Exploring Empathy and Compassion Using Digital Narratives

NCT04881084 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 254043
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 80
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Stories of suffering and struggle are shared continuously through digital formats such as internet videos, news stories, social marketing, and fundraising campaigns. Digital stories are often created and shared to generate awareness about a problem, impart knowledge on contemporary issues, or promote compassion. The practice of sharing critical life events and insights provided by these experiences are valuable for tellers and the listeners alike for catharsis, healing, reconciliation, and connectiveness. Portrayals of mental suffering are a matter of cultural and social interest as new media products become available to the public. Studies published since the 1990s overwhelmingly conclude that formal media depictions are biased, promoting the stereotype that people who suffer emotionally are mentally ill, dangerous, violent, or insane. Various agencies, organizations, and corporations are actively working to provide alternative stories/narratives to mainstream media by means of video testimonials in social marketing and fundraising campaigns and, ultimately, by taking advantage of the Internet. The impact of this work is under-researched. However, preliminary evaluations of social marketing campaigns report mixed results and raise questions about their effectiveness. As well, the first-person narrative prepared digitally and shared online is also providing alternative narratives to mainstream media stories. People are increasingly using digital videos to share their stories, viewing this as an opportunity to understand their emotions and thoughts, come to terms with disgrace around sensitive, personal issues and marginalization while providing hope and encouragement to others. This proposed study focuses on the process of creating digital narratives/stories, especially stories of mental and emotional suffering, and their impact in terms of inciting empathy, compassion, and good citizenship among viewers.

Conditions

Mental Disorders, Severe; Mental Illness; Stigma, Social; Compassion; Empathy

Keywords

Digital Narratives; Digital Testimonials; Digital Stories; Social Marketing; Fundraising campaigns; Stigma; Mental Illness

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Empathy

  Change in empathy using the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. The minimum scoring value is 0 and the maximum scoring value is 64. A higher score means a better outcome.

  Baseline, immediately after the intervention

• Compassion

  Change in compassion using the Compassionate Love Scale. The minimum scoring value is 1 and the maximum scoring value is 7, which comes from the average of all item scores. A higher score means a better outcome.

  Baseline, immediately after the intervention

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Positive emotions

  Baseline, immediately after the intervention

• Mental health self-stigma

  Baseline, immediately after the intervention

• Mental health public stigma

  Baseline, immediately after the intervention

Study Arms (2)

Digital storytelling group (Group 1)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will be randomly assigned to the digital storytelling group (n = 40 participants; 20 Anglophone and 20 Francophone; ages 18-35). Participants will be asked to watch twenty-six digital storytelling videos which will be assessed using a between-subjects design.

Other: Digital storytelling group

Social marketing/fundraising group (Group 2)

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Participants will be randomly assigned to the social marketing/fundraising group (n = 40 participants; 20 Anglophone and 20 Francophone; ages 18-35). Participants will be asked to watch twenty-six social marketing/fundraising videos which will be assessed using a between-subjects design.

Other: Social marketing/fundraising group

Interventions

Digital storytelling group OTHER

Participants (intervention- group 1) will watch digital stories, short videos describing the experience of recovering from mental illness created as part of this project. Participants in the control group (group 2) will watch social marketing and/or fundraising campaigns on similar topics and complete a few questionnaires. The following standardized scales will be used: The Level of Familiarity Scale (LOF) (which will be used only before exposure to movies); Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (16 items; internal consistency coefficient .79; test-retest reliability coefficient .73), Compassionate Love Scale (21 items; Cronbach's alpha: .95; item-to-total correlations ranging from .46 to .81), Dispositional Positive Emotions Scale (DPES) (5 items; Cronbach's alpha for the compassion subscale: .80; inter-scale correlations: .44), Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale-Short Form (SSMIS-SF) (20 items; Cronbach's alpha: 0.91); Difference and Disdain Scales for Public Stigma (DDSPS) (9 items).

Digital storytelling group (Group 1)

Social marketing/fundraising group OTHER

Participants will be randomly assigned to the social marketing/fundraising group (n = 40 participants; 20 Anglophone and 20 Francophone; ages 18-35). Participants will be asked to watch twenty-six social marketing/fundraising videos which will be assessed using a between-subjects design.

Social marketing/fundraising group (Group 2)

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 35 Years
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• years of age
• Not currently admitted to a hospital

You may not qualify if:

• Not in age range (18-35 years of age)
• Currently admitted to a hospital
• Attended the digital storytelling workshop and made a digital story used in the RCT

Sponsors & Collaborators

• McGill University: lead
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

McGill University

Montreal, Quebec, H4H 1R3, Canada

RECRUITING

Related Publications (1)

• Ferrari M, Fazeli S, Mitchell C, Shah J, Iyer SN. Exploring Empathy and Compassion Using Digital Narratives (the Learning to Care Project): Protocol for a Multiphase Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Res Protoc. 2022 Jan 13;11(1):e33525. doi: 10.2196/33525.

  PMID: 35023844 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Mental Disorders; Social Stigma

Interventions

Social Marketing

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Social Behavior; Behavior

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Marketing; Commerce; Technology, Industry, and Agriculture; Marketing of Health Services; Health Services Accessibility; Delivery of Health Care; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation

Central Study Contacts

Manuela Ferrari, PhD

CONTACT

4169270075; manuela.ferrari@mcgill.ca

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Two-armed, parallel-design, individually randomized trial.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 12, 2021
• First Posted: May 11, 2021
• Study Start: April 1, 2024
• Primary Completion: September 1, 2024
• Study Completion: December 30, 2024
• Last Updated: July 29, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-07

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

CA (1)