Zirkus Empathico¶
Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 6 claims (5 for, 1 mixed) · 1 study (1 causal),q4· 1 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study
Description¶
Zirkus Empathico is a touchscreen application developed for socio-emotional competence training through emotion-recognition, empathy, and prosocial-behavior activities.
Components¶
- Zirkus Empathico touchscreen application for socio-emotional competence training: Zirkus Empathico is a touchscreen application that "targets awareness and differentiation of own and others ' emotions, empathy, and prosocial behaviors through interactions with naturalistic video sequences of facial expressions and social situations". It comprises four modules: a virtual emotion manikin for specifying own emotional states on arousal and valence dimensions, facial expression labeling, identifying emotions from emotion-eliciting video contexts, and choosing prosocial reactions to others' emotions. Developed from autism-specific behavior therapy principles, it was evaluated here with typically developing preschoolers at home over 6 weeks. (Naumann et al. (2023))
Claims¶
- Six-week Zirkus Empathico training increased parent-rated empathy (EMK 3-6) but not GEM-rated or child-assessed empathy in preschoolers [+M]
- Zirkus Empathico improved child-assessed emotion recognition but not parent-rated emotion recognition in preschoolers [+M]
- Zirkus Empathico increased parent-rated prosocial behavior but not child-assessed prosocial behavior [+M]
- Zirkus Empathico reduced parent-rated behavioral problems in preschoolers [+M]
- Training group showed larger P3 amplitudes to happy versus neutral and angry faces post-training; early ERP components were unaffected [+M]
- Exploratory 3-month follow-up suggested a sleeper effect on parent-rated empathy, but no maintained gains in other outcomes [~W]
Related Products and Programmes¶
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Key Sources¶
- Naumann, S., Bayer, M., Kirst, S., van der Meer, E. & Dziobek, I. (2023). A randomized controlled trial on the digital socio-emotional competence training Zirkus Empathico for preschoolers. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-023-00169-8
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
product |
id |
zirkus-empathico |
title |
Zirkus Empathico |
description |
Zirkus Empathico is a touchscreen application developed for socio-emotional competence training through emotion-recognition, empathy, and prosocial-behavior activities. |
status |
review |
product_kind |
software |
generated |
by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-26 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
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