Siobahn Hotaling is both an experienced musician and a tech professional. As a project consultant with the Adaption Institute, she draws upon the knowledge she acquired while pursuing her master of arts in psychology from Harvard University. Siobahn Hotaling’s enduring interests include empathy and compassion research.
In the early 2000s, psychologists Paul Ekman and Daniel Goleman furthered the study of empathy by breaking the concept down into three categories. Cognitive empathy revolves around the ability to logically understand the perspective of another person. Although this might lead to realizations about other people’s feelings, it falls short of actually sharing those feelings. In contrast, emotional empathy involves identifying with the emotions of another and sharing purely emotional connections. The third category of empathy is compassionate empathy, which blends the first two and defines cases in which an individual both understands and feels the emotions of another person. Experts also associate compassionate empathy with subsequent actions to conscientiously help others.
The concepts of empathy and compassion are integral to understanding the nature of bias, especially in terms of developing methods of removing or transforming bias. One of Siobahn Hotaling's other passions is understanding bias, and she has leveraged her knowledge of empathy and compassion in developing the Implicit Bias Transformation Program. The IBTP was developed by Siobahn as her capstone project at Harvard, and features a strong focus on utilizing cognitive, emotional and compassionate empathy to help participants transform their personal biases.
In the early 2000s, psychologists Paul Ekman and Daniel Goleman furthered the study of empathy by breaking the concept down into three categories. Cognitive empathy revolves around the ability to logically understand the perspective of another person. Although this might lead to realizations about other people’s feelings, it falls short of actually sharing those feelings. In contrast, emotional empathy involves identifying with the emotions of another and sharing purely emotional connections. The third category of empathy is compassionate empathy, which blends the first two and defines cases in which an individual both understands and feels the emotions of another person. Experts also associate compassionate empathy with subsequent actions to conscientiously help others.
The concepts of empathy and compassion are integral to understanding the nature of bias, especially in terms of developing methods of removing or transforming bias. One of Siobahn Hotaling's other passions is understanding bias, and she has leveraged her knowledge of empathy and compassion in developing the Implicit Bias Transformation Program. The IBTP was developed by Siobahn as her capstone project at Harvard, and features a strong focus on utilizing cognitive, emotional and compassionate empathy to help participants transform their personal biases.
