3 ms·
I don't know what the official definition is, but I'd consider deliberate mirroring of posture, online tone, and emotional state for conscious deceptive, and ma
by TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
I don't know what the official definition is, but I'd consider deliberate mirroring of posture, online tone, and emotional state for conscious deceptive, and manipulative ends to be toxic empathy.
Trivial example - phone services with the stock "Your call is important to us but we're experiencing an unusually high level of calls right now" message. When the truth is the company is spending a bare minimum on phone support and knows it.
Or customer service scripts that say something like "I understand you're frustrated that you're having this problem."
In reality there's no understanding. And there may not even be any interest in fixing the problem - because when you read back through other messages you see the problem has been there for years and there's been absolutely no effort to find a fix.
- stackbutterflow 4y agoThat sounds like most CEOs jumping on an HN thread when there is an article denouncing there company. They follow the same pattern. Start with "Hey! SomeStartup CEO here." Then proceed to explain that they are happy about the feedbacks and that they hear the complains. Followed by more words that could have been written by GPT-3.
- maxerickson 4y agoApparently the official definition is when someone over-identifies with the emotions of someone else (the over identifier is experiencing toxic empathy). I resent the scripted CS, so I'm not arguing about that part of it, but I think those are actually the opposite of empathy, sociopathically inserted in order to manipulate, emotionally aware but indifferent.