THE EFFECTS OF EMPATHY PRIMING ON IDEATION

The purpose of this study is to measure the effect of empathy priming on both ideation fluency and idea originality during brainstorming tasks. In a three between-subjects experimental design study, sixty industrial design students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: single persona priming, empathy maps priming, and no priming. A one-way, between-subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that empathy priming had a significantly different effect on ideation fluency than idea originality. Participants in the empathy maps group showed higher ideation fluency and generated a greater number of novel ideas compared to either the single persona group or the control group. The study demonstrated that priming with empathy maps positively influences idea originality; however, priming with illustrative persona showed no significant effect on idea originality.