By Dr. Danny M. Cohen | Unsilence Founder & Interim Executive Director
Unsilence Program Increases Social Empathy, New Study Shows
Unsilence is happy to report that an in-depth study of our online experience TOMORROW indicates a statistically signifiant increase in social empathy among participants when learning about suicide and mental health.
Social empathy—empathy that takes into account contextual understanding and social awareness—is associated with higher engagement in social action and helping behaviors.
The study was conducted by Sammi Oberman, an honors student in the undergraduate program in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.
TOMORROW is an Unsilence choose-your-own-adventure experience, based on real events, that helps teachers, students, and members of the public learn about best practices for talking about suicide and mental health in schools.
Using a specially modified social empathy index, Oberman administered pre- and post-surveys to measure social empathy in adult learners before and after using Unsilence's TOMORROW feature.
Oberman used a mixed method design and combined the social empathy index with group interviews to explore participants' understandings of new perspectives related to mental health, suicide, and social justice.
Unsilence plans to publish a report of the study's findings, this summer.
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