WSU Students Examine Empathy in Health Care
OGDEN, Utah — Without empathy, the relationship between a doctor and patient loses effectiveness. An ongoing study by students from Weber State University’s Department of Psychology is examining the levels of empathy shown by health-care professionals and pre-health students.
“Empathy is important in health care because it shows the patient that you do care about them,” said Chase Brower, a student researcher for the study. “A physician’s job is to make sure the patient is comfortable in their care. The patient really just wants to know they are in good hands.”
The results show physicians report feeling empathy much more often than students. However, the students physically displayed more empathy during the study.
“Physician empathy has been shown to be of great importance for patient health and recovery,” said Lauren Fowler, psychology and neuroscience professor. “Patients who perceive their physician as being empathetic show increased recovery rates and reduced time in the hospital. In addition, they show more compliance with the doctor's recommendations, which leads to a better long-term prognosis.”
The study gathered data from 29 participants: 13 health-care professionals and 16 undergraduate pre-health students. Each participant filled out a self-evaluation questionnaire to measure perceived empathy. Next, participants watched the movie “Wit,” which demonstrates the complex interactions among physicians, nurses and patients.
Whenever participants felt they were having an emotional response to the film, they pressed a button. In addition, the study measured facial activity using electromyography, which records electrical activity produced by contracting muscles. This allowed them to monitor the corrugator supercilii muscle, or the “frowning muscle” that draws the eyebrow downward and creates vertical wrinkles on the forehead. Zygomaticus major muscle activity, or the muscle that creates a smile, was measured for positive emotion. Galvanic skin response machines measured physical responses such as skin temperature and heartrate throughout the movie.
“The physicians generally had lower facial activity,” Brower said. “They were displaying empathy less, but they had significantly higher self-reported measures because they were pushing the push button much more often than the students.”
Previous research suggests that physicians become desensitized, which can begin as early as their third year in medical school.
“It poses another question,” Brower said. “Are physicians actually perceiving empathy less? Or are they just not displaying emotions the same as they used to? These are important questions, because if the patient doesn’t see empathy displayed, they won’t feel like the physician is empathetic at all. ”
Brower is continuing the research, this semester looking at genetic components of empathy. He is studying certain genes that have been identified as putting someone at a predisposition to higher empathetic behavior.
Empathy education in health care has been debated for years, and opponents say there is not enough data to prove it is useful. Brower said he hopes his research provides supporting evidence to further the idea of teaching empathy in medical school.
“It’s important to gain an appreciation of how much empathy affects patients,” Brower said. “You can have a great physician who knows what they’re doing, but if they’re not making the patient feel comfortable, the patient won’t feel like they’re receiving very good care. That’s a huge part of a patient’s treatment.”
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Rachel Badali, Office of Marketing & Communications
801-626-7295 • rachelbadali@weber.edu- Contact:
Lauren Fowler, psychology and neuroscience professor
801-626-7620 • lfowler@weber.edu