Contact: Dr. Ye Wang <WanYe@umkc.edu>
COVID lockdown and restriction makes people feel lonely and emotionally overwhelmed. Chatbots can conduct an on-line text-based conversation with human users in a way that is humanlike. This feature inspires the idea of designing emotion and situation-aware Chatbots that can understand human emotion and contextual information, and express sympathy and empathy. Sympathy and empathy are both important in a human-to-human conversation about mental health.
Sympathy is simply a reaction to others’ emotional needs. A Chatbot needs to be able to detect the user’s emotional needs, in order to express sympathy. Sympathy can be expressed via words or emojis.
Empathy requires the Chatbot to conduct a conversation that can gather information on the user’s situation, and then have a deeper understanding of the user’s situation. In other words, an empathetic Chatbot can elicit contextual information, comprehend it, and demonstrate the ability of putting itself in the user’s shoes. Empathy is important for humans to relate to each other in a conversation. We get to know each other’s life, and express understanding of each other’s situation. Empathy also creates engaging dialogues.
Imagine this conversation:
Emily (a human user) & an emotion and context-aware Chatbot
Chatbot: Hi, I am Ben. I am a robot. Nice to meet you. How do you feel today? [This question invites the user to engage in a dialogue about his/her mental health.]
Emily: Ok, you are a robot. I do not feel well, actually I am sad. I mean fatigue.
Chatbot: I am so sorry to hear that. I am concerned about you. [This is an example of expressing sympathy] What happened? [This question invites the user to engage in a dialogue about his/her situation.]
Emily: It is just my work. A lot of pressure. There is so much to do and my kids are doing virtual school at home, and I work from home. I am worried about their learning. And, my work. Then, the salary cut. Some friends at work were let go. I woke up in the middle of night, and I felt fear but I did not know what I was afraid of.
Chatbot: I totally understand that. COVID has hit us very hard, and working from home with kids creates a lot of pressure, especially for moms. [This is an example of expressing empathy] How frequently do you have sleeping problems? [This question invites the user to engage in a dialogue about his/her situation.]
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Can an emotion and situation-aware Chatbot be helpful for college students, teachers, patients, doctors, etc.? In what ways can this type of technology make people stronger, for example, offering emotional support, collecting important information, etc.?