Rick E. Robinson
Professor of Practice, Department of Information Science
University of Colorado-Boulder
Rick E. Robinson holds a PhD in human development from the University of Chicago. As a co-founder of E-Lab and iota partners, he has been a pioneer in using observational and sensing research for new product development. Robinson’s current work focuses on understanding the interactions people have with increasingly pervasive data about themselves, others and the world.
On Trusting Empathy
Of the many things one hears about empathy, one doesn’t often hear about it being wrong very often. You may feel someone is lacking in it, sure. But why don’t we talk that often about mistakes in empathic understanding.
Rick E. Robinson will talk about what he’s learned from being wrong. “And boy, I have been wrong,” he concedes. “But we all have. And there are some very nice things to see and to understand in that space between ‘knowing’ what someone else is thinking or feeling—and the realization that you didn’t get that right.”
Robinson will talk about adjusting what we expect from empathy and our own ideas about being empathic—or not.
