Examining physiological and self-report indicators of empathy during learners' interaction with a queer history app

Mobile apps take advantage of the ubiquity of mobile phones and can be used to share unique pedagogical experiences with multimedia content not yet available in curriculums. This preliminary study used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design to examine changes in self-reported empathy toward sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) minority people. We also report on the associations between gender and a physiological measure of emotional activation, skin conductance level (SCL), on self-reported empathy. The main results of this study that examined 57 undergraduate students at a Canadian University whom interacted with a queer history app individually were the following: Preliminary evidence that (1) students' empathy toward SO and GI minorities can be measured using a modified version of the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE). (2) Statistically significant increases in empathy toward SO and GI minorities pre to post app interaction. (3) Students' pre- and post-empathy levels were statistically significantly higher toward SO than GI minorities. (4) Female students had statistically significantly higher self-reported empathy toward SO and GI minorities than males. (5) Male students had statistically significantly higher SCL than females. (6) Statistically significant interaction between SCL grouping and questionnaire administration on GI minority empathy. Findings and implications are discussed in lieu of the contributions that mobile apps can play to support social change, in particular, by fostering empathy.