show that low affective empathy is related to bullying in male
adolescents, even after controlling for impulsivity, verbal
uency and socioeconomic status.
The favorable impact of empathy on reducing anti-social
behavior also extends to unethical negotiations. Cohen (2010)
shows using experiments with MBA students found that
empathic concern, but not perspective taking, discouraged
unethical bargaining practices, especially by women. Empathy
reduced the likelihood of attacking an opponentsnetworks,
mis-representing or lying about the nature and progress of
negotiations, paying contacts and bribing people with
expensive gifts to obtain inappropriate competitive information
and feigning positive and negative emotions to manipulate the
competition. This nding is ripe for testing in a professional
client or business-to-business service setting:
P12. Evoking empathy in buyers or suppliers will discourage
unethical negotiation practices for service.
Castano (2012) speculates why empathy may curtail the
incidence of anti-social behavior through its effects on encoding
social cues. First, high-empathy individuals may categorize an
event as non-threatening by virtue of their different
interpretations of the motives behind the behavior of the other
(cognitive empathy). Second, although both high- and low-
empathy individuals may interpret an event as threatening or
goal blocking, high-empathy individuals are less aggressive
because they anticipate the consequential suffering of the other
(empathic concern). Conversely, the behavior of low-empathy
individuals is not tempered by the vicarious experience or
recognition of the emotional states of others (Jolliffe and
Farrington, 2007).
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
35
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
In summary, research suggests that male customers with low
levels of trait empathy are at risk, as they are predisposed to
display anti-social behavior such aggression, especially under
the inuence of alcohol when they are cognitively disinhibited,
fearless and aroused. Although a wealth of research has
investigated how to manage customer misbehavior in service
and retail settings, including having FLEs fake empathy toward
offending customers (Reynolds and Harris, 2006), inducing
empathy in customers at risk is a research area worthy of
exploration:
P13. Evoking empathy in customers at risk will reduce the
propensity for anti-social behavior in service settings.
4. Empathy arousal: predisposition, context and
skill
As shown, empathy offers many potential benets for service.
So, how can organizations stimulate empathy in individuals?
The following sub-sections illustrate that the degree to which
individuals experience empathy is dependent on their
predisposition, the context and how much training they receive
in empathy skills.
4.1 Predisposition
Three characteristics predispose individuals to empathy: trait,
cognitive style preference and gender. Empathy as a trait
develops early in life, primarily in the form of distress at the
suffering and pain of others, and evolves over time to a capacity
to recognize others in distress (Castano, 2012). Trait empathy
is typically measured in individuals through self-reported
scales. For example, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis,
1983) is a 28-item measure comprising four dimensions:
perspective taking (tendency to take anothers perspective; e.g.
I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining
how things look from their perspective), empathic concern
(tendency to be compassionate and feel sympathy toward
another; e.g. I often have tender, concerned feelings for people
less fortunate than me), personal distress (tendency toward
self-oriented feelings of personal anxiety and unease; e.g.
When I see someone who badly needs help in an emergency, I
go to pieces) and fantasy (tendency to transpose oneself into
experiencing anothers thoughts and feelings; e.g. I really get
involved with the feelings of the characters in a novel). The
Empathy Quotient scale by Baron-Cohen et al. (2003) consists
of 60 items, 40 of which reect empathy and 20 of which are
ller items. Here, participants are asked to select their degree of
agreement with empathy-related statements. The Basic
Empathy Scale developed by Jolliffe and Farrington (2006)
measures the degree to which individuals understand and share
the emotions of others. The scale consists of 20 items that
reect cognitive (9 items) and affective (11 items) empathy. An
example of a reversed-order cognitive empathy item is It is
hard for me to understand when my friends are sad,and an
example of a reversed-order affective empathy item is I usually
feel calm when other people are scared(Jolliffe and
Farrington, 2007).
In addition to these generalizable empathy trait scales,
research has developed empathy scales for a specic
professional service role. For example, the Jefferson Scale of
Physician Empathy is designed to capture the essence of
empathetic care rendered by medical students, physicians and
other health professionals (Hojat et al., 2002). It is a 20-item
self-assessment tool measuring three dimensions of empathy:
perspective taking, compassionate care and standing in
patientsshoes (Lamothe et al.,2014).
A key limitation of these trait empathy scales is that they are
self-reported and do not measure clientsperceptions of service
professionalsempathy. This is critical in a service context in
which improved clientsexperiences and outcomes are
governed by whether they perceive service professionals as
having an accurate understanding of their world. In such cases,
it would make more sense to measure clientsperceptions of
service professionalscognitive (perspective-taking) and
affective (empathic concern) empathy. Indeed, the choice of
empathy measure should be dictated by whether the research
objective is to improve client or FLE outcomes.
One interesting application of trait empathy measurement is
the recruitment of individuals to service roles requiring care
and helping. Individuals who score high on trait empathy are
likely to choose social environments in which they encounter
many needy targets. This is because of the emotional responses
that they are expected to experience, leading to anticipated
satisfaction (Davis et al.,1999). For example, nurses with high
trait empathy likely expect to experience warm feelings,
pleasure and an increased sense of personal achievement from
subsequent positive emotions (e.g. relief and gratitude)
displayed by patients or their families as an outcome of
their helping behavior. Therefore, high-empathy service
professionals such doctors, nurses, councilors, teachers and
social workers are likely to experience more positive affect in
their roles and, in turn, high job satisfaction. This proposition is
yet to be explored in the literature, though related evidence
shows that high empathy is signicantly associated with low
burnout in both general practitioners and nurses (Yuguero
et al.,2017):
P14. Individuals with high trait empathy will experience high
job satisfaction when in care service roles.
Another form of predisposition to empathy is cognitive style
preference. Goyal et al. (2017) report that individuals with a
right brain hemisphere (i.e. visuospatial) preference have a
greater willingness to help others than individuals with a verbal
cognitive style. Empathic concern (other-oriented feelings), but
not other dimensions of empathy (i.e. perspective taking,
personal distress, and fantasy), mediates the effect of cognitive
style on willingness to help.
Being a woman also predisposes an individual to empathy
(for a review on the female advantage in empathizing, see
Baron-Cohen, 2008). Two theories dominate to explain this
phenomenon. First is the natural selection of human
evolution, as empathetic mothers are more successful in
reading their infantsemotional and physical needs and, as a
result, improve infantschances for survival (Baron-Cohen,
2008). Second, women are socialized to assume an
expressive role and thus are more willing to present
themselves as caring or sympathetic than men (Eisenberg
and Lennon, 1983).
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
36
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
4.2 Context
Individuals have a predisposition to be empathetic, but whether
they are or not depends on situational factors governing cue
salience that the target individual is in discomfort (Preston and
de Waal, 2002) or in need of help (Batson et al.,2007). This
cue salience is regulated by the strength of the perceptual signal
(i.e. its closeness, loudness and realism) (Preston and de Waal,
2002). For example, customers at the head of a queue may
notice that the FLE is suffering from role overload and feeling
stressed, by their proximity to the FLE and by processing
situational cues, such as the FLEs verbal and non-verbal
language.
Another way context can elicit empathy is through
perception of attachment-related cues such as kinship,
friendship, familiarity (the individual recalling a similar
experience) and similarity (perceiving the individual in need as
similar to oneself) (Cialdini et al.,1997). Kinship and
friendship are commonly characterized by close relationships
involving past and anticipated interactions, feelings of
obligation and a desire to demonstrate to the other that one
cares (Batson et al.,2007). These relationships may also be
characterized by interdependence (i.e. the extent to which the
individual is reliant on the target) (Preston and de Waal, 2002).
Both relationship closeness and interdependence lead to
valuing anothers welfare, spontaneously inducing perspective
taking (Batson et al., 2007).
Past experience and, thus, familiarity with the situation the
target is experiencing is another way cue salience is increased.
For example, a customer may recall how things were when he
or she was a young supermarket cashier and how horrible it felt
to be abused by a customer. Without similar past experiences,
the customer can only imagine what it is like to be a young
cashier, and empathy is likely to be less vivid and emotional
(Preston et al.,2007). Relatedly, perceptions of similarity to the
target individual can also increase cue salience (Preston and de
Waal, 2002). People will feel empathy for even an unknown
stranger insofar as they perceive the stranger as similar to
themselves on attributes unrelated to needs (e.g. age, gender,
background and values) (Batson et al., 2005):
P15. Individuals (customers or FLE) who perceive kinship,
friendship and familiarity with and/or similarity to target
individuals in need will feel more empathy toward them.
Still another way cue salience can be amplied is through
visualization and vivid imagery. According to Goyal et al.
(2017), visualization and vivid imagery are useful tools to
promote empathic concerns, as they activate the right brain
hemisphere and visuospatial cognition. Thus, an individuals
distress or need can be made more salient through the use of
vivid imagery in marketing communications. Argo et al. (2008)
provide supporting evidence by showing that conveying
protagonistssuffering and struggles in realnarratives fosters
deep emotional responses in receivers (captured by the number
of emotional words evoked), especially if they have
dispositional empathy and are transported into the story. This
potential tactic is largely under-explored in literature, especially
in terms of reducing anti-social behavior toward FLEs.
A practical illustration of inducing empathy through
visualization and vivid imagery comes from the UK Chelsea
Football Club (2018). Fans found guilty of anti-Semitic abuse
can reduce the length of their ban from games by attending an
educational visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp:
P16. The use of vivid imagery and narrative transportation
(in marketing communications) can help evoke
empathy for individuals, reducing the propensity for
anti-social behavior in service settings.
4.3 Skill
Although empathy is innate and can be induced by increasing
the salience of a cue, it is also an interpersonal skill (Baron-
Cohen, 2008), as it involves the ability to identify the state of
others, especially when that state differs from the self
(Eisenberg and Lennon, 1983). A common technique to
improve the empathetic skills of service providers is the use of
perspective-taking instructions (i.e. asking them to actively
imagine how the other person is affected by his or her situation)
(Batson et al., 2007). This can be achieved with multiple
methods such as role modeling, problem-solving games,
reective writing, story-telling, audio- or video-taping of
encounters with customers/patients, shadowing, group
discussion, role-playing, simulations (Manger et al., 2001;
Nickerson et al., 2008;Hojat, 2009;Everhart, 2016) and even
ekphrastic poetry, in which the individual speaks to a
photograph and, in doing so, enters into the spirit and feeling
of the others(Gorrell, 2000,p.38).
An example of a reective exercise is adapted from Castano
(2012) to a service setting:
Imagine going through your typical daily service encounters being conned
to a motorchair. Think of the different perspective you would have of your
city/suburb, being just a few feet lower. Think of the many obstacles that you
would encounter, such as a step that is too high for your motorchair to
mount, or a door too narrow for you to pass through, shop aisles too
congested for you to pass, shelves too high for you to reach and reception
counters too high for you to speak with the medical receptionist on the other
side. If you do this exercise, it is likely that your empathy for people in
motorchairs will increase.
Developing the skill of perspective taking works because of an
increase in overlap between the self and others (Castano,
2012). Such training opens up a range of possibilities to help
improve the service experiences of vulnerable and neglected
consumer groups, such as the elderly and handicapped.
Another way to improve the skill of empathy that is especially
popular in medical training is through empathic engagement,
which improves the ability to recognize empathic
opportunities(Hojat, 2009). This developed sensitivity is
critical, as research shows that physicians commonly miss,
avoid or prematurely terminate conversations about patients
concerns (Morse et al.,2008), even those of advanced cancer
patients (Pollak et al., 2007). On detecting an empathic
opportunity, health professionals should continue conversing
with patients about their concerns (expressed verbally or non-
verbally) and use statements such as I understand your
concern; lets work on it together(Hojat, 2009, p. 419).
A major premise for the success of these interventions is
improvement in the skill of empathy. However, given the over-
reliance on descriptive research in the literature, more
convincing empirical evidence is required to conrm the short-
and long-term effects of education interventions and their
relative efcacy:
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
37
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
P17. Empathy can be enhanced through educational
interventions, though their relative efcacy is unknown
for different service personnel cohorts.
Technology can also facilitate the skill of detecting need and
distress and responding with empathy. For example, a
customers emotional state in real time on an online platform
can be detected using software that analyzes language, speech
patterns and tones (Gorry and Westbrook, 2011). For service,
early detection of customer distress could prompt a call-center
representative to engage in empathetic communication or to
respond to a complaint in a more timely, empathetic manner.
Empathetic communication such as listening actively to
customers, identifying with their feelings and assuming their
perspective can lead to improved customer outcomes (Clark
et al.,2012):
P18. Customer linguistic cues of distress can prompt the
need for empathetic communication from service
providers, resulting in improved customer outcomes.
5. Unintended consequences of empathy
Scant research has uncovered the potential dark side of
empathy. What remains unclear, in particular, is the
relationship between the degree of empathy and the extent of
helping behavior directed to an individual customer or FLE, as
well as its implications to the rm and/or other customers. Does
too much empathy-induced helping take valuable resources
away from other customers? Batson et al. (1995) suggest that
this is indeed the case. They nd that participants who
experienced high empathy allocated more resources to the
target of empathy. These resources came not only at the
expense of the allocators personal welfare but also at
the expense of the groups welfare, reducing the overall
collective good:
P19. Empathy may lead to misappropriation of scarce
resources, reducing the well-being of the collective.
Also unknown are the effects of empathy-induced helping when
given in the presence of other customers. Does such helping
lead to improved brand reputation or jealousy and discontent?
Understanding the boundary conditions for empathy-induced
helping is an area ripe for exploration.
The combination of too much empathy and the inability to
relieve the suffering of others can lead to depression or rage
(Aucoin and Kreitzberg, 2018). Too much empathy can also
lead to compassion fatigue an acute inability to feel empathy
due to depleted cognitive resources (Waytz, 2016). These
ndings are counter to the protective role of cognitive empathy
in reducing burnout in general practitioners and nurses
mentioned previously (Lamothe et al., 2014;Yuguero et al.,
2017). A likely explanation for the conicting ndings is that
service personnel lose their ability to empathize with their
clients if they are burned out, typically due to a cumulation of
challenges such as sleep deprivation and role overload.
Moreover, a too elevated level of empathic concern (or
sympathetic feelings; Hojat, 2009) can potentially interfere
with objectivity in diagnoses, as shown in forensic evaluations
(Brodsky and Wilson, 2013) or treatment. For example,
empathetic medical practitioners use placebo prescriptions at a
higher rate than their lower empathetic counterparts, typically
to calm or appease patients and to distinguish between real and
imaginary symptoms (Braga-Simõs et al.,2017). Also
intriguing is that the perception of the efcacy of placebos is
high among patients when prescribed by an empathetic doctor,
suggesting that many doctors do not explain that they are
prescribing placebos (Braga-Simõs et al., 2017), which
questions their ethical use. Perhaps a better option to achieve
the same outcomes is for physicians to simply be attuned to
their patients and respond empathetically; Kelley and Kelley
(2013) argue that exposure to an empathetic person has a
palliative and healing effect on patients:
P20. Extreme levels of empathy by service personnel may
diminish their objectivity and job performance.
Unfortunately, people can also use empathy in manipulative
ways for example, to break down a claimants defenses,
inducing him or her to disclose incriminating evidence
(Brodsky and Wilson, 2013). Indeed, empathy can potentially
be used as a form of ingratiation inuence tactic. For example,
customers may feign empathy for FLEs to receive better service
or to increase their chances of compliance to a special request.
Similarly, FLEs may use empathy toward customers to extract
gifts of appreciation (e.g. higher tips):
P21. Empathy is a type of ingratiation inuence tactic that
can be used in manipulative ways by either customers or
service personnel to achieve their own self-serving goals.
Another potential issue is whether individuals in distress always
desire empathy from an indiscriminate other. Fremdscham,or
empathetically sharing the embarrassment of anothers
misfortune, is desired neither by the target, as it threatens his or
her social integrity, nor by the witness, as it leads to feelings of
discomfort (Paulus et al., 2018). This is an area in which little is
known, especially in terms of how FLEs can avoid the threat to
customerssocial integrity, particularly in situations when
customer mishaps occur:
P22. Empathy from others is not desirable in embarrassing
public service contexts.
6. Non-humanized service and empathy
Empathy is the most powerful way for humans to understand
and predict their social environment (Baron-Cohen et al.,
2003). Therefore, empathy as a higher-order social cognitive
ability, is the most difcult thing for AI to replicate (Huang and
Rust, 2018). FLEs sometimes face unusual events or special
requests from customers that require empathy and associated
helping behavior. The AI in chatbots and robots is currently not
capable of dealing with rare, extraordinary consumer requests
or personal crisis situations requiring not just problem solving
or subsequent referral but a level of empathy (Polani, 2017).
For example, Miner et al. (2016) show that conversational AI
agents such as Apples Siri, Google Now, Microsofts Cortana,
and Samsungs S Voice are variable in their empathetic
responses when consumers expressed depression, a physical
ailment, or physical or sexual assault. This nding is critical,
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
38
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
given the strong correlation between expressed empathy and
suicide caller hang-ups. Helpers who express low empathy have
signicantly higher hang-up rates by suicide callers than helpers
who express average or high empathy (Mishara et al.,2007).
However, even if the AI in a chatbot or robot is advanced
enough to detect customer distress and respond accordingly
with empathy, its expression is unlikely to appear authentic,
especially if it is exaggerated or out of sync with the unexpected
or difcult context. Empathy is a high-touchskill that
humanizes care (Reynolds and Scott, 2000); thus, doubting the
sincerity of an expression of empathy would simply leave
customers feeling frustrated rather than supported. Moreover,
Menon and Dubé (2007) nd that angry customers need kind
words and the opportunity to express themselves to someone
willing to listen (emotional support); they also need to have
their problem resolved (instrumental support) (Devoldre et al.,
2010). It would be difcult for AI and natural language-
processing technologies to detect anger and respond with
empathy rather than attempt to diffuse the anger by means of
respectful language:
P23. Customers or FLEs will not perceive empathy
expressed by AI as authentic.
7. Managerial implications
There are individuals who have low trait empathy for genetic
reasons or as an outcome of social practices. For example,
autistic individuals have degrees of empathizing difculties
(Baron-Cohen, 2008). Similarly, psychopathic individuals have
lower empathy levels and an attenuated ability to identify their
own emotions and those of others (Mayer et al.,2018). Rising
levels of social isolation, materialistic values and self-interest
also diminish individualscapacity for empathy, especially
empathic concern (Konrath et al.,2011). Furthermore, social
practices can undermine or desensitize individuals to empathy.
For example, repeated exposure to violent video games
increases aggression through its negative effect on trait empathy
(Bartholow et al.,2005). Social exclusion and incarceration
also reduce the likelihood to empathize with others (DeWall
and Baumeister, 2006).
Notwithstanding the above, even in service roles where the
display of empathy is a socially prescribed expectation, there
are claims that empathy is eroding. For example, there are
those who believe that medical students during their residency
training need to be reminded to care, as they typically only
connect to the patient as an afterthought to the interaction, or
not at all (Gleichgerrcht and Decety, 2013;Holmes et al.,
2017). These beliefs are substantiated by longitudinal ndings
that show that empathic concern and perspective taking levels
drop and remain low for students throughout medical
residency training (Bellini and Shea, 2005), as well as nursing
students (Ward et al.,2012). This drop in empathy is
detrimental not only to patients but also to physicians and
nurses themselves, who then miss out on the compassion
satisfaction, sense of personal accomplishment, and feelings of
making a difference that derives from their empathy-induced
helping behavior (Gleichgerrcht and Decety, 2013), all factors
that contribute to lower symptoms of depression and a high
degree of personal well-being (Thomas et al., 2007).
In an attempt to counteract the reduced ability to empathize,
there are individuals and consumer movements which actively
promote the value of empathy[1]. This paper also demonstrates
the potential of marketing communications and training to
assist with cue salience and the building empathy competence
respectively.
8. Conclusion
While previous research has largely focused on the benets of
empathy in non-commercial interactions, offered are multiple
novel research propositions to enhance understanding and
application of empathy for service. As this paper illustrates,
more empirical work is required to establish the most effective
ways to manage the dispositional, situational and training
factors that affect individualscapacity to empathize, as well as
uncover the boundary conditions of the empathy framework for
service.
According to Hoffman (2000, p.3), empathy is the spark of
human concern for others, the glue that makes social life
possible; thus, the challenge is ensuring that empathy is not
lost in service interactions and is afforded as much attention as
technological developments. As this paper demonstrates, if
actors can be encouraged to empathize, they will be more
motivated to help others, socially bond, provide support and
forgive. Thus, empathy can improve the social and
physiological environment of the service ecosystem, leading to
improved well-being for the interacting parties.
Note
1See www.empathysymbol.comandwww.scoop.it/t/empathy-
and-compassion
References
Allard, T., Dunn, L. and White, K. (2016), Customer
empathetic responses toward brands being treated unfairly,
Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 44, pp. 376-380.
Anderson, C. and Keltner, D. (2003), The role of empathy in
the formation and maintenance of social bonds,Behavioral
and Brain Sciences, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 21-22.
Argo, J.J., Zhu, R. and Dahl, D.W. (2008), Fact or ction: an
investigation of empathy differences in response to emotional
melodramatic entertainment,Journal of Consumer Research,
Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 614-623.
Aucoin, E. and Kreitzberg, E. (2018), Empathy leads to
death: why empathy is an adversary of capital defendants,
Santa Clara Law Review, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 99-136.
Axtell, C.M., Parker, S.K., Holmaan, D. and Totterdell, P.
(2007), Enhancing customer service: perspective taking in a
call centre,European Journal of Work and Organizational
Psychology, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 141-168.
Azar, O.H. (2005), The social norm of tipping: does it
improve social welfare?,Journal of Economics, Vol. 85 No. 2,
pp. 141-173.
Baker, D.F. (2017), Teaching empathy and ethical decision
making in business schools,Journal of Management
Education, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 575-598.
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
39
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
Baldus, B.J., Voorhees, C. and Calantone, R. (2015), Online
brand community engagement: scale development and
validation,Journal of Business Research, Vol. 68 No. 5,
pp. 978-985.
Barnett, M.A., Howard, J.A., King, L.M. and Dino, G.A.
(1981), Helping behavior and the transfer of empathy,The
Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 115 No. 1, pp. 125-132.
Baron-Cohen, S. (2008), Autism, hypersystemizing, and
truth,The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
(2006), Vol. 61 No. 1, pp. 64-75.
Baron-Cohen, S., Richler, J., Bisarya, D., Gurunathan, N. and
Wheelwright, S. (2003), The systemizing quotient: an
investigation of adults with asperger syndrome or high-
functioning autism, and normal sex differences,
Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, Vol. 358
No. 1430, pp. 361-374.
Bartholow, B.D., Sestir, M.A. and Davis, E.B. (2005),
Correlates and consequences of exposure to video game
violence: hostile personality, empathy, and aggressive
behavior,Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 31
No. 11, pp. 1573-1586.
Batson, C.D. and Moran, T. (1999), Empathy-induced
altruism in a prisoners dilemma,European Journal of Social
Psychology, Vol. 29 No. 7, pp. 909-924.
Batson, C.D., Early, S. and Salvarani, G. (1997), Perspective
taking: imagining ho another feels versus imagining how you
would feel,Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 23
No. 7, pp. 751-758.
Batson, C.D., Chang, J., Orr, R. and Rowland, J. (2002),
Empathy, attitudes, and action: can feeling for a member of
a stigmatized group motivate one to help the group?,
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 28 No. 12,
pp. 1656-1666.
Batson, C.D., Lishner, D.A., Cook, J. and Sawyer, S. (2005),
Similarity and nurturance: two possible sources of empathy
for strangers,Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 27
No. 1, pp. 15-25.
Batson, C.D., Eklund, J.H., Chermok, V.L., Hoyt, J.L. and
Ortiz, B.G. (2007), An additional antecedent of empathic
concern: valuing the welfare of the person in need,Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 93 No. 1, pp. 65-74.
Batson, C.D., Batson, J.G., Todd, R.M., Brummett, B.H.,
Shaw, L.L. and Aldeguer, C.M.R. (1995), Empathy and
the collective good: caring for one of the others in a social
dilemma,Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
Vol. 68 No. 4, pp. 619-631.
Beatty, S.E., Mayer, M., Coleman, J.E., Reynolds, K.E. and
Lee, J. (1996), Customer-sales associate retail
relationships,Journal of Retailing, Vol. 72 No. 3,
pp. 223-247.
Bedi, A. and Schat, A.C.H. (2017), Employee revenge against
uncivil customers,Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 31
No. 6, pp. 636-649.
Bellini, L.M. and Shea, J.A. (2005), Mood change and
empathy decline persist during three years of internal
medicine training,Academic Medicine, Vol. 80 No. 2,
pp. 164-167.
Berry, L.L., Seiders, K. and Grewal, D. (2002),
Understanding service convenience,Journal of Marketing,
Vol. 66 No. 3, pp. 1-17.
Berry, L.L., Zeithaml, V.A. and Parasuraman, A. (1990), Five
imperatives for improving service quality,Sloan
Management Review, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 29-38.
Braga-Simõs, J., Costa, P.S. and Yaphe, J. (2017), Placebo
prescription and empathy of the physician: a cross-sectional
study,European Journal of General Practice,Vol.23No.1,
pp. 98-104.
Brodsky, S.L. and Wilson, J.K. (2013), Empathy in forensic
evaluations: a systematic reconsideration,Behavioral
Sciences & the Law, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 192-202.
Butler, A.G. and Roberto, M.A. (2018), When cognition
interferes with innovation: overcoming cognitive obstacles to
design thinking: design thinking can fail when cognitive
obstacles interfere; appropriate cognitive countermeasures
can help disarm the traps,Research Technology Management,
Vol. 61 No. 4, pp. 45-51.
Carrasco, M., Barker, E.D., Tremblay, R.E. and Vitaro, F.
(2006), Eysencks personality dimensions as predictors of
male adolescent trajectories of physical aggression, theft and
vandalism,Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 41
No. 7, pp. 1309-1320.
Castano, E. (2012), Antisocial Behavior in Individuals and
Groups: An Empathy-Focused Approach, Oxford Library of
Psychology, Oxford University Press.
Chelsea Football Club (2018), Say no to anti-semitism,
available at: www.chelseafc.com/en/foundation/say-no-to-
antisemitism (accessed 1 October 2018).
Cialdini, R.B., Brown, S.L., Lewsi, B.P., Luce, C. and
Neuberg, S.L. (1997), Reinterpreting the empathy-
altruism relationship: when one into one equals oneness,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 73 No. 3,
pp. 481-494.
Cialdini, R.B., Schaller, M., Houlihan, D., Arps, K., Fultz, J.
and Beaman, A.L. (1987), Empathy-based helping: is it
selfessly or selshly motivated?,Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, Vol. 52 No. 4, pp. 749-758.
Clark, C.M., Murfett, U.M., Rogers, P.S. and Ang, S. (2012),
Is empathy effective for customer service? evidence from
call center interactions,Journal of Business and Techanical
Communication, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 123-153.
Cohen, T.R. (2010), Moral emotions and unethical
bargaining: the differential effects of empathy and
perspective taking in deterring deceitful negotiation,Journal
of Business Ethics, Vol. 94 No. 4,pp. 569-579.
Davis, C., Jiang, L., Williams, P., Drolet, A. and Gibbs, B.J.
(2017), Predisposing customers to be more satised by
inducing empathy in them,Cornell Hospitality Quarterly,
Vol. 58 No. 3, pp. 229-239.
Davis, M.H. (1983), Measuring individual differences in
empathy: a multidimensional approach,Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 113-126.
Davis, M.H., Mitchell, K.V., Hall, J.A., Lothert, J., Snapp, T.,
Meyer, A. and College, E. (1999), Empathy, expectations,
and situational preferences: personality inuences on the
decision to participate in volunteer helping behaviors,
Journal of Personality, Vol. 67 No. 3, pp. 469-503.
Delpechitre, D., Beeler-Connelly, L.L. and Chaker, N. (2018),
Customer value co-creation behavior: a dyadic exploration
of the inuence of salesperson emotional intelligence on
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
40
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
customer participation and citizenship behavior,Journal of
Business Research, Vol. 92, pp. 9-24.
Devoldre, I., Davis, M.H., Verhofstadt, L.L. and Buysse, A.
(2010), Empathy and social support provision in couples:
social support and the need to study the underlying
processes,The Journal of Psychology, Vol. 144 No. 3,
pp. 259-284.
DeWall, C.N. and Baumeister, R.F. (2006), Alone but feeling
no pain: effects of social exclusion on physical pain tolerance
and pain threshold, affective forecasting, and interpersonal
empathy,Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,Vol.91
No. 1, pp. 1-15.
Drollinger, T. and Comer, L.B. (2013), Salespersons
listening ability as an antecedent to relationship selling,
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing,Vol.28No.1,
pp. 50-59.
Eisenberg, N. and Lennon, R. (1983), Sex differences in
empathy and related capacities,Psychological Bulletin,
Vol. 94 No. 1, pp. 100-131.
Everhart, R.S. (2016), Teaching tools to improve the
development of empathy in service-learning students,
Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Vol. 20
No. 2, pp. 129-154.
Gamman, L. and Thorpe, A. (2018), Makeright bags of
connection: teaching design thinking and making in prison to
help build empathic and resilient communities,She Ji: The
Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, Vol. 4 No. 1,
pp. 91-110.
Giancola, P.R. (2003), The moderating effects of
dispositional empathy on alcohol-related aggression in men
and women,Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 112 No. 2,
pp. 275-281.
Gleichgerrcht, E. and Decety, J. (2013), Empathy in clinical
practice: how individual dispositions, gender, and experience
moderate empathic concern, burnout, and emotional
distress in physicians,PLoS ONE, Vol. 8 No. 4.
Gorrell, N. (2000), Teaching empathy through ecphrastic
poetry : entering,The English Journal, Vol. 89 No. 5,
pp. 32-41.
Gorry, G.A. and Westbrook, R.A. (2011), Once more, with
feeling: empathy and technology in customer care,Business
Horizons, Vol. 54 No. 2, pp. 125-134.
Goyal, N., Wice, M., Kinsbourne, M. and Castano, E. (2017),
A picture is worth a thousand words. The inuence of
visuospatial and verbal cognitive styles on empathy and
willingness to help,Social Psychology,Vol.48No.6,
pp. 372-379.
Gremler, D.D. and Gwinner, K.P. (2008), Rapport-building
behaviors used by retail employees,Journal of Retailing,
Vol. 84 No. 3, pp. 308-324.
Hoffman, M.L. (2000), Empathy and Moral Development:
Implications for Caring and Justice, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
Hojat, M. (2009), Ten approaches for enhancing empathy in
health and human services cultures,Journal of Health and
Human Services Administration, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 412-450.
Hojat, M., Gonnella, J.D., Nasca, T.J., Mangione, S., Vergare,
M. and Magee, M. (2002), Physician empathy: denition,
components, measurement, and relationship to gender and
specialty,American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 159 No. 9,
pp. 1563-1569.
Holmes, C.L., Miller, H. and Regehr, G. (2017), (almost)
forgetting to care: an unanticipated source of empathy loss in
clerkship,Medical Education, Vol. 51 No. 7, pp. 732-739.
Homburg, C., Wieseke, J. and Bornemann, T. (2011),
Implementing the marketing concept at the employee-
customer interface: the role of customer need knowledge,
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 73 No. 7, pp. 64-81.
Huang, M.-H. and Rust, R.T. (2018), Articial intelligence in
service,Journal of Service Research, Vol. 21 No. 2,
pp. 155-172.
Jolliffe, D. and Farrington, D.P. (2006), Development and
validation of the basic empathy scale,Journal of Adolescence,
Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 589-611.
Jolliffe, D. and Farrington, D.P. (2007), Examining the
relationship between low empathy and self-reported
offending,Legal and Criminological Psychology, Vol. 12
No. 2, pp. 265-286.
Jolliffe, D. and Farrington, D.P. (2011), Is low empathy
related to bullying after controlling for individual and social
background variables?,Journal of Adolescence, Vol. 34 No. 1,
pp. 59-71.
Jowett, S., Yang, X. and Lorimer, R. (2012), The role of
personality, empathy, and satisfaction with instruction
within the context of the coach-athlete relationship,
International Journal of Coaching Science, Vol. 6 No. 2,
pp. 3-20.
Kelley, K.J. and Kelley, M.F. (2013), Teaching empathy and
other compassion-based communication skills,Journal for
Nurses in Professional Development, Vol. 29 No. 6,
pp. 321-324.
Konrath, S.H., OBrien, E.H. and Hsing, C. (2011), Changes
in dispositional empathy in american college students over
time: a meta-analysis,Personality and Social Psychology
Review, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 180-198.
Lamothe, M., Boujut, E., Zenasni, F. and Sultan, S. (2014),
To be or not to be empathic: the combined role of empathic
concern and perspective taking in understanding burnout in
general practice,BMC Family Practice, Vol. 15 No. 1,
pp. 1-15.
Manger, T., Eikeland, O.-J. and Asbjornsen, A. (2001),
Effects of social-cognitive training on studentsempathic
responsiveness,Swiss Journal of Psychology, Vol. 60 No. 2,
pp. 82-88.
Mayberry, M.L. and Espelage, D.L. (2007), Associations
among empathy, social competence, & reactive/proactive
aggression subtypes,Journal of Youth and Adolescence,
Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 787-798.
Mayer, S.V., Jusyte, A., Klimecki-Lenz, O.M. and
Schonenberg, M. (2018), Empathy and altruistic behavior
in antisocial violent offenders with psychopathic traits,
Psychiatry Research, Vol. 269 No. 8, pp. 625-632.
McBane, D.A. (1995), Empathy and the salesperson: a
multidimensional perspective,Psychology and Marketing,
Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 349-370.
McCullough, M.E., Rachal, K.C. and Worthington, E.L.
(1997), Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 73 No. 2,
pp. 321-336.
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
41
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
Mencl, J. and May, D.R. (2009), The effects of proximity and
empathy on ethical decision-making: an exploratory
investigation,Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 85 No. 2,
pp. 201-226.
Menon, K. and Dubé, L. (2007), The effect of emotional
provider support on angry versus anxious consumers,
International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 24 No. 3,
pp. 268-275.
Miller, P.A. and Eisenberg, N. (1988), The relation of
empathy to aggressive and externalizing/antisocial behavior,
Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 103 No. 3, pp. 324-344.
Min, H., Lim, Y. and Magnini, V.P. (2015), Factors affecting
customer satisfaction in responses to negative online hotel
reviews: the impact of empathy, paraphrasing, and speed,
Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Vol. 56 No. 2, pp. 223-231.
Miner, A.S., Milstein, A., Schueller, S., Hegde, R., Mangurian,
C. and Linos, E. (2016), Smartphone-based conversational
agents and responses to questions about mental health,
interpersonal violence, and physical health,JAMA Internal
Medicine, Vol. 176 No. 5, pp. 619-625.
Mishara, B.L., Chagnon, F., Daigle, M., Balan, B., Raymond,
S., Marcoux, I., Bardon, C., Campbell, J.K. and Berman, A.
(2007), Which helper behaviors and intervention styles are
related to better short-rerm outcomes in telephone crisis
intervention? results from a silent monitoring study of calls to
the U.S. 1-800-SUICIDE network,Suicide and Life-
Threatening Behavior, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 308-321.
Morse, D.S., Edwardsen, E.A. and Gordon, H.S. (2008),
Missed opportunities for interval empathy in lung cancer
communication,Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 168
No. 17, pp. 1853-1858.
Neuberg, S.L., Cialdini, R.B., Brown, S.L., Luce, C., Sagarin,
B.J. and Lewis, B.P. (1997), Does empathy lead to anything
more than supercial helping? Comment on Batson et al.
(1997),Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 73
No. 3, pp. 510-516.
Nickerson, A.B., Mele, D. and Princiotta, D. (2008),
Attachment and empathy as predictors of roles as defenders
or outsiders in bullying interactions,Journal of School
Psychology, Vol. 46 No. 6, pp. 687-703.
Norfolk, T., Birdi, K. and Walsh, D. (2007), The role of
empathy in establishing rapport in the consultation: a new
model,Medical Education, Vol. 41 No. 7, pp. 690-697.
Paulus, F.M., Muller-Pinzler, L., Stolz, D.S., Mayer, A.V.,
Rademacher, L. and Krach, S. (2018), Laugh or cringe?
common and distinct processes of reward-based schadenfeude
and empathy-based fremdscham,Neuropsychologia,Vol.116,
pp. 52-60.
Parker, S.K. and Axtell, C.M. (2001), Seeing another
viewpoint: antecedents and outcomes of employee
perspective taking,Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 44
No. 6, pp. 1085-1100.
Pervan, S.J. and Bove, L.L. (2015), Stigmatized service
workers in crisis: mitigating the effects of negative media,
Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Vol. 25 No. 5,
pp. 551-567.
Polani, D. (2017), Emotionless chatbots are taking over
customer service and its bad news for consumers, available
at: http://theconversation.com/emotionless-chatbots-are-taking-
over-customer-service-and-its-bad-news-for-consumers-82962
(accessed 27 September 2018).
Pollak, K.I., Arnold, R.M., Jeffreys, A.S., Alexander, S.C.,
Olsen, M.K., Abernethy, A.P., Skinner, C.S., Rodriguez, K.
L. and Tulsky, J.A. (2007), Oncologist communication
about emotion during visits with patients with advanced
cancer,Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol. 25 No. 36,
pp. 5748-5752.
Preston, S.D. and de Waal, F.B.M. (2002), Empathy: its
ultimate and proximate bases,The Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 1-20.
Preston, S.D., Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Grabowski, T.J.,
Stanseld, R.B., Mehta, S. and Damasio, A.R. (2007), The
neural substrates of cognitive empathy,Social Neuroscience,
Vol. 2 Nos 3/4, pp. 254-275.
Prior, D.D. (2016), The impact of service worker personal
resources on relationship quality in business solutions,
Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 53, pp. 216-225.
Reynolds, K.L. and Harris, L.C. (2006), Deviant customer
behavior: an exploration of frontline employee tactics,
Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice,Vol.14No.2,
pp. 95-111.
Reynolds, W.J. and Scott, B. (2000), Do nurses and other
professional helpers normally display much empathy?,
Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 226-234.
Rosenbaum, M.S. and Massiah, C.A. (2007), When
customers receive support from other customers: exploring
the inuence of intercustomer social support on customer
voluntary performance,Journal of Service Research, Vol. 9
No. 3, pp. 257-270.
Sergeant, M.J.T., Dickins, T.E., Davies, M.N.O. and Grifths,
M.D. (2006), Aggression, empathy and sexual orientation
in males,Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 40
No. 3, pp. 475-486.
Spiro, R.L. and Weitz, B.A. (1990), Adaptive selling:
conceptualization, measurement, and nomological
validity,Journal of Marketing Research,Vol.27No.1,
pp. 61-69.
Stock, R.M. and Hoyer, W.D. (2005), An attitude-
behavior model of salespeoples customer orientation,
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,Vol.33No.4,
pp. 536-552.
Tangney, J.P. (1991), Moral affect: the good, the bad, and the
ugly,Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,Vol.61
No. 4, pp. 598-607.
Thomas, M.R., Dyrbye, L.N., Huntington, J.L., Lawson, K.
L., Novotny, P.J., Sloan, J.A. and Shanafelt, T.D. (2007),
How do distress and well-being relate to medical student
empathy? a multicenter study,Journal of General Internal
Medicine, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 177-183.
Turley, D. and ODonohoe, S. (2017), Mortality, morality
and the marketplace: empathetic improvisation and the
double duty of care in service encounters with bereaved
consumers,Consumption Markets & Culture, Vol. 20 No. 5,
pp. 456-476.
van Laer, T., de Ruyter, K. and Cox, D. (2013), A walk in
customersshoes: how attentional bias modication affects
ownership of integrity-violating social media posts,Journal
of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 14-27.
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
42
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
Ward, J., Cody, J., Schaal, M. and Hojat, M. (2012), The
empathy enigma: an empirical study of decline in empathy
among undergraduate nursing students,Journal of
Professional Nursing, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 34-40.
Waytz, A. (2016), The limits of empathy,Harvard Business
Review, Vol. 94 No. 1, pp. 68-73.
WeiBhaar, I. and Huber, F. (2016), Empathic relationships in
professional services and the moderating role of relationship
age,Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 33 No. 7, pp. 525-541.
Wieseke, J., Geigenmüller, A. and Kraus, F. (2012), On the
role of empathy in customer-employee interactions,Journal
of Service Research, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 316-331.
Windahl, C. (2017), Market sense-making in design practice:
exploring curiosity, creativity and courage,Journal of
Marketing Management, Vol. 33 Nos 3/4, pp. 280-291.
Wiseman, T. (1996), A concept analysis of empathy,Journal
of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 1162-1167.
Ye, J., Dong, B. and Lee, J.-Y. (2017), The long-term impact
of service empathy and responsiveness on customer
satisfaction and protability: a longitudinal investigation in a
healthcare context,Marketing Letters, Vol. 28 No. 4,
pp. 551-564.
Yuguero, O., Marsal, J.R., Esquerda, M., Vivanco, L. and
Soler-Gonzalez, J. (2017), Association between low
empathy and high burnout among primary care physicians
and nurses in Lleida, Spain,European Journal of General
Practice, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 1-7.
Corresponding author
Liliana L. Bove can be contacted at: lbove@unimelb.edu.au
For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
Empathy for service
Liliana L. Bove
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 33 · Number 1 · 2019 · 3143
43
Downloaded by University of Melbourne At 14:50 16 May 2019 (PT)
... Overall Satisfaction [34] I am very satisfied with this WMS SAT1 Enjoyable Experience [35] WMS provides a pleasant experience SAT2 Effectiveness [36] I feel that using WMS has increased the effectiveness of work SAT3 USE Daily Use [37] I always use WMS when goods transactions inbound or outbound USE1 Depend [38] Warehouse transaction activities depend on WMS USE2 Net Benefits (NB) ...
... Balanced empathy among communities and organisations reduces biased views within society (Stephan & Finlay, 1999). From the designer's perspective, too much empathy for a single audience diminishes the service quality (Bove, 2019). Therefore, the systemic instrument must be placed to manage the empathic design activities. ...
Article
Full-text available
Finnish cities are undergoing rapid transformations due to technological advancements and shifts in demographic structures. The increasing diversity necessitates a more inclusive approach to digital governance in response to widening societal disparities. This paper proposes a model for developing citizen-friendly services by integrating empathic design with design management, employing benchmarking and systematic literature review methods. Initially, a preliminary benchmarking of five major Finnish cities—Helsinki, Espoo, Turku, Tampere, and Oulu—was conducted to map the prevailing challenges in the strategic application of design principles. A systematic literature review then follows to identify specific challenges in city governance through the lens of design management. Consequently, this study proposes a model that elucidates the connections between the identified challenges and various levels of design management. The proposed model facilitates the strategic decision-making process by incorporating empathic considerations and ensuring the effective allocation of resources to address multiple levels of managerial challenges.
... Quantitative research on service quality has consistently focused on safety, trustworthiness, and empathy. empathy is fundamental to supportive and compassionate interactions, making it indispensable to service provision (Bove, 2019). empathy involves service providers demonstrating care, offering personalized attention to customers, treating them as valuable assets, and consistently displaying courtesy (Mi Jeon et al., 2013). ...