Virtual Team Collaboration: How the Empathy Tendency Influences User Experience?

Abstract

The subjective experiences and satisfaction of using technology to collaborate remotely may differ due to the individual differences of personal characteristics. The present study aims to investigate the influence of empathy tendency on user experience. Twelve groups of three participants completed a decision-making task in the virtual environment. The results revealed a significant correlation between personal traits (i.e., empathy and the big five personalities), user experience (i.e., social presence), and satisfaction. The level of cognitive empathy has a positive effect on the feeling of social presence, social immersion, and outcome satisfaction in the virtual environment, while is not associated with media satisfaction. The findings of this study suggest that the cognitive ability of empathy, namely the ability to identify with and understand the views of others may increase one’s experience and satisfaction in remote collaboration. This study provides an empirical exploration of team interactions in virtual environments and advances user research by identifying the relationship between user’s traits (empathy), user experience, and satisfaction.